All in the family

On the way to Nazca

After filling up on tastings and adventurous activities we made our way further south to the town of Nazca. As per usual, we looked up hostels in our trusty Lonely Planet on the bus ride and had a particular one in mind when we got off the bus. Also as per usual there were tons of taxis offering us rides and tour operators trying to sign us up for things or recommend a hostel. We gave them all the cold shoulder and headed to the hostel we had in mind. It turns out one of the guys hassling us works along with his cousin and numerous hostels in town, so once we got close to the hostel he sent his cousin to convince us to go where they recommended. We kept up the cold shoulder until we realized they meant the same hostel we were headed to. We laughed it off and had him take us on a tour of the place and help us get set up. During the whole explanation we heard we got kitchen privileges, but this turned out to be a misunderstanding. After cooking popcorn and buying eggs for breakfast we found out the kitchen was for making tea and coffee only (the señora didn't like other people in her kitchen). Needless to say Liz wrapped each of the eight eggs in their own plastic bag and we carefully carried them all the way to Arequipa.

Mirror headboard? 

Stairway in our hostel

Happy pisco sour

Most of our time in Nazca was spent relaxing (again) and walking around the town. Usually people only spend one or two nights at most because they book a few tours then get on their merry little way. But Liz and I soaked up the surroundings a different way- we went to numerous set lunches (you can get a huge bowl of soup, a whole plate of rice and meat, a piece of cake, and some chicha all for around 10 soles!), searched out many pastelerias, and even did a bit of souvenir shopping.

Terrace on top of our hostel with a view of Nazca

The viewing tower (not ours)

We did end up booking a tour on our last day. This area is known for huge geoglyphs covering the desert that were made between 450 and 600 AD by the Nazca people by removing the top reddish layer of rock and soil to leave the white under ground exposed. There are several theories on why they were created; some say it was to mark water sources, others say the animal carvings were signals to the gods. The most avid researcher of the lines was Maria Reiche, who now has a museum dedicated to her in the area. They left her one-room house at the museum site set up just as she left it, with drawings strewn about, a dusty old bed, and her slippers waiting to be put on. After muling it over for numerous days and being asked consistently by the same tour operator we gave in. We knew we wanted to see the Nazca lines, but didn't know how we wanted to experience them and Kyra was skeptical about how much they were charging for a tour.

Notice the lines over the bird figure and the tire tracks to the right (not our picture)

Huge hands we were able to see from the tower (nada) 

We ended up not regretting the tour one bit! We had a great tour guide named Orlando, who had a wealth of knowledge about the history and theories behind the Nazca lines. He took us to three different sites: a natural hill to view the lines, a tower built by Maria Reiche to view the lines and figures, and the museum where Maria lived. He would make us stand in certain spots to see the continuous straight lines heading towards the mountains or to the sea. He showed us football field-esque areas that were cleared for sacrifices to the gods. He told us how disappointed he was that some of the lines have been ruined by car tracks before it became a protected site in 1994. The Panamerican Highway actually runs right through the large lizard figure, cutting of its tail and arm. While at the museum, Liz and I became surrounded by grade school kids saying "Hello" and "How are you?", but too shy to say much more. We actually ended up having quite a good conversation with one girl about Hannah Montana and Justin Beiber. As Orlando drove us back to Nazca we ended up explaining in detail how to search for the best flight deals to the United States and what to see when he got there. He even came in to our hostel and we gave him a demonstration on how to look it all up. It really was a win, win situation.

Various Nazca lines with the highway running through (nope)

Huaca-what?

Cold water pool on the left, pisco heater vessel on the right

Wood fire to heat the pisco

                                 

Pisco aging containers

Still on a quest for actual pisco country, we headed further south to Ica, the primary region for the production of pisco in Peru. After our rest and relaxation, we were ready to be touristy again. We had two goals in and around Ica: pisco tasting and sandboarding. Huacachina is the sandboarding capital of Peru, and is located only a few kilometers outside of Ica. We decided to splurge a little our first night to stay at a hotel that is also a producer of pisco. The hotel is in an old hacienda that boasts a restaurant, pool, shop, zoo, and more. As usual...not all of these things were actually in existence or functioning, but it was an impressive estate nonetheless. When we arrived and checked into our room, we decided to explore a bit. Since we obviously didn't know where we were going and probably looked lost, a friendly staff person decided to show us around. It turns out they don't participate in the full pisco-producing process, just the final steps. The pisco is heated by wood fire, and moves up through some tubing that is submerged in cold water. Then the liquid that emerges in the pool at the other end is stored in ceramic containers for months until it is ready to drink. Well, our little tour guide gave us a taste of the raw stuff, straight out of the heater. It packs a punch! Together we didn't even want to finish a half shot.

Life at the hacienda

The next day, we decided to hire a taxi for 15 soles an hour to tour the nearby bodegas, or wineries. Peru isn't known for its wine, but the picso is produced at the same places. It was fun to learn about the process of producing pisco, and also nice to see both a small, family owned operation as well as a full blown commercial one. If only we had come a few weeks earlier, we would have been able to participate in the grape stomping dance! It was also nice to taste some of the stuff that is actually ready to drink.

Our trusty bodega tour guide

Pisco products!

Grape skins have multiple uses...one of them...to keep the dust down

Storage for aging pisco

Official grape squisher

Large scale operation at Tacama, slightly different from the ceramic jugs

Tacama

Vineyard at Tacama

Our jail cell for the night

After our day of pisco tasting, we headed to Huacachina, thinking we would stay there that night and go sandboarding the next day. Well, when we arrived and checked into our hostel, it was clear to both of us that we weren't going to want to stay there more than one night. It was a bit like a mosquito filled jail cell with gross beds, no toilet paper in the bathroom, and hippie backpacker partiers blasting music next door. So for the evening we decided to get out and explore the sand dunes and the tiny town. Huacachina is a picture perfect oasis (except for the garbage piles) in the midst of miles and miles of sand dunes. It used to be a location for the Peruvian elite, but now it's a spot for backpackers looking to do some sandboarding on the dunes. We had thought we would just rent boards and walk up the dunes, but as we hiked around the dunes at sunset we saw all the sand buggies coming back from the tours and it looked like way to much fun. We hadn't known that all the tours left in the evening, while the temperatures were cooler, otherwise we may have planned differently. That night after grabbing some food, we both fell asleep at about 8 pm. Never in Peru have I had such a bad night's sleep because of mosquitoes. There were no nets provided, but we needed the window open in order to have any air to breathe. So, Kyra woke up looking a bit like a leper, and I spent the night trying to find bug spray in the dark or swatting wildly at my own face.

Mosquito bites :(

Our hostel, being eaten by the sand dunes

View to the outside world

Lake/pond? in Huacachina

Huacachina

Sunset on the dunes

A small group of sandboarders

Our little dune buggy!

The next day, not wanting to hang around until our sandboarding tour in the evening, we went back to Ica and secured a much more comfortable hotel, had some coffee and lunch, and relaxed until we had to head back for the tour. Riding in the little dune buggies is just as fun (if not more) than the actual sandboarding. It's like being on a roller coaster without a track, but sand instead. The tour consisted of dune buggy riding to different dunes, starting with the bunny hill dune to try sandboarding. The boards are just laminated pieces of wood that require a lot of wax to continue sliding on the sand. You can either try to ride it like a snowboard or go down head first on your belly. Kyra was better at the snowboard style, while I opted mostly for the belly ride. Apparently people don't always have a lot of common sense, and Peruvians don't have a lot of rules, because people insisted on standing right at the bottom of the hill as the rest of the group came down. Well, for this reason, Kyra and I tended to go down first in order to avoid the madness. It turned out to be a good idea, since our tour ended up sending someone to the hospital. So, after some fun boarding and riding, and some unnecessary excitement with a flat tire and pretty serious injuries, we headed back to Ica.

Pisco...not actually where pisco is made.

One of many styles of a typical Peruvian woman's hat 

Mototaxi traffic jam!

Once making our way past Lima we were officially on our south coast tour of Peru and on our way to new places. Our first stop was Pisco, which is named after the national liquor that is supposedly produced in the area. However, this is not actually where Pisco is produced. Even if it were, we didn't have much energy for sightseeing after getting to Pisco on the bus from Lima, being dropped on the side of the road, hailing a taxi into town, and finding our hostel.

View of our window, Tambo Colorado hostel, and the town of Pisco

We stayed at a hostel called Tambo Colorado, within walking distance of the main plaza, a grocery store, and running distance from the beach. They had a computer we used to download pictures from our full cameras, a kitchen we used to make black bean burgers and crepes (getting pretty adventurous!), and a comfy, spacious room to attempt yoga. For the next couple of days we took advantage of what the hostel had to offer and tried to relax as much as possible before heading further south.

Outdoor patio and kitchen at the hostel

As our new trusty tour operator (compliments of the hostel) assured us, there isn't actually much to see around Pisco. There is an island off the coast of Paracas (a town near Pisco), called Isla Ballestra, that has similar species to the Galapagos such as sea lions and pelicans. But we figured visiting the poor man's Galapagos in Ecuador was enough island hopping for us. There was an earthquake in 2007 that left a lot of the town in shambles, and on our run to the beach we could still see some of the building crumbles lining the beach front.




Since arriving in Peru we have seen election signs painted and posted everywhere and anywhere. We have seen several caravans of trucks supporting one candidate or another. We were even delayed for a few hours on a bus once because of a Toledo caravan going through a single lane road of a small town. Well, we happened to arrive in Pisco during the presidential elections, and because of this there was a dry  law in effect. No bar or tienda could sell or serve alcohol from Friday until Monday, when the elections were over. So ironically the most popular thing to do in Pisco (buy Pisco and drink it), we couldn't do. So instead we just enjoyed a few days of relaxation before heading south to Ica.

The Road South

Complimentary mirror with the front seat

Veggie meat, rice, beans, verdes, and salad on the bus!

Wanting to get out of Guayaquil as soon as possible, but not feeling particularly motivated to explore more of Ecuador, we went with our original plan from January: going back to the south coast of Peru. After weeks of constant moving, both of us were feeling a little drained and down in the dumps. As fun as it sounds, sometimes traveling is hard work!  We decided to cross the border on the coast, the route we hadn't taken on our way to Ecuador. We caught a bus going from Guayaquil to Máncora, another surfer beach town in northern Peru. This bus was probably one of the nicest we had taken to date. So, although we weren't super excited to get back on a bus, this was more than we had hoped for. Air conditioning, flat screen TV's with chick flicks (vs action movies...I've seen DeathRace II probably 4 times), a nice meal, and a fairly empty bus made for a relaxing trip. We arrived to Máncora relatively late, and took a little moto taxi with another American to our hostel on the beach. It was great to feel the ocean breeze and to get away from the heat of Guayaquil.

Banana fields!

Our bamboo home on the beach

Hostel in Máncora

Peruvian hairless dog 

I think if you asked anyone who travels for long periods of time, they would tell you that eventually it's possible for the novelty to wear off, and for home and family and stability to seem really appealing. We are lucky to be able to take time off from ¨real life¨ to travel and see amazing things, but just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you always want to. Part of traveling with a friend, and of traveling with no return date, is that you never know when that time will come where you just want to go back home. In our case, that time came for Kyra before me. So, although we were in a beautiful beach town, and traveled our way south through Piura, Trujillo, and onto Lima, we spent most of our time exploring our options and figuring out whether we were going to stick together, or whether it was time for us to go separate ways. By the time we reached Lima, we had decided that Kyra would go back home in a few weeks, and I would continue traveling. So, the timing was perfect for us to make our way to Arequipa together, and then to split up: me going to Cuzco, and Kyra heading back to Lima to catch a plane to the US. But until then, we still had a few weeks, and lots of territory to explore!

Guayaquil...two times too many

Marriott of Guayaquil (not our pic)

As we headed back into the city limits of Guayaquil, the nice woman next to me proceeded to remind me how dangerous the city is, and asked where I was staying, and showed me the safest place to carry money (in the waist belt of your spandex pants or tucked in your bra, naturally). So with such a warm welcome it's a wonder we weren't more excited to come back here. But, we did get hooked up with a wonderful hotel room at the Marriott, courtesy of Luke's mom, that helped brighten our day significantly. We welcomed the A/C, big pillows, comfy beds, and hot shower after a long day of travel. Liz and Luke spent their last night out on the town, going to a nice restaurant recommended by the hotel, while I caught up on the TV I've missed with some gummy bears from the hotel snack bar.

Hiding out on the 16th floor, waiting for clothes to dry

The next morning, after saying goodbye to Luke, we hit the breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was a dream come true with scrambled eggs, cereal, coffee, juice, bacon, pancakes, and all varieties of bread. We also took advantage of the free machine laundry, poolside lounge chairs, complimentary shampoo and conditioner, hair dryer, and free computer and wifi use. The only problem came when we realized the check out time was 12pm, and not 3pm as I had thought all along, and we still had clothes in the washer and dryer and hanging out to air dry. The hotel was really nice and accommodating and took pity on a couple of dirty backpackers and let us take all the time we needed. Needless to say we didn't make our way to our next hostel until well into the afternoon.

Dreamkapture...more in our budget (not our pic again)

Arriving at Dreamkapture was a bit of a change from the Marriott, but we probably blended in a little better. By this point traveling constantly was starting to take a toll on us weary travelers and I especially was thinking about heading home soon. We started to talk about our options now that  the rest of our time was wide open. Whatever ended up happening in the future, we both knew we wanted out of Guayaquil and into Peru as fast as possible. So, unsure of just how much time we had left, we made our way back to the land of mangoes, avocado, and maracuya...the land we love.