4Globetrotters

By LineogJesper on July 16, 2024

Arriving in Lima we celebrated Noah’s birthday at a local restaurant.

The next day we went for a walk along the coast in Miraflores, looked at the views and found a great local restaurant for lunch named SUMAQ BERLIN. Incredible food and very cheap – highly recommended! https://maps.app.goo.gl/ampBejhqaadKD5GZ9

In the evening we went bowling but since Line had just reopened the sprain in her calf and Jesper was still struggling with his overworked shoulder Noah and Vitus had the lane to themselves.

Paracas

The next morning at 6.45 we were picked up by PeruHop for our ride to Paracas (We will later add a detailed review of PeruHop). On the way we visited one of the old Spanish Haciendas and were introduced to the one of the more sad chapters of Peruvian history including slavery, death sentences by torture for minor mistakes and 10km. long tunnels to the harbor to avoid taxes and ensuring a safe hiding place for the owners when pirates arrived.

In Paracas we honestly did not do much. Having just been to Galapagos the must-do tour to “Poor man’s Galapagos” seemed like a waste of money – especially as you are neither allowed on the islands nor allowed to swim/snorkel and we have seen our share of sea lions, birds and penguins in the past weeks. The next day we went on the free PeruHop tour to the national park and had some nice looks at the views before moving on to Huacachina.

On the way we had a chance to taste the local vines and pisco’s. A very touristy experience but fun one the less. Btw. Peruvian vine is very SWEET – the dry version could easily pass as a very sweet dessert vine back home.

Huacachina    

Arriving in Huacachina it was immediately clear why there is pretty much only 1 recommended tour in the city – the buggy tour in the sand dunes. Huacachina is right next to the much bigger city Ica, and is essentially a very small oasis among HUGE sand dunes. You can literally not walk 10 meters without being offered a sand-buggy tour. Unfortunately Line’s stomach did not agree with the lunch we had at the vine tasting (or maybe she just needed an excuse to opt out of what looked like a very adrenaline packed tour) so she stayed at the hotel and went for a small hike up the dunes to watch the sunset.

The sand buggy tour was AMAZING and included both a very fast ride through the giant dunes as well as sandboarding and an amazing sunset view.

The next day Line was still not feeling well so the “boys” climbed the highest sand dune next to Huacachina alone before we all boarded the “bus” to Nazca (should have been a bus but unfortunately PeruHop had overbooked the bus so we were cramped in an uncomfortable minivan for the 3 hour journey). Huacachina was great but there is no reason to spend more than 24 hours there to enjoy what the small oasis town has to offer.

Nazca

On the way to Nazca we had a small taste of the Nazca lines from the viewpoint at the tower just outside the city where miniature versions of the famous patterns had been made.

We opted out of the flight to see the real ones from above as we would rather save the money for the activities waiting for us in Arequipa, Puno and Cuzco. Instead we visited the inca ruins Los Paredones just outside the city and Noah and Jesper also visited the viewpoint Mirador de Vista Alegre (a short 10 minute hike from the ruins).

For us Nazca was mainly a stop to break up the long journey to Arequipa, but in retrospect we should have skipped it and stayed an extra day in Arequipa (so many exiting things to do there as you will see in the next blog).   

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