oasis

Hey, readers!

Wunderteam versiòn 2 (Me, Judith, Lena and Alex)
or, alternately, El rey y sus 3 alemanas (this is what they dubbed me in Pisco)

has now made it to earthquake-ravaged Pisco (a 7 point something quake hit it hard in August and they`re still rebuilding). Around Pisco, we went to the Islas Ballestas, these giant rocky islands covered with sea lions, penguins, seagulls, and loads and loads of birds. The whole island is dyed white from the bird crap (called guano, incidentally, a highly valuable early export for Peru).

We also made it out to some Inca/Wani ruins called Puchacamac. It is currently inhabited by French tourists.

We then took a long bus ride over to Ica and from Ica took a taxi to an oasis called Huacachina, stuck in between giant sand dunes on all sides. It`s a small green area with a little lake, palm trees, a handful of taxis, every second building is a hostal (varying in levels of sketchiness but all with a pool for some reason). From the town you can get a ride on a dune buggy that will take you far out into the dunes and then go sandboarding down gigantic and unforgiving sandy hills. This is exactly how we spent yesterday. Yesterday night we worked on getting sand out of all those body parts we never knew we had and then got some pisco sours and so-so food. Anything with palta (avocado) is good for me (mayonnaise cancels it out though).

GUERRA DEL PACÌFICO
Being in Peru is funny because everything I thought was typical of Chile is also typical of Peru. Pisco sours, alpaca socks, etc... Peruvians hate Chileans. It`s funny. All of the clothing stores here are Chilean, all the fashion models, etc.

Tomorrow, we`ll take a night bus to Arequipa, then we`ll go on the Lake Titicaca and later Machu Picchu via Puno and Cuzco, respectively. It`s nice indulging the travel bug and it will also be nice to get back home to Argentina, where nobody calls me ¨mìster¨ or tries to give me fake bills.

Saludos desde el oasis,
Charly Mochilero