Sandy Turkeys and Nazca Liars

Today is Sunday and currently I am relaxing in Cusco at a hostel called Pirwa located along the Plaza De San Francisco. After a 15 hour night bus ride through swerving mountain roads from the desert of town of Nazca, this beautiful colonial style city will be home for at least a week. This hostel has a helpful Peruvian staff and the other travelers staying here are very friendly.

Before embarking on an overnight ride through the southern half of the country, my friend Sean and I had our final adventure after traveling for nearly a month together. We arrived in the desert oasis of Huacachina on Wednesday after a fun weekend in Lima hanging out with some very cool locals and spent two days enjoying sunshine and hanging out with some Australian friends we met in Mancora who happened to be there at the same time. Huacachina is a pretty laid back place and is well known for is close proximity to a sea of sand dunes that span an endless horizon. On Thanksgiving a group of us rented converted snowboards and took a dune buggy tour through the desert which felt very much like a roller coaster ride along staggering mountains of sand. It was a fun alternative way to give thanks and we ended the day with a BBQ at a neighboring hostel and playing some intense games of UNO.

Sean and I then left for Nazca on Friday but before catching an afternoon bus we decided to take a tour of some Pisco distilleries in the city of Ica. This city is very relaxed with vey little to do except get tipsy off of Peru's notorious national liquor. A group of us toured the Laso and Catador wineries and proceeded to sample a handful of Pisco batches by a local with a bamboo serving stick who also happened to be our taxi driver.

Two hours and a decent buzz later, Sean and I were on a bus towards Nazca which is home of a few hundred ancient tribal drawings that date back hundreds or perhaps thousands of years. This desert town is tucked within an arid brown dust bowl of a valley with little to do besides watching dubbed romantic comedies on television and eat servings of Caldo de Gallina. We got to see two ancient drawings of a tree and a monkey from an observation tower and it really was pretty anti climactic. For some reason the locals in Nazca, despite being pretty friendly, were really interested in trying to rip us off in any way possible ranging from taxi fairs, false promises of wifi in our hostel, and random excuses for not serving us a set lunch menu price. This being said it was still a relaxed place to visit and it ultimately was the last place that Sean and I would be traveling together. He is now off for Haurez and now I'm in Cusco which puts a temporary end to a fun month of multi national adventures. We will meet again without a doubt! More updates coming soon and have a nice day.