Sloth Journeys

(Admin – Think we all know where this post is going?)

First off the town is actually called Paracas, secondly Bez, and indeed Virginia McKenna, have no affiliation with the town (Google should help you with the latter name).

Paracas is a small ‘burp’ on the coast of Peru, our travels took us here to break up what would have been a long (16+ hour) bus from Lima through to Arequipa (and the legendary Coca Cola Canyon (Admin – That’s Colca Canyon!); Oh, and we both liked the sound of doing a little sandboarding in the dunes around nearby Huacachina, an oasis amid said dunes.

I can’t say there’s much to be said of Paracas town itself, though as a gringo couple, we became incredibly popular among the locals; literally every beach restaurant we passed seemed grimly determined we eat there?! At it’s core, Paracas is predominately a sleepy little town housing dozens of tour operators waiting to whisk you away for an ‘adventure’.

First night at our hostel and Rebecca decided she would like to continue disagreeing with peruvian food. So it was that I nipped out to bring home the bacon; in the form of two Peruvian style pot noodles, a real treat! Pot Noodle was launched in the UK in 1977, and these tasted as if they were from that ‘error’; but with the addition of boiling water, Rebecca was safe to consume one without fear of peruvian ‘reprisals’.

As Rebecca was still annoyed with local food the following morning we decided to book two excursions for the day after; the first a ‘test flight’ to the Ballestas Islands (the poor man’s Galapagos) followed the same day by a trip to the oasis that is Huacachina.

I’m sure at certain times of year, the islands are awash with life, but for our trip, most things seemed to have been swept away, save for a few Humboldt Penguins and Peruvian Boobies; looking more like a homeless man’s Galapagos than poor man’s. But it was an important trip none the less, to ascertain whether Rebecca could ‘stomach’ a longer trip to Huacachina.

Rebecca passed the test admirably, so after lunch and a chill on the hostel rooftop, it was time for our dunes adventure. Now, in my 12.5 stone frame resides a grumpy old man (Admin – so true), who wondered whether he would enjoy this next trip.

As it turned out, It was a hell of a lot of fun!

After an hours bus ride from Paracas, we arrived in the little oasis of Huacachina, possibly many years ago it was a beautiful place, but for me, it has become a bit of a tourist black spot; better viewed from afar. (Admin – you do know you’re also a tourist?)

But we were there for what the surrounding dunes could offer. After a short hike up a bump we met with our driver/guide and our fellow adventures.

Who new the dunes could be so spectacular, given its just big piles of sand? But the landscape was amazing. And racing across the dunes in a buggy, that I’m sure had passed all its health and safety inspections, was pretty good fun.

But we where there for the Sandboarding, which as the day progressed involved surfing down steeper and steeper dunes; with ‘teacher’s pet’ Rebecca getting constant congratulations from our guide for being such a ‘girly swot’ (Admin – He’s just jealous that Rebecca always went and surfed the furthest).

The day passed all too quickly before it was time to purchase our souvenir Maracas and head back to Paracas; and the journey on to…….