Tag Archives: Peru

Desert rollercoasters

After a week of being in Lima it was time to continue to discover more of Peru. With Nik I boarded the most comfortable bus I’ve been on so far, equipped with almost anything you could ask for: Comfy seats, personal on-board entertainment and good food. It took us a few hours south of Lima to the coastal city of Paracas.

Traveling with “Cruz del Sur” is almost better than by plane
The dark clouds are only gathering at the mountains

The next morning we took a boat cruise to see the two main attractions that Paracas is known for. The first one is a giant chandelier scratched into the desert sand on the sloped coastline. There are different theories on who built it: It could be related to the Nazca lines, but it’s quite far from them; or it could be installed by San Martin, the liberator of Peru and a freemason, as the symbol has different elements that can be found in freemasonry as well.

Riding the speed boat to get to the main attractions of Paracas
It’s still unknown who carved the giant chandelier into the desert floor

The other main attraction is a bit further of the coast. We bounced across the waves in our little speed boat to get to the Ballestas islands, also known as “Poor man’s Galapagos”. However, even if it was quite nice to see all the different birds and many sea lions, I’m sure that the real Galapagos islands are even more impressive.

The Ballestas Islands are home to many birds…
… and sea lions, who prefer to rest on the narrow beaches

After the tour we boarded another bus to get us to Huacachina. This is a tiny village around an oasis. Even though it’s only 4 km out of Ica, it feels like being in the middle of the desert, as it is surrounded by high dunes on all sides. While having a look around, we found another small oasis. This one seemed to be the sewage for the village, as it smelled accordingly and was full of trash. Paradoxically it is located a bit above Huacachina, so that I’m sure that water ends up in the main lake of the oasis.

Huacachina is an oasis surrounded by high dunes
Unfortunately it’s not as paradisiacal as it may seem at first sight

In the afternoon we boarded a large sand-buggy, which took us deeper into the dunes. It was an awesome ride up and down the steep sandy slopes, which felt like a proper rollercoaster ride. Sometimes the dunes were so steep that we couldn’t see the end as we were about to go down. Afterwards we tried some more Sandboarding before driving off to watch the sunset.

Riding the sand-buggy was a lot of fun!
The sunsets close to the Peruvian coast are quite beautiful

We continued the next day and took another bus to get us to Nasca. This city is world famous for its mysterious images scratched into the desert floor thousands of years ago by the Nasca culture. Nobody knows how they managed to create them without aerial view. As they are about 50 m and bigger, it’s best to see them from above in a tiny low flying plane, which meant boarding another half hour of rollercoaster ride, as the air gets a bit rough in the afternoon.

Boarding a tiny airplane for yet another rollercoaster ride
The desert around Nasca is filled with symbols and straight lines

The flight took us on a loop to view 12 of the main figures, including birds, a monkey, a tree, a lizard and a so-called astronaut. There are even more symbols and mysterious straight lines crisscrossing the desert all the way to the horizon. It is believed that the symbols were used for religious ceremonies, as ceramic bowls and human bones were found nearby.

The monkey is clearly visible from above
The lines were not yet discovered when the first highway was built

In the area surrounding Nasca, more archeological sites can be found. We decided to visit a few of them, as we had still some time until our next bus to Cusco was leaving. My favorite was the aqueduct, a series of open wells, which were used by the Nasca people to access an aquifer. That way they were able to farm fruits and vegetables in this desert climate.

This aqueduct made the aquifer accessible for the Nasca people
These lines symbolize textile and wool

Lima – city of contrasts

From Santiago I took a plane to go all the way to Lima to meet up with my friend Frank from Hamburg. He is taking two months parental leave to live in Lima with his wife, Lu, and their twins Mateo and Mariano. Lu is from Peru, so this is the chance for her family and friends to spend some time with them. For me it was also nice to get a break and have a few days to recover from traveling.

Visiting Lu, Mateo, Frank and Mariano in Lima

Therefore, I didn’t mind to join them on their daily routines for a few days. And even though they are in Lima, it’s not like real holidays, because the kids need to be entertained for most of the day. They get up early, take their time for breakfast and spend most of the morning in different parks and playgrounds until it gets too hot to be outside. And after some sleep during midday, Mateo and Mariano need to get their lunch before it’s time to keep mom and dad busy while playing in the living room. It’s really a full time job!

Keeping the kids entertained in one of the neighboring playgrounds
Every Saturday is a hands-on music performance in the Reducto park

Lu’s mother is staying with them for the whole time, so she was helping out a little bit as well, which allowed Frank and me to spend half a day exploring the city on our own. We walked around downtown and found the “San Francisco de Asis” church and monastery by chance. I had heard about this church before, which has the earthly remains of thousands of people in its catacombs, as it used to be the main cemetery for Lima.

The “San Francisco de Asis” church in downtown Lima
The neighboring monastery and the catacombs can be visited on a guided tour

About five blocks away is the central market, where they sell everything: From underwear and clothing, spices, fruits and vegetables to cheese, seafood and meat, which had surprisingly almost no flies despite hanging there most of the day without refrigeration. A lot of it is probably bought and used by the restaurants in the neighboring Chinatown, which is home to the largest Chinese population on the southern hemisphere.

The central market has lots of raw meat on display
They sell almost everything in their little booths

Afterwards we returned to the apartment to pick up Lu, the kids and Lu’s mother for an afternoon at one of the biggest malls in town, the “Jockey Plaza Shopping Center”. This was the total opposite of what we had seen in the morning. Here, everything was clean, new and quite expensive. However, we didn’t come here for shopping. Instead we kept entertaining Mateo and Mariano with a giant sandbox and a hairdresser for kids until the evening, when Lu’s cousin was playing with his band “We the Lion”.

The “Jockey Plaza Shopping Center” is the complete opposite of the bustling Chinatown
Lu’s cousin is playing with his band “We the Lion”

After a few days, my friend Nik arrived. I had met him in Brazil, from where he flew to Colombia while I went south to Argentina. We had kept in touch and went on to explore Lima. The most interesting piece of information on an otherwise pretty boring free walking tour was that most of the colonial style buildings around the “Plaza de Armas” are not even 80 years old! The original buildings have been destroyed in fires or earthquakes and looked different from what can be seen today.

Reunion with Nik, who was traveling with me through Brazil

The buildings at the “Plaza de Armas” are not as old as they look

Another interesting part of the walking tour could have been the district of Rimac on the other side of the Rimac river. However, we were told not to enter this UNESCO world heritage site, as it is too dangerous for tourists. Curious as we are, we went anyways after finishing the tour. It turned out to be pretty interesting, as the buildings were authentic and because we truly were the only tourists. Although another local women tried to stop us, we continued, but stuck to the main roads where there were still plenty of locals around.

Authentic colonial style buildings in Rimac, a UNESCO world heritage site

Old meets new – parts of Rimac are better to avoid