Desert dunes and starry nights

Its hot, humid, dark and silent. The sky is sparkling with stars and below sit the 23 passengers of the Oasis Overland trip, bellies full of Terry´s cook group´s cottage pie. We are all pretty close now as a group, all day every day on the big yellow truck, chatting, sleeping, watching the views go by as the wind blows through our hair, waving at the locals and eating 1 soles (Peruvian currency) ice creams. In Lima we had 8 new people join us making our total to 23, a big mixture of countries and sexes and a great crowd to explore with.

After we left the buzzling capital of Lima we headed south to the Paracas National Park, home to thousands of different wild species such as the flamingo, seas and hundreds of species of birds. The park is completely desert with huge rock formations created by sand and earth. Our first stop was to see the bright pink flamingos, hundreds of them paddling in the water looking for their next feed. It was a beautiful colour contrast agaisnt the colour of the sand and sea.

After this we drove through the desert to the ocean and travelled a bit further into the Paracas to find our bush camp. We parked up at a random stop, Rachel, our tour leader believed to be suitable for us all and before dark we set up our tents over looking the ocean on one side and vast desert on the other. No toilets, no internet, no corner store nothing but sand and our group.

We lit a bonfire and waited for the cook group to serve up a feast using the utensils that the truck stores, gas stove and tables for chopping. The night was spent working out the star constellations and teling each other secrets.

A 6am wake up required a early to bed evening so we snoozed in our joining sleeping bags and slept soundly through the night. The next morning brought amazing sunshine and a gorgeous sun rise over the ocean. Unwashed, messy haired we sat in awe of the earths creations. What a place. I was a little nervous this morning as we were to take a boat trip to the local islands named Ballestas Islands. They call these islands the poor mans Galapagos. I am terrible with boat rides, constantly sea sick so took sea sickness tablets before we left to make sure i was going to puke over the side! The islands were about 30 minutes from the dock and were home to thousands and thousands of different birds, seals and penquins. It was fantastic to see such a plentiful amount of animal life flying over our heads, creating bird lines in the sky and setting up home on the rocks. These islands made me want to make a trip to Galapagos for sure. On the way back we spotted bottlenose dolphins and they came to see us to show off. Great end to a wonderful trip.

For lunch we went to a local Peruvian vineyard and tasted the local alcohol, Pisco. Little did we know that Pisco would feature a lot more in our day!

This day was certainly full on and in the afternoon, with the heat becoming quite intense, we went Dune buggying in the amazing Peruvian desert. Similar to what we did in Namibia, Africa, we jumped in dune buggies and went seriously fast up and down hugemungous sand dunes. We would drive up heights unimaginable to any car and then go straight down a nearly 90 degree angle the other side, plus at about 70mph. Insane! We then sand boarded,lying down, legs out to the sides and then pushed down the steep, steep, STEEP sand dune going at least 60mph! Last time i wiped out hard and practically rolled down the dune but no mishaps this time, only fast action adrenaline and pisco shots at the end of the race. More crazy speed buggying, holding tight to the seat praying we wouldnt full out, turned into our relaxing evening in the desert dunes. We all sat round a huge camp fire, that looked like firework as they used sugar to spark the flames! We were cooked a feast of meat (for the meat eaters) and veggie burgers for us. Then came out the Pisco..shots all round for everyone, plus with coke too..free drinks a plenty all night long. The sandboarding guys just kept fulling the drinks higher and higher until we were all very drunk in the desert! We danced the night away with the band playing the guitar and drums and danced around the fire, we had so much fun. Unfortunately most of my dinner came back up that night but was still an amazing way to end such a great day. We ended up drinking as a group 12 LITRES OF PISCO! We all slept out in the desert, only sleeping bags for protection and i woke up around 5am to see the sunrise with Tel. We climbed a dune and watched it rise, listening to everyone else wake up in the distance. This was truly an epic experience.

Today we drove to Nazca, where the famous Nazca lines are. Symetrical lines in the sand only found 70 years ago when somebody first flew over them. Nobody knows how they got there and why they are there. Also they are so huge and perfectly formed, symetrical in every way that it baffles all how they were made without being able to see over the top..i.e not having planes. Here we are checking out some of the lines you can see from the road side.

We are staying in a fantastic campsite...with a pool! We had a lovely afternoon, tending to our hangovers with some sun and pool time. Its Margeritas birthday tomorrow (our friend on the trip) so i think it might be party time again!