11:30 PM:

...too tired to write today. But the entire day was so awesome; I have to tell this story to someone again, and hence writing out of borrowed energy from next weekJ.

Had to wake up very early in the morning which I really hated at that time, came out to be the best decision of the day. I hired a car and took the Pan-American Highway towards south. Around 250 Kilometres of non-stop drive along the Pacific coast was taking me to Paracas, my first destination for today. The drive was real boring till the sunrise as this entire coast is always covered in the coastal fog called as 'Garúa'. Visibility is very little and it was feeling very depressing. Even after sunrise it took lot of time for the fog to clear out. I arrived in Paracas at around 7:30. I just had time to freshen up and get ready for the boat excursion. The Ballestas Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean, little off the coast of Paracas was the first point of interest here. Now, little about the islands: "The Ballestas Islands form an important wildlife reserve, with over 160 species of marine birds, including Humboldt penguins, cormorants, boobies, pelicans and, occasionally condors. There is also animal life, including sea lions, seals, dolphins and whales." There are two excursion trips daily, one at 8:00 AM which I took and another at 10:00 AM. We had a kind of speed boat which accommodated around 20 people. Going towards west, off the coast of Paracas town, we passed a Peruvian naval base where they have some warships and submarines too. Later we turned towards south to view the mysterious geoglyph of Paracas, 'El Candelabro' Similar to Nasca lines, this geoglyph is carved in the rock, humungous in size and is still a mystery. After that further towards west, we got the first view of the islands, with multiple natural bridges and caves. Going closer, we saw all the birds listed above and Sea Lions too. We were not that lucky to see any Dolphins or Whales, but overall we had better luck to see maximum of the life there. This tour lasted for around an hour, taking full round of the islands and few under-the bridge detours.

We came back to Paracas at around 10:45. From there, I went to the Paracas National Reserve which is just few kilometres away from the town, to see the museum of Paracas culture (pre-Columbian extinct ethnic group) and some fossilized sea life and rock formations. A local guide accompanied me. This complete area is dry and a coastal desert. Most part looks like the surface of mars, due to Iron rich red soil and zero vegetation. The Museum was OK, and we could find some fossils as well, in the vast desert around. Then we went to the coastal cliffs of the reserve to see the spectacular 'El Cathedral' rock formation in the Pacific. Almost spent an hour or so in that area and came back to Paracas for lunch. The hotel I chose in Paracas was the best rated on many travel-advising websites for the excellent location and delicious food. And it came out to be just as expected. They had huge swimming pool just besides the beach, facing west, and a restaurant just next to the pool. What a location!! Got some thousand dollar pictures there... (Sunset with that location would have been a million dollar pic, but did not have that much time). Had food and chillaxed a little just to get ready for the next plans.

From there, at one hour drive, was the city of Ica. This drive was awesome; the highway passes though some spectacular sand dunes. First time I saw the desert this beautiful!! On the way, visited a winery which produces the Peruvian national drink 'Pisco', named after nearby town. From there, I entered in the city of Ica, the capital of the Ica province. My next destination, the Oasis of Huacachina was just outside the town of Ica towards west. Driving towards west, after passing a huge dune, this spectacular oasis appeared out of nowhere. A small pond of water surrounded by hundreds of palm trees, contrasting with the monstrous sand dunes around. Very unique place. This area of Peru has the highest sand dunes in the world and is also famous for the Dune buggy ride and sand-boarding. I spent some time in the town to just get the feel of how all these things work and to my surprise, I found that there were no professional boards that the local buggy/boarding tour operators were offering. What they had were just wooden boards with two elastic straps and I came to know that most of the tourists prefer lying down on the board and go down the dune instead of standing on it and 'boarding' down. It was a shock for me and so was for another European co-travellers group whom I met there. But after some research in the local market, we together found out one vendor who had the professional boards with required shoes and stuff, negotiated with him and finally got what we wanted. At around 4:00 pm, we started with this unique dune buggy ride which took us deeper in that desert and to higher and higher dunes. After an absolutely thrilling ride on the slopes as steep as 70% grade (34 degrees of standard sand dune angle) at one spot the driver stopped. We had three dunes in front. We got down there, and driver went with the buggy to the base of the third dune. We 'boarded' down the first, climbed the second, boarded down that one, and then third. That was awesome!! All my snowboarding skills (little that I have) came to my help here and I loved this experience! We reached to our buggy and came to know that this was practice or demo(!!??) and real fun is ahead. The next dunes were 10 times higher and we boarded till we were totally exhausted. Now I could see why people prefer lying down on the board and then slide down the slope... Unlike snowboarding, sand-boarding required more energy and water from your body, making it more exhaustive. And the dry-hot climate adds to it. Finally just two were 'still standing on the board' me and one German girl. She was very sweet and really good at sand-boarding, though she was a skier and not a snowboarder. After Sunset, we came back to the town again in the thrilling buggy ride and I started back towards Lima.

What a day... What A DAY!!! Everything was perfectly as planned, not even a minute delay throughout the trip, amazing unique experiences, visited fantastic locations, had nice food, met lovely people, everything just so perfect! ...but so tiring. Yesterday I did not have time to talk to my roommate but today we talked a little, came to know that she's European and have come here to experience Peru all by herself. But she had much more time than I did. Cute girl and courageous I must say.

Tomorrow is kind of 'take it easy' day for me. I'll be covering multiple places in the Lima city. I have promised Leo (the family with whom I'm staying) that I'll have breakfast with them. And actually I want to spend some time with them tomorrow. That was the main purpose of staying with a family. To get to know how people live, what they think, what they do, how they feel about us the foreigners etc. So much to talk, so much to know... but tomorrow...