Yesterday was a wild ride of adrenaline...!

The day started out in Paracas. A tiny fishing village south of Lima. And there isn't much to do here... Especially when the weather is not great and it wasn't yesterday. We were here for the Ballastas Islands. Also know as the "poor mans Galapogas islands". We went out on the first boot and after 2 minutes we stopped and the guide pointed to the front of the boot and said dolphins! There were loads of them, happily swimming around the boat. One even had a baby dolphin with her! The bar had been set high. We continued on to a place where some local fishermen were working. Their nets were out in a giant circle. And there were birds, millions of birds, lined up around the circle. Sat just outside of the nets, not inside.

Every now and then one would fly away and set off a domino effect which was amazing to see! And then a cheeky seal jumped over the nets, into the circle and disappeared underwater. Moments later coming back up to the surface and jumping back out of the net. Heading along the coast a bit we saw something that resembled the Nazca lines, a candelabra, engraved into the rock. Apparently this one is much younger than the Nazca lines and engraved much deeper. We then left the shore to head to the islands. There we were greeted by a group of hombolt penguins waddling their way along the cliff top. And there were more birds, hundreds of thousands of birds if not millions! And more seals, laying on the rocks.

And crabs and starfish and vultures! Sooo many animals! I have never been to the Galapogas islands so I can't compare, but this was beautiful!

From Paracas we headed to Huacachina.

An oasis in the desert surrounded by the largest sand dunes in South America. And these things were huge! If I had to guess I'd say 500m tall. We were here for the dune buggy tour and sand boarding. We had a crazy driver! It was like a rollercoaster, except you never knew what was coming next. He would accelerate full throttle towards nothingness, with this calm, poker face expression on his face. And then we'd drop over the edge of a dune and all of us would scream. And laugh! He repeated this over and over. Making sharp handbrake turn corners in the sand until we got to the top of the dune we'd be boarding down.

Out came the boards and wax and he briefly explained (in Spanish) how it worked. The first dune we had to lay on our tummies and he gave me a brief push and down i went. Sand flying into my face. About half way down my sunglasses went flying off! It was great! Next dune we could choose, tummy or sitting. The third dune we could even stand. We then went back up for another round. By this point some of the boys were (trying) to show off! And most of them failed miserably! Resulting in much laughter from us!

By this point the sun was close to setting so we headed up to one of the higher dunes for a good vantage point... Watching the sunset over the dunes was beautiful. It was so peaceful. Just watching the sun fall behind the huge dunes.

I could have stayed here all night... But we had to go back down to the village. The driver asked do you want slow or fast? A couple of the girls said slow but the rest of us screamed fast. In the end I don't think it mattered. The driver had no intention of driving slow and sensibly. What followed was a long, rollercoaster ride, for most of which I was not in contact with my seat. We got flung left and right and up out of our seats! The girl next to me had her eyes close and was holding on for dear life. I don't think I've ever screamed and laughed so much! So much adrenaline and just when we thought it was all over and we were safely back in town, he accelerated hard, roaring through the streets back to the hostel. I can highly recommend this place! It is not something I will be forgetting any time soon...

photos will follow later as it's taking ages to upload!!