Biking, Skiing and Flying in the Desert

Our southern sweep started in the lovely seaside town of Paracas. We Started by hiring mountain bikes and riding through the desert to the Paracas National Park, home to some magnificent stretches of coast.

We also took a boat to the Islas Balletas, which was rich with wildlife from penguins, sealions and birds. In fact there were 150,000 pairs nesting on one part of the island alone. Another example of Peru’s fantastic geography and wildlife.

We were enjoying the rise in sunshine and temperatures and next headed to an oasis in the desert. Huacachina is a proper oasis with palm trees and a lake. Full of day trippers, it turns into a backpacker party place at night.

However, the highlight was taking a sand buggy ride out into the enormous sand dunes and getting a chance to ski down increasingly bigger sand dunes. Combined with a mad driver throwing us around all the steep dunes, and wonderful sunset, it was a real treat, and unexpected too.

Having biked through, and skied down, the desert, we had a chance to then fly over it. Nazca is famous for the ancient, and large, shapes that were created in the desert over 1,300 hundred years ago.

There are geometric shapes and lines over miles and miles, but the most famous shapes include a hummingbird, monkey, spider, tree, dog and monkey. Viewed from a small plane which swoops down to get close-up looks, it is an extraordinary sight.

Having spent a week or so in the desert, having all sorts of fun, it was time to head to perhaps Peru’s most famous city, Cuzco, and all things Inca.