I arrive in the famous city of nazca at 5am which isn't the best time to arrive anywhere, especially when all they wanna do is sell flights and trips... I get a hostel and the guy is pestering me to sign up for a flight as "it will be too late when you wake" so I pay the $120 for the smallest plane they have and an hour flight... Later I found out that this was $30 to much, robbing b****** I hope his children choke on the food he buys... After a few hours sleep I head out to what turns out to be the biggest waste of money on my trip so far, the nazca lines view points... I paid 80soles about 20 English to stand on a scaffold tower and look into the desert... Now stretch would be proud I climbed the tower but believe me when I say, If you ever in nazca just take the flight...
My flight time was 2pm and I was starving but they say not to eat as a lot people sick on the flights, I kept saying don't be silly I'm always fine on flights, look I jumped out a plane at 12000ft I'm sure il be fine, but no they talked me out of it, let me tell you I'm glad they did... The plane is a 6 seater, 1 pilot, 1guide and 4 tourists and they throw it around like were in a stunt show..!! We go left, right, up, down and I'm sure at one point we do the loop de loop...!! To start with I'm fine but after 15mins it begins, I start to sweat, i turn a pasty white colour (prob normal to you folk) then get the tell tell signs of sickness... We where given sick bags before take off so it's all good but I see the main lines through my camera eye piece with my head in a sick bag... They are amazing and worth every penny (even the extra $30) the views are amazing... After the hour I was glad to be grounded again and back to the hostel to eat dinner and sleep...
I left the next day and got a bus to ica where I had to negotiate with a taxi/tut tut driver for a price to the oasis of huacachina... My spainish must be improving as i managed to get it for a small 4sole (£1 in the real world) the oasis was maybe 8blocks by 3 of small buildings around a man made oasis in the desert... The main and to be fair only attraction was the sand boarding and dune buggies... I found a dirt cheap hostel with a really good atmosphere and paid to do the dune buggy tour that afternoon... This turned out to be the best buzz, we hit the desert in what could be described as a madmax people carrier, the driver was a loonatic, the engine rawed like a dinosaur and I imagine the driver doesn't struggle to get up in the morning to drive through the desert... He throws his buggy up and down the huge sand hills, everyone laughs and screams with excitement, never knowing what each slope will bring as you only see the way down once at the top, he stops for us to sand board at different places, the slopes are steep but by the end of it I kind of get the hang of it...
A few days in, whilst sitting at the poolside in the sun shhhhiiiiinnnnneee, i see a girl from the hostel on her board on her stomach heading face first down the biggest hill in huacachina that also happens to have no slow down point and goes straight into the hostel roof top.!! At about 30-40mph that's exactly what she did... I have no shoes or way of getting to her, I manage to get help from the hostel workers straight away, we carry her out an into an ambulance... She turned out to be ok, I mean she had two black eyes, grazes covering her face and chest but 2-3metres left or right she would have hit solid concrete an prob not have survived... She came back that night, high on medication and a massive smile on her face, fair play because she took it really well... I stayed in huacachina for 7nights which is a long time when most stay 1 or 2 but the people I meet, BBQs we eat and the occasional mornings of sand boarding made the time fly... One morning i was getting a lot of stick as the cctv shows me staggering around at 6am falling from a hammock not once but twice just trying to get in it, I stumble about enter a shower and eventually find my bed... Was a great night though...
All in all I meet some great people here and headed of with a couple of them to Lima but stopping of at the paracas ballastic island for a morning first... The islands are about 30mins of the coast of Peru and have birds, sea lions, seals, penguins on them, there known as the poor mans Galapagos but I prefer bird poo islands... They scrap the bird droppings of the islands rocks once every 5years, they sell 80% to England and France then keep the rest... It's used for fertiliser and is one the biggest incomes to Peru after tourism... It was good to see the different animals and experience the speed boat, getting dropped off on the trans American highway was something I didn't expect... We was too flag down a bus, which was easier than expected but also extremely dangerous... We headed to Lima on a bus 4hours north which only took 5mins to flag down, it was soon to be independence day of Peru but all that can wait for next chapter:
Lima, batman, cusco and the sacred valley...

Peace out much love mick xxx