Puerto Inca

We`ve finally left altitude and have hit the west coast of South America and arrived at the Pacific ocean. It was so good to be back at the beach. The sea was freezing - yep colder that the UK! We set up camp right on the beach, just a few metres away from the sea. Spent the whole afternoon playing `girls rules`volleyball, whilst the boys played football. In the evening we had a BBQ and open fire, then the resort opened their disco, which consisted of three lights and a dodgy karaoke machine. The night was remeniscent of the last remaining guests at a bad wedding party! I snuck to bed and fell asleep to the roaring of the ocean, just outside my door - bliss. Sadly we were only stopping here for a night

Huacachina

Our next stop was Huacachina, our base from which did an overnight trip to the desert. We didnt set off until 4.00pm as it would have been too hot. We all boarded dune buggies, which were these bazaar 4x4s complete with ROLL CAGES!! We soon found out why, our driver was nuttier than most. He sped us into the dunes up massive steep hills and down near vertical drops it was so much fun. Every now and again we would stop, get the boards out the back and sandboard down the slopes on our bellies, head first. The dunes got steeper and steeper . Our driver took us to one that none of the other groups did. It was 200m high and so steep, although the sand was so deceptive you couldnt really tell that from the top, probably for the best. We got sand everywhere, the next day it was coming out of my eyes!

We watched the most beautiful sunset over the dunes (By now my camera was jammed with sand, so no photos im afraid - where didnt it get?!!!!) then we literally boarded into camp. We had a BBQ on the dunes and the pisco sours flowed all night. We then decided to go boarding again - this time in the dark and slightly tipsy! Cue much more creative ways of riding the board, including multiple persons and no board at all! Slept in a sleeping bag under the stars. Woke feeling rather bruised.

Paracus

The next day we headed to a small costal town called Paracus. Here we set off on a wildlife boat trip. From the start the boat was dodgy, cutting out at every given opportunity. We were unphased at this point, its what we`ve come to expect from peruvian transport. When we finally got to the Ballestas islands it was worth every faulter. We saw thousands of birds, pellicans and penguins and loads of sealions. They we`re amazing. The sealions were lazing around on the rocks, they looked so cute and made the most bizaarly human noises, some of them followed the boat, it was so amazing to see them in their natural habitat. On the way back the boat ran out of fuel! Yep, in the middle of the ocean. We had to wait for another tourist boat to come and rescue us, crashing into us on its approach! Id never been so relieved to be back on dry land. Next stop Lima x