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Nov 23rd Peru Part 5: An Oasis and An Ending

The trip was coming to an end, I could smell it in the air and it was effecting my mood.

The day we boated out of the jungle, we also flew to Arequipa. The town itself was old Spanish colonial with beautiful stonework buildings. During a tour of a convent, I threatened to leave the girls behind to adjust their attitudes. They didn’t take the threat seriously. Our stay was short because our only reason for being there was to see Colca Canyon. Our bus tour started at 3am, and fearing a repeat of the Rainbow Mountain incident, I preemptively dosed myself with medications. The tour bus stopped for breakfast at a terrible café that served scrambled eggs and what I referred to as “judges bread” as I banged it on the table like a gavel… no one laughed but that’s show biz, baby. At the canyon itself we did see a few condors flying in the distance and some people dressed in rather impressive condor outfits getting photos with tourists for tips. Somehow during this outing, my paternal instincts earned me the nickname “Father Condor”… Made me regret not leaving my companions at the convent. After the canyon we took a night bus to Ica. The bus was actually kind of fun, but uneventful. I sat on the top level a the very front and had an amazing view of the sunset and sunrise and watched movies in-between.

In Ica we somehow had our wires crossed and ended up at the wrong address, a van passing by stopped to inform us this was a bad neighborhood and that if we were staying we should not go out at night. NOTED. We got properly orientated and situated at the right address a bit further north at what I chose to assume was a safer area. I had a bit of a nap but was in a bad mood from the girls giving me a mean nickname and definitely not sleep deprivation and being a little hungry. We had some local Chinese food that I can only describe as bad and then caught a taxi to Huacachina, a small Oasis in the desert. It appears designed for post cards. I wanted to rent a buggy and fly through the dunes but was informed we could only get driven around by “professionals”. We bought our tickets and were walked to the buggy, a Nissan 4×4 that had the body stripped off and some chairs and a frame welded on. Looking at the bald street tires I didn’t have much hope for this trip. I was wrong, that driver must have been having marital problems because he drove that rig like he didn’t want to go home. We got a bit of air a few times and all my videos have excited screaming in them. We stopped and did a few short trips down the sand dunes on toboggans, plywood with some plastic on them shaped vaguely like a snowboard. The buggy was wilder than expected and the sand boarding was milder, but as any good Canadian, I have had several near death experiences on toboggans so maybe my perception is skewed.

It was now Renata’s turn to pick an activity. She chose a vineyard tour, at first I wasn’t very excited but, I skipped breakfast and we did a wine tasting first… so I got in the spirit pretty fast. With the better part of a buzz on, we got to tour TACAMA, the oldest Vineyard in South America. They explained a lot about wine but I was just enjoying the fresh air and architecture. I’m not sure I’ll ever be a wine guy, but I’m definitely a have a few drinks and wander around an old farm guy. That evening we found a street food vendor doing chicken shawarma and given the last few days of bad food, this food was nearly a religious experience.

Mildly hungover and sad to be leaving the shawarma stand behind, we caught a bus to Paracas, Peru’s tourist town. A small oceanside town with an abundance of hotels and restaurants but somehow, the locals just couldn’t quite connect the dots to make it fun. First was our hotel, Renata and I got put in a room right beside the reception so all night we could hear the receptionist getting phone calls, and in the morning guests stood outside our door to shout their daily plans to each other. We asked about changing rooms or even to a partner hotel across the street and were told that was not possible. We asked the hotel across the street anyway and they said they would be happy to… so we moved before anyone could change their minds. Natalie and I wanted to do some scuba but could only find a few places offering it, but it was actually through the same dive shop. The prices were steep and the photos looked like it was just mucky water. I looked into renting a bike to cruise around, maybe drive through the desert nearby but all we could find were little scooters. Then I found dune buggies but they were small cc and guided tour only, the tour was slow along a paved road. This place felt like a retreat for toddlers.

We ended up hiring a car to take us for a drive to some local beaches and viewpoints. The ocean was too cold to swim in and the wind was picking up so we mostly got driven around. The guide was fun and insisted on getting a bunch of funny photos of all of us jumping at the same time. Somehow, at the time it was about the funniest thing we had ever seen. We then had a lazy day of walking around the town and the beach nearby, ate some seafood and had an early night.

We caught the bus to Lima and I could feel the dread in my chest, the trip was winding down. We met with Fiorella again, she returned my jacket and took us around the city for last minute shopping and a tour. We had a nice dinner and watched a movie in our rental apartment, which was probably the nicest place we stayed. It was a high rise with big windows and a view of the ocean. I was sad to leave but real life was calling, I had to get back to work and to my little apartment.

All that was left was to get home, and Air Canada did such a bad job of it that they ended up booking me a flight on WestJet that got me home 12 hours late. Typical of Canadian Airlines.

Peru was a lot of fun, and like everywhere I’ve been, I feel like I scratched the surface. Now find myself daydreaming about going back and exploring just a little more… maybe someday, until then, I’ve already got other destinations in the planning stages.

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Posted in Travel and tagged backpacking, peru, travelwith 1 comment.