to and from Ica and Pisco, Peru

First some notes i have made and some strange things i´ve noticed...
pachamama - this is quite big deal in cusco area.. whenever you start to drink alcohol you pour some to the ground for Pachamama :) she is the land gooddess and likes sacrifices (or just alcohol :))
rice and french fries - many many dishes are served with both rice and potatoes.. i don´t think i´ve ever eaten those two together
peeled tomatoes - whenever there are tomatoes.. either on a sandwich or in a salad... they are always peeled
loudspeaker on a mobile - most people talk to the mobile with the loudspeaker on.. but they still hold the phone next to their ear... odd :)
traffic - there are exactly that many lanes on a road as many cars fit next to each other :) .. so when there are trucks there might be only 2 lanes on a road.. when we talk about the little yellow cabs then perhaps 5 or even 6 lanes are formed.. quite practical?

ok.. now back to my trip.. i managed to kill my time in Arequipa just fine.. walked around town and managed to find the huuuge market place.. it was juuust huuuge... and quite clean to my surprise. then i went back to the hotel and packed and showered. took a taxi to the bus station. bus left at 19:30.. long distance buses here are nice and comfortable and we were served one of those airplane hot dinners... there were no incidents with the bus ride and i was woken up at 5:30 in the morning as we had arrived to Ica.

i got off the bus.. it was cold dark and misty outside... nobody spoke english.. i picked out a hostel from the travel guide and pointed that to the taxi driver.. he was trying to get me to stay at the sand dunes as it is nicer there, but i tried to explain him that i´m not staying for that long and i will leave to Pisco today. so he took me to the hostel i pointed out to him... and that was one bad bad pick :) the hostel was disgusting :) i tried to sleep for 3 more hours and then headed over to the central square. my aim was to go to sandboarding as early as possible to head over to Pisco as soon as possible.

Ica is quite boring little town. there was some parade and very formal one for that matter going on.. seemed like some sporting event with lots of officials but when i asked then they referred to the university something.. oh well.. but still the town... not very interesting one. i was at the tour office 9:30 and i was booked for sandboarding at 10:30 :) i went to look around meanwhile and had a cup of tea at a local cafeteria.

at 10:50 we finnaly left the tour office... took a minivan to Huacachina, picked up some more people who were going for a drive in the dunes and headed over to the actual dunes. others went to their driving and i headed over to the sand mountains with my guide... oh wow. it was soo neat! i loved it. it was soo difficult to climb up there but coming down was soo much fun. first time was just a practice and i was sitting on the board. notice that i´ve never done any snowboarding. second time was still sitting down and then i tried to stand up as well.. and i managed just fine. i´m ready for snowboarding now :) in the sand it is a lot slower though so i´m sure i won´t be doing very well on the snow at first.

about the sand dunes.. they are all natural as well as the oasis in the middle.. there used to be 6 of this kind of dunes and oasis.. but the others are destroyed and that is the only one left :(

ok.. but yes the sandboarding was tons of fun... i just wish there would have been something to take me up there. and i gotta mention that i was at the small hill.. on the other side was the big one... i took more than 30 minutes to climb this one.. and i did not even go there of course.. it was way steeper as well. and of course i was all covered in sand... i mean there was sand everywhere.. even my back pockets of my jeans had about half a cup of sand in them :) .. ou that was fun.

so once back from the sandboarding i just went and got my bag.. tried to clean the sand off and went to check the bus to Pisco. i took the local bus as this is the only one that goes into the city center.. others drop you off at the highway. it cost only 3 sol and it took a bit over an hour ´cause it was stopping every now and then dropping people off. on the way i saw the desert... never seen anything like this before... sand hills everywhere and people living in small huts in the middle there. crazy :)

once in pisco i got dragged into a hotel by one of the locals from the bus.. it was decent so i agreed to stay there... went to town to eat and also booked tomorrow´s day tour to Ballestas Island and Paracas National Reserve, tomorrow is 16th. it will be from 7 in the morning to 4 in the evening. around 6 in the evening i´ll take a bus to Lima... it is 3,5h ride... and then i´ll meet Maria in the evening :) i´m flying out of Lima the day after... very late in the evening (half past midnight) on the 17th.... will arrive to Tallinn on the 19th... geeshh.. that will be 2 days of flights and airports.. i hope i will survive this :)

town of Pisco is pretty much as boring as Ica was... there is nothing here to do.. there is a beach some 8 blocks away though but i was advised not to leave the main square area as it is dangerous there.. i don´t believe that it is that dangerous, but i won´t try my luck either :)

i´m not sure if i will be coming to internet before i leave.. if not then see you at the end of the week!!!