Repeated wiping out on the dunes of Huacachina
The next day I left with Adriana to head south. We went to a town called Chincha, where I had heard has good Afro-Peruvian music available, and I thought it would be cool to check it out. Well, we were disappointed to learn that the music is really only popular during certain times of the year, and this was not one of them. We arrived during the beginning of Semana Santa, or Holy Week, the week before Easter, which is a major vacation time in all of Latin America. There may have been some music going on later in the week, but we surely weren’t going to wait around for it. The town had little to offer…we pretty much ate dinner, visited briefly an internet place run by a bunch of lunatic Koreans, and went to bed. The next day, we headed off to Pisco, where we set up a tour for the next day to go to the Islas Ballestas, islands off the coast nicknamed the “Poor Man’s Galapagos”, which is right up my alley.
We stayed in a hostel that had a pool, and, although it was cold, we forced ourselves in there for just a short while to take advantage of our findings. I was really craving a beach and warm weather, but it was still a little cool around these parts. We went to several tour agencies to seek out the best tour to go to the islands. They were all the same, differing only in price and supposed time spent at the islands, but we finally chose what we thought was the best deal. In the end, the tour was shorter than promised and we couldn’t hear what the guide was saying since we were sitting by the motor in the boat(and after informing him of this, he made no effort to speak louder or come closer to us). The islands themselves were awesome, though. We couldn’t get out onto the islands, but we drove around them on the boat.
The islands are home to all sorts of birds (including penguins) and sea lions (or maybe seals). There were literally thousands of birds flying overhead and just hanging out on the rocks. The islands are famous for their guano production. Guano is bird shit, and it’s an excellent fertilizer. These days, the guano is collected every five years, so as not to disturb the bird populations. In some places, supposedly, the guano is up to 5 meters (about 15 feet) thick. I wouldn’t want to be the one in charge of scraping up that. There was an amazingly horrific odor coming from the islands, though only if you were downwind…kind of like the smell as you walk under a highway overpass in Chicago where pidgeons congregate, except 1000 times stronger.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much more info than that on the islands, since I couldn’t hear the guide – I was fuming after the tour. Luckily, our afternoon tour guide was much better. He took us to the nearby national park, Parque National Barracas, where we stopped at a few spots along the shore. We stopped at one little restaurant area where Peruvians had started to set up camp for the Semana Santa holiday. I had the ceviche (again), since I was promised that it was fresher than fresh (we were on the sea, afterall). Honestly, it was more expensive and not as good…it may have messed up my stomach a bit as well. After that, we took a quick dip in the ocean (cold!), made another quick stop at a pretty worthless museum, and headed back to Pisco.
We informed the guy we bought the tour from that we were indeed very disappointed in the tour, for which he had all sorts of excuses, things he “forgot”. At least we had a Peruvian man who had been on the tour with his son that agreed with us, perhaps making it all a little more credible. We got no money back, though, which is what we were aiming for. However, as I warned all the people entering the hotel about it, he offered the next one free. Next one? I do intend on taking him up on that someday…anyone interested in a few years? There’s penguins and seals!
We headed that night to Huacachina, a little desert oasis town right outside a town called Ica. Our hotel had a pool and a bar, but we were pretty exhausted from getting up so early, so we got some dinner and went to bed. The next morning, I got up, grabbed my book and laid on a hammock next to the pool. Oh, the days of sun, warmth, and hammocks had returned. I was more than content to sit there all morning and into the afternoon, and I did. After the clouds rolled in, we went for a walk, but I was feeling ill, so I headed back to the hotel to sleep (could be that ceviche revisiting me). Later that evening we met an English and a French boy and made plans to go sandboarding with them in the morning.
We went out onto the sand dunes in a buggy…the ride was awesome – could be better than any roller coaster ride I’ve been on, except it didn’t go upside down (which was a good thing). After a good shake up, we stopped at the top of our first hill. I had never been snowboarding before, so I really had no idea what to do…only one guy had been snowboarding once, so we were all equally clueless. The driver greased up the bottom of the boards with candlewax and left us at the top. We all stood there, contemplating what we were about to do. The hill wasn’t too high, but daunting enough with a slicked-up piece of wood attached to our feet. Finally we took the plunge, one by one, some of us falling, others not (like me!), and we all clapped for one another as we made it down without any injuries.
So, I made it down the first one without falling and felt great…ready for the next hill. We took off in the buggy to our next hill. I was totally psyched about how well I did, I took off down the hill, wiping out completely, laughing hysterically, and getting all sorts of sand everywhere. The English guy was filming his way down and I near about slit my stomach open laughing as he tumbled his way down on film. Good fun.
Our next hill was higher yet. I had the guide take some pictures of me on this way down, which was pretty much one huge wipeout…once you fall it’s hard as hell to get back up straight again. But, as long as I didn’t injure myself (especially with the upcoming Inca Trail trek), I was thoroughly enjoying every tumble.
Our next hill was higher still. Our driver explained to us how we could also go down on our stomachs – you go faster and it’s a bigger rush. Well, I was all about that, so I had him grease up my board again and was off…I flew down that hill, managing to not tip over on my board. The rest followed, and we all agreed that that was awesome. Finally, we headed off to our final hill.
One of the Israeli guys went first. It was a two-tiered hill, and when he got to the second tier, he started screaming something back in Hebrew. His friend was laughing and translated for us…”He says, ‘It’s so high you can’t even believe it.'” We all laughed, albeit perhaps a bit nervously, and with that the guy disappeared over the edge of the second tier. We couldn’t see him, but we also couldn’t hear any obvious cries of pain, which was somewhat reassuring…
The rest of us made our ways to the 2nd tier and prepared ourselves for what was the biggest drop. I took another shot on my feet on the first tier, but, in opted for the bellyride down the 2nd dune, which was pretty amazingly high. I had the technique down, squaring myself on the board and lifting my legs to minimize any drag. I flew down that hill, letting out a huge “H-o-o-o-oly Sh-i-i-i-t!” as I reached top speed. Seriously, that was intense, but great, great fun.
The rest of the afternoon were a bit more mellow, as I laid by the pool most of the afternoon, soaking up the heat and sun. Adriana left that afternoon for Cuzco…I was determined to lay by the pool for another day, so I stayed back and did exactly that.
Tags: Peru, Tag Index
Tania
May 30th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
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