Huacachina & Nasca, Peru

An oasis in the desert, a tiny little town, with about 20 hotels, lots of skis and snowboards, and not to forget hundreds of sand buggies zooming through the town! The sandboarding paradise par excellence.

We received a tip through couchsurfing to find a boy named lobo (wolf). Said and done, we wait in a hostel for Lobo, who shows up after a while. A nice, handsome young guy who has a tent for us. We can leave all our stuff in the hostel and head into the desert with the tent, sleeping bags, pisco, and beer. We build the tent in a hollow after going over a couple of dunes. We drink, look at the mighty starry sky, chat, and listen to music. The night in the desert is really pleasant, the hangover in the morning, not so much. The next day is all about hanging around in our wonderful hammocks, sleeping, and doing nothing.

We spend the afternoon at the only piece of grass in Huacachina, with the slackline pros of the town. The guys do really insane tricks on the line, they jump from their butts to their chests, do 360s and somersaults, we've never seen anything like this live, really cool! Iris and I juggle, do acrobatics, and try out new poses, we're getting better and better!

In the evening, we buy a beer, chill on a deck chair, and lo and behold, we sneak into the huge dorm of the hostel, a bit creepy up there but it's quite comfortable! Now we have a bed, beer, and we even get a self-made bong to smoke - we're really well off! The next morning, we get up pretty early and take a trip to Ica! Lobo, our couchsurfer, shows us a place at the Mercado where we have a delicious breakfast, a liter of fruit juice, and bread with sweet potato and onion, and one with avocado, hmmm, and all of this for 4 soles (a little more than 1€).

That's how you can start the day. After that, we stroll around for a couple of hours, look for a tent, waxed strings, and a machete. In the end, we buy a lipstick for a sillier feeling, hehe velochicas go schik ;-)

Back in Huacachina, we meet a couple who have a huge truck and have been on the road for 20 months - wuhu, we get inspired, maybe we'll buy a car after all :-)

Now it's time for the desert tour, equipped with boots and a snowboard, Lobo picks us up with a desert-ready buggy and suddenly we zoom wildly through the desert, it feels like being on a rollercoaster, going up the dunes and really steeply downhill, we're a little scared and there's also a mega adrenaline rush!

We stop on a huge dune, walk a bit further up, and then take a snowboard ride down - it feels really awesome, you can make turns and I even do a jump over a crest, yeehawww!

We run down a dune like crazy, do long jumps, and there's a beautiful sunset in the desert! Wow, traveling is definitely never boring!

Back in the oasis, we have a hamburger on the street, a beer, and we sneak back into the dormitory!

Next morning, we head to the bus station in Ica, and our journey continues to Nasca, further south...

Nasca, Peru

One of the driest places in the world, only one hour of rain per year! It's so hot that we're moving quite slowly.

Here, it's all about the Nasca lines, which are lines and symbols in the desert that extend over several square kilometers and were built by an ancient culture. However, it is not clear how these images were made in the sand. In the evening, we learn at a planetarium that we visit that it is apparently fully connected to astronomy and the lines are aligned with the sun, the moon, and the stars. It is suspected that there were countless rituals and dances dedicated to these, especially to rain. The trip to the planetarium was really spectacular, the old gentleman who gave the tour was very enthusiastic, showed us various constellations, including Iris's zodiac sign, the scorpion, which can be seen quite well here! We also had the opportunity to look through a telescope and hey, for the first time in our lives, we saw the moon so clearly and beautifully that it became an unforgettable moment! From now on, we see the moon with different eyes.

Today, we're going to visit the aqueducts and an ancient city of the Nasca culture here in the area. But first, we'll take a breakfast tour. Fruits from the market, a take-away coffee, and empanadas with cheese and apple filling - oh man, food really plays a big role for us. So, we pack our backpacks, store them in the hotel, and off we go to a little piece of luxury. A cappuccino in one of those touristy places, but with internet access! It's time to write a blog and chat! We're really having a blast together, and a cappuccino can make us really happy.

In the afternoon, our tour starts. We ride with Sheyla, a warm and truly lovely lady, in her little black car to the aqueducts. It is a water system that was built about 2000 years ago. There are huge spiral vertical tunnels that bring the water together, filter it, and ultimately lead it into the city, from both the mountains and a river. It's hard to imagine that this city is still dependent on this water system to this day.

Next, we go to a viewpoint where we can see one of those famous Nasca lines. We receive information about the ceremonies, sacrificial sites, and graves of the Nasca culture that lived here 200 BC. It's really strange that these people created the lines and images (however they did it, it's a great mystery) in the desert and that they are still visible today. Oh, and one woman who plays a major role in the discovery of the Nasca lines is Maria Reiche, who came from Germany. There is quite a lot dedicated to her in this place. She spent 40 years of her life researching the Nasca lines and lived in the desert for 14 years. Most of the time, she measured the lines, uncovered them, and wrote down her research, mind you, in the early 1900s.

So, all in all, the day with Sheyla was really interesting, thank you :-)

Back in the city, we sit on the Placa de Amas and meet two girls from Munich. They said to us, we seem deeply relaxed - wow, personally I haven't heard that very often and it makes us both happy. We go out to eat with the girls. Causa (very delicious), a Chaufa (fried rice), and Tallerin saltado (spaghetti with onions, vegetables, and beef pieces). Mmm, really good, and it's a real change with the two girls.

Now we're already sitting at the bus station and soon we'll continue to Abancay, to a couchsurfer who apparently has a treehouse for us! Yeehawww!