Down on the West Coast of Peru
Vamos a la playa 🏖! Mountains give way to beaches, tropical jungles to deserts. The coast offers a striking contrast with the region of Cusco. But they say that Peru is one of the country offering most climate diversity.
Ica not Inca
Are we on Mars? As we took a night bus, we just discovered in the morning the coastal landscapes of Peru. There is such a strong difference with the highland. Sand and rocks to the horizon. We skipped Nazca to go directly to Ica. Simply because to see the famous Nazca lines, you need to fly. And I did not manage to have an offer to fly by myself…
Anyway, back to the desert. There is really nobody on the road, and it’s so dry. But don’t worry you should not get thirsty. The region is full of bodega so that you can try all kind of Pisco. They all propose a free tour. You have to say funny sentences before drinking your shot.
Another famous attraction is the Huacachina oasis. I don’t understand all the hype around this place. The oasis itself is an interesting natural formation, but they turned it into a tourist spot. The water is said to be super dirty and everyone is trying to sell you a tour on the dunes.
Because that’s the real thing to do, the dunes. We did not take a buggy or anything else (“pilots” are said to be dangerous, there was some accidents…), just walking. We watched the sunset from the top of a dune. It was really cool, although there is lot of dirt coming from the town. Ica is really not clean compare to Cusco!
Paracas not Maracas
Next stop, El Chaco. This beach town is located south of Pisco and is the closest to Paracas National Park. The town looks fairly new and has a beach. Although really not nice. It’s polluted, smells old fishes and it’s overcrowded 👎. The only alternative is to go to the beaches of the Park ($4 to enter). I would say that the most famous beach: Las Minas, is a random beach. The beach is just famous because the other public beaches are bad. At least the surrounding landscape is interesting. You can bike there, but I was lazy to be honest 😆.
The other activity is to take a boat to the Ballestas Islands. It’s a two hours boat tour ($12 if you bargain good) and you get to see the candelabra and sea lions.
Lima not Lama
We just had a short stop in Lima, before taking a night bus to our next destination. Just enough to walk around the historical center. We liked our tour and at the Plaza de armas, we got interviewed by a local television to try Pisco-seviche. If you ask me,the mix of the two was random. We prefer Pisco (sour) and seviche alone 😋.
But in the end we were lazy and went to the cinema to watch the last Star Wars 😅.
Trujillo not 🤷♂️ (no more jokes)
Same here, a day stop between two night buses to explore the surroundings. As being limited in time, we found a tour ($12) by walking at around the Plaza de armas.
They first took us to a horse and dance show: Caballo de Paso y Marinera. It was nice but a bit simple on the horse side. No jumping or anything particular. The danse was nice though. No, you will not see my “performance”.
Then we went to two archeological sites: Huaca del Dragon and Chan Chan.
The Huaca del Dragon is a small site, still the architecture is interesting. But Chan Chan is an impressive site. It’s huge! We could not access every room but the main palace is well conserved.
To the Cordillera Blanca
Aaaaah the mountains. Yes again 😉. (I am lying here, we went to Huaraz before going to Trujillo 🙊. But it fits better here). Direction Huaraz right at the feet of the Cordillera Blanca. Days hikes and trekking are in the program.
