30th April to 2nd May, Ballestas Islands, Sand Dunes and mummified remains

We drove through a sandy Paracas National Reserve, taking in the beautiful views, before finding a spot in the reserve, by the sea, to bush camp. The group mainly went to bed at an astonishingly early 8pm this night. A few of us escaped the light pollution from the truck and the camp fire to watch the stars, then ended the night chatting by the fire. Everyone else going to bed so early meant we were woken at 5am though. Grrr.











Next was a boat trip round the Ballestas Islands. From what I could make out, this place is famous for the sheer volume of birds that live there, which was amazing, and the fact that they used to export for sale the bird poop from the islands. Needless to say, it whiffed a bit.

tuk tuk


Local schoolgirl commented on how tall we all were......so I called (6ft) Heather over. All the schoolkids pulled out their phones to take a pic


Ballestas Islands


Next stop was an oasis in the dessert! Huacachica. A few stayed in a hostel, while the rest of us hopped onto V8 dune buggies and screamed off into the dessert to go sandboarding. After a bump with a coach (ooops), Kirsten and Rogan were delayed till later. Rogan hired a proper board with fixed boots. The rest of us went down on our tums on the boards, as this was faster and more fun. I did a couple of runs and swallowed a tonne of sand due to my useless technique of hollering with enjoyment as I plummeted down the dune. Then I realised taking the buggy over the edge, down to pick up the boarders was possibly even more fun. We clearly had the nutter driver (albeit very skilful) and I loved getting flung up, over, down and around the dunes with the roar of the powerful engines. Brilliant.





Getting flung around in the dune buggy


Get your boards


How to get a mouthful of sand at speed


Then, as it got dark, we went to find the sandy patch where we would sleep. Kirsten and Rogan rocked up with our dinner in another buggy along with a 7 litre bottle of pisco sour. After dinner, round the fire, and after drinks, a few of us decided to go boarding in the dark. I make it about 30 feet up the dune before deciding it is blinking hard to climb a dune. So we watched Kirsten, Rogan, Francois, Terry and Lesley. One run ended about a metre from a sleeping Ken's head but he wasn't hit and no-one actually landed on the fire, so that was a result. It didn't get too cold so we all slept well that eve, in our sleeping bags, looking up at the stars.

Morning Lisa


Sandboards, people in sleeping bags, a dune buggy and it's driver's tent


One more run in the morning, then back to get the others and head off to our campsite for our Nasca lines flight. The flight would be the next day so that afternoon, we instead went to see some well preserved mummies.