Official Unveiling of the new blog!!!

Hello Everyone!! After some (private) development of my new blog I feel ready to officially unveil it to the world!  I have worked hard on thinking about how I wanted to preserve the memories of my travels and present my photography and travel memories to the world wide web.  I got the idea to start a blog last summer when I was on my first truly solo trip to Perú.  I had travelled before, but this trip impacted me unlike the others and I was trying to find a way for others to experience it with me.  But I got it wrong, if anyone read my old blog - it was my attempt at giving travel advice, and while I love traveling, I am not very good at it.  So I revamped it (on a new website) with a new mission - not tell you the nitty gritty details of how to have the best trip, but to share with you my experiences and maybe inspire you to love the world as much as I do.


So here is the link, please check it out!
http://adventuringtonarnia.wordpress.com

Machu Picchu: The Struggle

So I never really got a chance to tell my “I spent my entire summer in Perú and almost couldn’t go to Machu Picchu” story.  Clearly and not surprisingly, it was all my fault.  In mid-march of 2014 I learned that I had been awarded a scholarship from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering called the Vredenburg Scholarship which funded my summer lab research at la Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima.  Clearly  I was stoked, and despite my complete love of traveling, I have an irritating aversion to planing so it took me until early June to think about booking one of the coolest (and most popular) parts of my trip.  I waited to book my trip until June partly because I was coordinating with other members of my Engineers without Borders group that were traveling with me at the end of August - realistically though it was because I was being lazy.

My problem (as I am sure many people have been frustrated with) is that Machu Picchu tickets are actually a bit hard to come by.  Firstly:  the tickets are limited.  Tickets to both the Inca Trail and the actual site of Machu Picchu are limited with the number of the visitors that they can have.  The Inca Trail can only have 500 individuals (including porters) on the trail at any one time…given that the Inca Trail takes four days to complete, this means that only a little over 100 people can start on the trail each day.  Tickets to the actual site of Machu Picchu are limited to 2,500 individuals.  This may seem like a lot of people (as I innocently assumed…but believe me, people LOVE Machu Picchu).  During the peak season between May and June there will be people snatching up these tickets left and right.

When seeing that the number of tickets to an attraction is limited, I feel like it is our natural inclination to wonder why.  What is stopping us from visiting Machu Picchu?  I believe the official answer has something to do with preserving the city.  Requiring responsible, and if you consider Machu Picchu to be apart of the environment, ecotourism from its guests.  I guess my question was though to what extent does limiting the number to 2,500 people per day actually help the cause?  2,500 people per day is still 17,500 people per week and almost 1 million people per year - no wonder there are concerns about keeping it pristine!

Tons of huge tourist groups coming through Machu Picchu

Doing some brief ~research~ on sustainable tourism and I came across the term “Tourism Carrying Capacity” (TTC) defined by Middleton and Hawkins Chamberlain in 1997 as “the level of human activity an area can accommodate without the area deteriorating, the resident community being adversely affected  or the quality of the visitors experience declining”.  To me there are separate interesting things about this definition.  For one how is the number of humans in an area to keep it from deteriorating?  Doesn't one tourist change the environment of Machu Picchu?  The other interesting thing to me was that the TTC accounted for the visitors experience - and having travelled to Machu Picchu, having one other person there also negatively affects your experience.  How do you balance this true sustainable tourism with realistic sustainable tourism?

Tourists petting all the llamas

Anyways back to the story of how I was a complete idiot…so I knew that the tickets were limited BUT I also was cheap.  You can get tickets half off for students, but you have to do it either at Machu Picchu, in Aguas Calientes or in Cusco.  So I told myself, I will check the Machu Picchu ticket website everyday to see if they still have a lot of tickets available, and if they are, just buy them when I get there.  Now for like 6 weeks there were like 500 tickets left - plenty of tickets in my mind.  Then suddenly, zero.  No tickets for the days around it too.  THERE WERE NO TICKETS AVAILABLE TO GO TO MACHU PICCHU.  Machu Picchu is one of the seven wonders of the world and there were literally NO tickets for me to see it while I was in Perú!  How ridiculous, and stupid.  I panicked, and refreshed, panicked and refreshed….then there was 1 ticket.  So this leads me to discuss the second problem with buying Machu Picchu tickets: they are difficult to purchase.  In order to purchase them through the Peruvian government, you either need to buy them through a ticket office or online.  I presume buying them through a ticket office is simple, but as mentioned before are only in limited locations.  If you are wanting to book them from outside the country, the website is the only option.  You have to log on (http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/), select the dates and options: Machu Picchu alone, Machu Picchu and Museum, Machu Picchu and Huaynapicchu, Machu Picchu and Machu Picchu Mountain).  If you can be at Machu Picchu I recommend buying one of the mountain tickets.  Anyways once you make the selection you get a ~reservation~ to go and see Machu Picchu….woo!!  And yet, the worst is yet to come, you now have 6 hours to make your payment.

This was the stage I was at, I had refreshed to find a ticket and reserved it.  If you don’t want to go through the hassle of purchasing the tickets on your own you can go through a tour company, I never used one, so I have no recommendations, but its very googleable.  The disadvantage is that various tour companies mark up the price of these tickets by varying amounts.  Honestly though, given the rest of the stress of my story just book through a tour company.  Anyways you can pay via credit card, but it has to be visa.  It also has to have a special verification too.  Basically from my extensive research of random travel blogs and websites during those 6 hours, if your credit card is not Peruvian, it will not work.  Your only solution is to go to the National Bank of Peru (el Banco de la Nación de Perú).

So by the time I realized this it was around 8 p.m. and the banks had closed and by midnight, those 6 hours ran out- and clearly I was on edge.  I had researched the fact that the banks opened at 8:30 a.m., so I just had to last another 2 and a half hours (3 to be safe), to reserve the ticket to be able to be at the bank when it opened to pay for it.  I had no idea if in another ticket was going to be there.  Now I am trying to make this seem exciting and honestly I am getting some anxiety just writing it because it was VERY action packed, but no worries I made it.  I reserved the ticket, woke myself up and was in front of the bank at 8 a.m.  NOT EVEN ridiculously early given the fact that one woman was in front of me and by the time 8:30 rolled around like 40 people were in line.

Anyways, the thing at the bank takes like 30 seconds.  You just read them your reservation number and you get a confirmation number.  I ran back to my apartment.  Let me rephrase that - sprinted back to my apartment, typed in the confirmation and SUCCESS I had my ticket.  What can I say, all worth it!  Machu Picchu is beautiful and intriguing - even though I desperately wish that I did not have to deal with all of that anxiety, it was well worth the process in order to see Machu Picchu!!!

Best of Bruges

Bruges' Market Square (Grote Markt)

On Sunday my family went on a two night trip to Bruges, Belgium!  This trip is a little different then other ones I have been on recently, I have been on so many trips this year independently of with just friends, so it was nice to be traveling with my family again.  It was a quick trip - but definitely a city worth traveling too.  I hope this post could inspire you to plan a trip to the fairytale city of Bruges.

BEST of Bruges:

View off the top of Bruge's Belfry

1. Belfry:  My favorite part of Bruges was the Belfry!  It is definitely the most iconic part of the city.  You can go up the Belfry for 8 euros or buy a Bruges city pass for most of the public museums for 20 euros.  There are 360 stairs and they space gets kinda small to climb up that entire way, but its actually not too crowded because they only let 70 people up at the time (this does mean that you should try to get there early because it can get crowded! we waited for about ten minutes, getting there probably at like 10 am, and by the time we got back down there was a line three times as long!!)  At the top, there was a beautiful view of the entire fairytalesque city of Bruges - well worth the wait and journey up the stairs.
2. Walking Around:  Bruges is a BEAUTIFUL city.  You can get a feel for the city just by wandering the streets.  There is not a lot of car traffic - mostly bikes or pedestrians.

   

   One of Bruge's Windmills

    We did a couple of walks in my Mom’s tour book - one I would especially recommend is walking along the canals.  Some people say Bruges is the Venice of the North.  Now that I have wandered around both - I am not sure if that name holds true, but walking by the canals is definitely worth it!  Especially if you are traveling during the summer when I suspect there are more tourists around.  If you are walking around, you can pop into some of the other city sites like the churches or the city hall.
3. Christmas Markets: Going to Bruges in November or December is neat because they have their Christmas Markets out!  Walking around at night is extra fun because of this - there are lots of people, food and gifts!  It isn’t crazy or huge, but it is really fun!!
4. Memling in Sint-Jan Hospitaalmuseum: We went to 2 museums, the second of which I liked best.  This is because it was in an old hospital building so it had a variety or art and historical objects so it was pretty interesting to wander through.  The only problem was that all the descriptions were in Dutch - but we were trying to go through the museums pretty fast anyways so I didn’t mind that too much.  I cannot guarantee that this was the best museum in Bruges, but of the museums I saw I liked it best.
5. Groeninge Museum:  This museum is all Flemish Art.  It is a lot of art from like the 1400’s or so, which honestly wasn’t particularly appealing to me or any of my family but a few things did stand out.  The first was that the museum had a storytelling aspect to it, in that although most of the art was from the 1400’s, they had some more modern art to show which direction Flemish art has gone.  Additionally, they had a temporary exhibit arranging some of the existing paintings using maps and mirrors to illustrate the importance of water to Bruges.  Lastly they had a few illuminated manuscripts which I always think are interesting and beautiful.

Things to AVOID:

• Choco-Story:  the chocolate museum honestly is probably not worth your time or money.  It is sort of a hodgepodge history of chocolate but focusing on the wrong parts of chocolate's history in my opinion - mayan and aztec pre-history and then sort of a Belgian advertisement for chocolate.  It was super crowded and poorly arranged.  There was a neat demonstration and taste test of Pralines at the end.  But I was hoping for more of the production and history of chocolate in Belgium and that was not clear.  Probably skippable.

Where to EAT:

Breydel-de Coninck/$$/Breidelstraat 24, 8000 Brugge, Belgium

This restaurant was great.  Felt really local.  They had great seafood.  It was pretty well priced and decently fast.  They serve a lot of types of Mussels and other seafood.  Would definitely recommend.

Cafedraal/$$/ Zilverstraat 38, 8000 Brugge, Belgium

This restaurant was also really good.  It had a ‘hipper’ vibe.  It was decor made the restaurant have a really great feel and they had great food choices; both seafood and meat options. 

Le Pain Quotidien/$/Philipstockstraat 21, 8000 Brugge, Belgium

This place was a cute organic cafe, they had great unique dishes for either breakfast or lunch.  If you are looking for a quality cafe then I would really recommend this place.  They are quick to serve you and answer any questions.

Where to SLEEP:

Hotel Heritage/$$$$/Niklaas Desparsstraat 11, 8000 Brugge, Belgium

This hotel is VERY nice.  They are very attentive and ready to serve you.  It was in a great location right near the market square.  Both of our rooms had seating areas and bedrooms.  The bathrooms were spacious and very well functioning.  The maids visited your room three times a day (to clean the room, to deliver port and cognac in the evening and to turn down the room at night with Belgian Chocolates).  Overall worth the money.

My family on the top of the belfry of Bruges

42 Hours in Paris

Trang and I in front of the Eiffel Tower

While I could apologize for hours and give excuses as to why I started a blog about travel and wanderlust and have not been writing anything, I think it would be a better idea to just launch right back into writing it.

Paris, the city of love.  Filled with beautiful stores and great desserts.  When I was presented with the opportunity to go and visit my friend from my university, Trang, how could I say no?  She is studying abroad there for an entire year, so I wanted to visit her to see her before I graduate in May.  I had come 'home' to Manchester, England to visit my parents for Thanksgiving and took a few days to travel to Paris.

It was a short, but intense trip.  I left last Monday (11/24/14) and came back Wednesday (11/26/14).  It was great though, we basically ate and wandered around Paris.  I wanted to hit up all of the classic french things: macarons, crepes, croissants, french onion soup etc. as well as the sites like the eiffel tower, champs-élysées, arc de triomphe and the notre dame...and of course shop!!

Restaurants:

          Chez Julien/$$$/16 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis  75010 Paris

I went out to Chez Julien with Trang and her parents the first night I was in Paris.  It is a petit, adorable restaurant which is a perfect example of well prepared French food.  I had the duckand crème brûlée and was VERY satisfied.  I definitely recommend it.  It feels very french - but they definitely spoke English (the waiter warned me when I was going to order something I really did not want).  Its small and was full even on a Monday though so definitely book ahead (http://www.julienparis.com/en/)

          Ladurée/$$/75 avenue des Champs Elysées  75008 Paris

Macarons with Trang at Ladurée

Classic French bakery where Trang and I went for Tea and MACARONS.  I have had a late (but aggressive) introduction with macarons and was incredibly excited to come here.  It is adorable, go.  It is also a restaurant and bakery and has copious amounts of other deserts.  They also do to go!  I brought back 6 macarons for my parents and I to try at home (although I am pretty sure they gave me the wrong bag) but they are incredible no matter the flavor (https://www.laduree.com/en_gb/)

Going Out:
I have been to Paris previously, but when I was younger so I had never been out.  It was so fun to have Trang take me out to some great places.

          Prescription Cocktail Club/$$/23 rue de Mazarine

We went here on Monday, it was a cool little cocktail bar, perhaps too cool for itself - I couldn't see a sign when we walked in and you had to ask the man at the door to let you in.  It was worth it though, their menu was filled with unique cocktails of the moment.  Everything was combos I had never tried before.  Drinks were 15 euros, I think that is not overwhelming for Paris standards, although I am not sure.  It was open till 2 on a Monday I am sure later on other days of the week (http://www.prescriptioncocktailclub.com/)

          Chez Papillon/$$$/49 rue de Panthieu

This was our Tuesday destination.  It was actually a pretty funny story where originally   wanted to go to a club called 'Titty Twister'.  But apparently this was closed on Tuesdays :( and we were recommended a place called 'Origins' by a hip yet old French man.  This place was impossible to find and after a quick couple attempts to go to the strip club (unclear....) we ended up at Chez Papillon.  They club went up on a Tuesday.  20 euros got you in the door and one rail drink at the bar.  Honestly though it was the kind of place where most people got tables.  Like a movie, our other friend from Hopkins was joking that she didn't know how to make friends with tables and suddenly this American guy (from LA but graduating from Cornell soon) came and invited us to hang.  Perks of being a girl (but really, we did hear that him and his friends had to pay 300 euros each for the table so...) (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chez-Papillon-Le-Week-End/239144332875314)

Out in Paris with Trang and Mary

Transportation:

          Eurostar / http://www.eurostar.com/uk-en

The price of getting to Paris from Manchester was around the same price flying and taking the train.  It is slightly longer taking the train, but instead of arriving outside the city - you go from London St. Pancreas to Paris' Gare du Nord so it is easier to get around faster in Paris.  The train is a great, easy option to consider.

Broken Computer - Delay in Posts :(

So I really meant to start this blog off great and write about Lima and Perú while I was experiencing these places.  Unfortunately, my computer broke about a month ago and I was unable to continue posting to the blog.  I was still very excited about the blog though, so I continued to write posts, just was unable to share these posts with you.  But now I can!  So I just wanted to be honest and say that all of these posts are technically now in the past (but most were written at the time).

One note however - I had a pretty bad experience with the Apple approved repair place I used called E.O.S. Informatica SAC, which was located in Miraflores.  My experienced involved inconsistencies with communication and my computer actually coming back MORE broken.  So all in all do not use this shop if you need to get your computer repaired in Lima.  My experience could have been bad by chance or due to spanish communication issues, but there are other shops in Lima to try - and I would definitely try those first.

Travel Details
Apple Sponsored Service Places in Lima/https://locate.apple.com/pe/es/service/?pt=4&lat=-12.1220206&lon=-77.03216050000003

Gran Corso de Wong

Today we woke up knowing it was la día del pollo a la brasa - and went on an adventure to go find some to celebrate.  El pollo a la brasa, which was translated by Wikipedia as "Peruvian Chicken" - so not all that helpful, to me seems like rotisserie chicken with more flavor (although I don't really like rotisserie chicken so that might be quite biased).  Its made roasted over charcoal (I added the picture because it is pretty neat to watch the first time) and is normal served with french fries and salad.

Pollo a la Brasa

Pollo a la brasa is a very typical food here in Perú and I had eaten it a couple times before - only for lunch so far though.  Peruvians seem to eat big, late lunches and smaller, late dinners.  It took a little adjusting but as of right now I would say my eating habits are pretty Peruvian.

Anyways, when Camille, my other roommate Patricia (she is from Portugal) and I walked out of the house, we could tell something was going on around Miraflores where we lived.  There were arena stands lining all of Parque Kennedy and Parque 28 de Julio and barriers set up on the edge of the side walk.  It looked like either a race or a parade.

Then I remembered that my research professor, Pilar, had told me there were a lot of parades (or military processions - my spanish is improving but not fast enough) around the time of the Peruvian independence day.  This parade was sponsored by Wong - a mid-range grocery store which was conveniently located 2 blocks away from my house.

So after walking to Pardos Chicken to get the pollo a la brasa (for some reason it annoyed me that it was Pardos Chicken and not Pardos Pollo) we decided to walk to a market that had been set up selling alpaca fabrics at a discounted price.  This was a cool market because it was selling quality items for SO much cheaper then they would be sold for in the US.

The most prized material there was the items made out of baby alpaca - it is super soft!  Alpacas are very similar to llamas but alpacas are raised more as an investment on their fibers and therefore much 'fluffier'.  Llamas are more attractive in my opinion and are probably what you think of when you think of either a llama or an alpaca.  There are vendors here in Perú that sell everything as baby alpaca but that is not always the case.  There can be fakes (no alpaca), a mix, old alpaca and baby alpaca.  There is also what Patricia called 'royal' alpaca but I think this is rare and ridiculously expensive.  I bought a gift (thats all I will say so I don't spoil the surprise) but may go back to get something for myself.

Dancers in the Parade

Marching Band in the Parade

To get to the market we ran into the parade - the Gran Corso de Wong.  It was actually a lot of fun seeing a Peruvian version of a parade because it had similar elements to an American parade but additions that were very Peruvian.  There were marching bands, floats with cartoon characters, cars with fake celebrities, and then traditional peruvian dancers.

It was unexpected but really nice to run into this parade because it marked the beginning of the independence day celebrations or Las Fiestas Patrias.  We are traveling during the actual celebration next weekend to Huaraz (which I am so excited about) so it was nice to get a taste of what the actual celebration would be like.  All I can say is Peruvians are proud to be Peruvian.  So many people came out to watch the parade and cheer everyone on.  For the past entire month people have been wearing a lapel pin representing the colors of Perú as sort of a month long celebration.

Dancer in the Parade

Patricia and I later went back out to the Inca Market (a street in Miraflores with TONS of little shops organized in markets) which I am really surprised I have never been to seeing as I love shopping to begin to hunt for some souvenirs, and as we were coming back we even saw a 10 minute fireworks display to mark the end of the day.  The Gran Corso de Wong was a little inconvenient for us navigating around Miraflores today, but made today randomly cultural and fun just by walking out our front doors.

Travel Details

Shops:

Pardos Chicken/Pollo a la Brasa/Ave. Benavides, Miraflores/20 S +/
Alpaca Clothes Market/Ave. 28 de Julio, Miraflores/Discounted Prices on Tumi Brand/Note: this location posted only until August 4, 2014 - ask around for something similar/
Inca Market/Souvenirs/Ave. Petit Thouras/Bargain!

Say Yes to Bikes

As the sun finally peaks out of the overcast sky, it dawns on me that I might not be able to do this.  And by ‘this’, I meant the nearly 50 km bike ride through la Reserva Nacional de Paracus in Paracus, Perú my flatmate Camille and I had just began.  People warned us that it would be difficult and that we might get lost, but I really don’t think the reality of the situation set in until the sun finally came out and I realized just how hot and tired we were going to be by the end and how we were definitely going to miss the final of the World Cup (apparently the game wasn’t that good anyways, so I guess we were lucky).

Let me explain; I have come to Perú for two months, from the middle of June 2014 until the middle of August 2015 to do research at la Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería in Lima.  The professor is investigating methods of disinfecting water using nano-particles.  So for the past 5 weeks, I have been in Lima and traveling around some of the country, in order to try doing research for the first time as well as having the opportunity to travel and be introduced to the culture of Perú.

Huacachina's Lagoon

So last weekend Camille and I decided to travel to Ica and Paracus in southern Perú.  Restricted by our work schedules and the bus schedules to get us to there we left really early saturday morning and came back really late sunday night.  Our first stop was Ica.  Ica is best known in the traveling community of Perú for Huacachina, which is a small desert oasis town 15 minutes outside of Ica - you have to take a taxi which will drive you over the sand dune and to this little town situated around a lake.  Huacachina acts as the hub for all desert 

View from Huacachina's Sand Dune

sports where you can buy the dune buggie/sand boarding tour that we were looking for.  So we got to Huacachina around 1 p.m. and ate lunch and then walked up this giant dune beside Huacachina to get a view of Huacachina, Ica and beyond.  If you are going to Huacachina, hike up the dune! It takes roughly an hour (but good be done in less) and you get a really cool view.

Best part about Ica?  Its HOT and SUNNY!  Sadly the only thing missing from potentially the best and most unique summer of my life is the sun as Lima is generally chilly and cloudy.  This makes sense as it is currently winter here (I do get some strange looks when I wear my sandals out here - most people wear so many winter jackets it is ridiculous).  So this sun was a welcome feature of our travels.  So we had our little shorts and tank tops on and around 4 pm. we went on our dune tour.

Sand Boarding

Dune Buggie

So when I heard that to do sand boarding a dune buggie drove you out to the desert, stopped and waited then drove you back - I was grossly misinformed.  I suppose technically that is what happened, but actually - the dune buggie ride is TERRIFYING.  Its like a roller coaster - controlled by a driver (and let me tell you ours was insane).  Dune buggies can do anything (like go straight down the huge dunes).  Going through the desert on a dune buggie was one of the strangest experiences for me because I have never feared for my life and had so much fun at the same time; I couldn’t let go of the bar on the side of the vehicle or stop laughing.

Saying that though, its definitely worth it.  Sand boarding is awesome.  It is way harder then you would expect.  *It is harder to balance on the sand then it is on snow for example - but really fun to try.  Plus when you get tired of standing up (or falling down) you can treat the board like a sled and ride down either sitting or on your stomach.  Plus we got to do it as the sun was setting which meant we saw an extremely beautiful sunset as we were coming back.  Bring a jacket though - it gets chilly.  Sandboarding - besides going to Machu Picchu - was the one thing I told myself I had to try while I was in Perú.

When we got back, we took the bus to Paracus and stayed overnight at the Kokopelli Hostel there.  We got there kind of late and were thankful when a woman (who worked at a different hostel) showed us some of the way.  Paracus is a neat place, and relatively safe, but it’s quiet.  The woman who found us claimed her tours of Paracus would be cheaper then if we booked at Kokopelli so after checking in we went back there.  Her bus tours were cheaper - but bikes were not.  Luckily we negotiated 5 soles off of the price so it ended up being worth our while going (barely).

As for the hostel, I really enjoyed staying at Kokopelli.  It was a really nice set up - right on the beach, cool bar, hammocks, snack bar, pool and football.  It was chill without being boring.  Saying that there was a birthday of a girl who was traveling and had worked at the hostel for a couple of weeks and came back because she loved it so much - so everyone was happy and celebrating.  But they had an awesome live band.

So we woke up at 7 am to get our boat tour of las Islas Ballestas.  This small group of islands are off the coast of Paracus where you can see penguins, seals, pelicans and other birds.  It was really cool!  Unfortunately it was gray and cold on the water but seeing the penguins and seals really made my day.  You also get to see this feature of the Paracus national park called la Candelabra which is similar to what you would see for the Nazca lines.   The idea is that it barely ever rains in this area of Perú so these designs in the sand stay there forever.  I have been told by some people that seeing the lines isn’t worth it - so it was cool to see this instead.

So back to the bike ride:  It was still cloudy when we got back from the boat tour and left with our bikes, so I was wearing a sweatshirt and jacket and was just warm enough  - but soon realized that I was going to be WAY too hot.  Actually all the signs were pointing against us - it was hot and sunny, it was far, there was only one place at the end to stop for food, the roads were not that good - but still we did it.  And I would do it again no questions asked.  Why?  Because of the experience I had; I will never forget the views, the wind blowing in my hair, feeling the desert heat - you can not get that from a bus! At one point we just finished this 8 km stretch between the scenic viewpoints and it was around 1 pm (peak sun time).  I was hot, tired and the road had been terrible.  So as we were biking down this hill, it was suddenly easier and cooler, and you could look out and see the beautiful desert landscape abutting the red sand beaches with cliffs in the background.  I didn’t know places like this existed, let alone were here in Perú.

View of the 8 km stretch

 

We finally finished most of the ride - and stopped for lunch (there are some wonderful seafood restaurants there) with a view of the water.  And then biked back.  We then went back to Kokopelli and watched the sunset, Pilsen in hand, on the beach.  Paracus and Ica were incredible and I am sure you can see how my new policy now is to say yes to bikes.

Travel Details

Transportation:

Bus from Lima to Ica/Oltursa/~50 S/7:30 am - 12 pm/
Bus from Ica to Paracus/Cruz del Sol/20 S/7-8:30 pm (late - should be an hour)/
Bus from Paracus to Lima/Oltursa/~50 S/8 -11:30 pm/
Taxi from Ica to Huacachina/6 S/

Lodging:

Kokopelli Hostel/43 S/

Tours:

Huacachina Dune Tour/Hostel Arena/40 S (15 S more for a board upgrade)/4 p.m./
Islas Ballestas & National Park Entrance Fee/15S + 2S Tax/
Islas Ballestas Tour/Emotion Tour Peru/30 S/8 a.m./
Paracas National Park Bike Rental/Emotion Tour Peru/30 S/10:30 p.m./

Tips:

• When traveling in Peru, bring your passport even if you are not flying.  The bus company asked to see mine and I didn’t have it (thought I was being safe).  Luckily they let me on with my Maryland drivers license and a copy - but it will be easier if you bring it
• Bring the little white piece of paper called the Andean Immigration Card which basically proves to hostels that you have not been in the country for over 90 days.  The Kokopelli Paracus charged me and my friend 10 S more because we didn’t have this and couldn’t prove we had not been traveling too long.
• The prices increased in these touristy areas (say 30 S for a meal)

Travel Buddy!