Oct 2009

I have been living in Lima for almost two months now and there have only been two sunny days during that entire time. The climate here is overcast nearly everyday, without fail. Although, people tell me now that it’s October, and winter here is over, that is all about to change. This week I was unwilling to test my patience any longer, and decided to get away from Lima and go find the sun myself.

Besides my search for clear skies, I also had an even more important reason to leave Lima for a few days. It was Bobby’s final week here in South America and I wanted to take one last trip with him before he returned to the States. Our friend Suzy was also visiting for the week, so we wanted to cover as much of Peru as possible. Our destinations of choice… Ica, Huacachina, and Nasca.

We boarded a bus Tuesday afternoon and made our way south down the coast to Ica. From there we spent no time in the city. Instead we jumped in a cab and went straight to Huacachina to find a hostel to spend the night. Huacachina is a tiny oasis town situated in the middle of massive sand dunes. The sole purpose to visit the town is to go sandboarding and off-roading through the desert in a dune buggy. That night we booked our sandboarding trip for sunset the following day.

The next morning we had an entire day to fill and not much to choose from in the way of activities. Rather than choosing the tempting option of sitting poolside all day in the desert sun, I opted for a slightly more ambitious morning activity. While Bobby and Susie explored the town and spent some time on their own, I decided it might be fun to climb to the top of the tallest dune surrounding the town in order to get the amazing view that the summit was sure to offer. I knew it would not be easy, but I never expected it to be as difficult as it was.

After a grueling 45 minute climb in the penetrating sun, I finally reached the top of the dune and enjoyed the fruits of my labor. The view was spectacular. To one side I could see all of Ica, to the other was miles and miles of open desert as far as I could see. Two other travelers had made the same decision to climb the dunes that morning. All three of us sat there for an hour or so, sharing stories of our past travels and future plans, and just admired the surreal landscape.

At 4pm that afternoon I rejoined Bobby and Susie and we hopped in our dune buggy for an exciting trip into the desert. We sped for about twenty minutes through the sandy hills until we stopped for our first attempt at sandboarding… a practice round if you will. To call my attempts to sandboard a failure would be giving myself way too much credit. I think the term utter disaster might be a more fitting description for my efforts. I changed my approach for the second set of dunes. To describe those results simply would not do the situation justice. Bobby has some pretty compelling video of the experience, so as soon as I get it from him I will post it for you all to enjoy a good laugh at the expense of my pain. The bruises have healed, and all is well now.

The next morning we negotiated a price with a cab driver to take us directly to the airport in Nasca in order fly over the famous Nasca Lines. They are essentially massive drawings in the sand that are only visible from a plane flying overhead. They are famous because there is much controversy about how the lines were created (one theory involves the existence of aliens, the other is that these intricate patterns were formed naturally). Quite frankly, I don’t see why it isn’t simply accepted that a man created them. Either way, they were cool to see. However, the best part of the experience was boarding a six-seater, single engine plane for thirty minutes to weave our way through the skies, in order to get the best views of the fourteen most famous patterns. After that returned to downtown Nasca, booked our bus ticket back to Lima, and enjoyed some lunch and a few cocktails to ensure a comfortable trip back to Peru’s capital city.

Overall, I think it was a fitting ending to an incredible two and a half months spent traveling the continent with one of my best friends. Susie returned to New York on Saturday, and Bobby followed suit on Sunday. We definitely had some great times, as well as some rough times, but we always had each others’ backs, and we always found a way to make the best of any situation (well most situations… that’s a lie, some situations). Regardless, we met a lot of amazing people, we saw tons of amazing places, we had enough fun to last a lifetime, partied often enough that it is a miracle that our livers are still functioning, and got ourselves in and out of enough sketchy situations to give all of our relatives heart attacks twice over. Put simply, it was a complete success, and I wish I could do it all over again.

For now, I’m officially on my own. A continent full of possibilities, and I have only myself to worry about. I will definitely miss having a close friend to share the excitement with, but I also am excited for the challenge and the possibilities that lie ahead for me. I have a lot more people to meet, many more places to see, and I will do my best to cut down on the amount of sketchy situations (although this is South America and some are inevitable).