Day 3 - Paracas to Huacachina

No matter how much you did today, we did way more, including going miles out into the ocean to a marine preserve to see penguins, endangered birds, and sea lions, all before our first cup of coffee. Then a desert, a long drive to a crash course in making pisco (and drinking pisco) then another long drive through holiday traffic while sleeping off the pisco to a second desert with enormous sand dunes and an oasis. The best part of today is that we don’t have to get up for anything tomorrow morning, so please don’t call before 10.

Our day started well before 7 am when we hopped on a boat and rode out to the Bellestas islands to see a variety of endangered and non-endangered wildlife. These Humboldt Penguins, which are a “vulnerable” species, only exist off the western coast of South America, are apparently terrific swimmers but they are ridiculous walkers. I’m sure they have a lot to be proud of but, not judging here, it’s hard to respect them once you’ve seen them walking single file down a rocky slope looking like a bunch of slightly drunk high school students trying to look sober.

Then the sea lions, where 2 or 3 big bullies fight each other for dominance on one small rock while hundreds of little cormorants watch from the rocks above, entertained by the drama but always ready to fly away just in case the sea lions come to an agreement and decide to eat birds for breakfast, similar to what is happening in our current politics.

Then a trip to the first desert of the day, where the sand meets the sea but not in the way you typically see sand meeting sea. We are told that this is the only place in the world that has desert, sea and penguins all in the same place. True? I have no idea.

Skipping for a moment the pisco fermentation class, we then hit Huacachina, the land of enormous sand dunes with an oasis in the middle. Our little group of 5 decided to walk up to the top of one, but in the end I was the only person who wanted to keep going so we stopped part way up and then sat in the sand to watch the sun set. 

This is the oasis, which our hotel room overlooks. 

As the temperature dropped, the wind picked up significantly to the point where I felt like I was an extra in Lawrence of Arabia and the sand pummeled us to the point where despite taking a shower I am still pulling sand out of my hair, teeth and other places I don’t feel the need to specify.