About a week ago we went on our second, and last (sad day), school planned trip. We went to Ica, Peru for 3 days/2 nights. Although this wasn’t enough time to really see the city of Ica, I did participate in some of the activities offered through our resort. Yes, I said resort! Las Dunas was it’s name and it was amazing!
 |
| Our resort! |
To travel to Ica, we took a bus through the company Cruz del Sur. It was about a five hour bus ride and for those of you that know how I am in a long car ride, it was most definitely the worst part of the whole trip! When we arrived we were greeted with many smiling faces and a beautiful place that we would call home for the next 3 days. Getting acquainted with our surroundings, we found many things that we wanted to do all at once! First we checked out our room and it was spectacular. I was in a room with two other girls, Amy and Ashley, and we each had our own twin size bed. We also had a very large bathroom area as well as a balcony and a mini-fridge. While we explored, we found: 3 swimming pools (yes 3, and one even had a slide!), a spa, numerous basketball/soccer/tennis courts, a skateboarding rink, a playground complete with a trampoline, and the activity areas. First thing we did was take a dip in the pool then head to the Sand Buggies!
 |
| One of the three pools |
 |
| Slide! |
Sand buggies are similar to go karts, only in the sand and you don’t race anyone. Don’t be fooled when I say that we didn’t race. We were flying through the sand dunes! We would go up and over a dune and have a long vertical ride to the bottom as well as gain speed and go sideways along a dune. At one point I snuck a glance at the speedometer and we were going over 100 km/h! It was an adrenaline rush! In the middle of our time, our driver stopped at the top of a dune so that we could take pictures and do a little sand boarding! Obviously we are not pros, so we used the board as more of a sled down the dune. When we returned to the hotel we could feel sand stuck to our faces, as well as in our teeth (we had to scream while we were on our sand rollercoaster!!) but it was well worth it!
 |
| We stopped in the middle of our ride to take some pictures |
 |
| Steph sand boarding down the dune. We did more of a sledding thing... |
The next morning we drove about an hour away to the town of Paracas, where we took a boat tour to “Las Islas Ballestas.” These were islands filled with seals, birds, and penguins. After being on the boat for about two hours, seasickness began kicking in and on the way back to shore a large number of our group drifted off into their own little worlds for a bit. When we got back to our resort I was pumped! Why may you ask?! I got to ride a horse for the first time in my life! The gentlemen running the horse activity gave me a supposedly calm horse since I have never ridden a horse before. His name: “Tornado.” Does that sound like a name for a calm horse? I sure don’t think so… Everyone told me that since I had never ridden a horse before I should only walk with my horse and take it easy. That was a nice theory, but once we reached the sand dunes Tornado knew it was his time to run. Instead of trying to slow him down, I let him go! That is until the guide told us we needed to slow down. I had never been on a horse before that day, but I can’t wait until I am able to get on another one!
 |
| On the boat! |
 |
| The seals swimming... There were hundreds of them! |
 |
| My first time on a horse! |
The day that we left, we made a quick excursion to Huaca China, a natural lagoon about two miles away from our resort. While we were there, we rented paddleboats and went out onto the lagoon. I can officially say that I should not be in a paddling contest, but thanks to Marshall we made it back to port safely!
 |
| HuacaChina |
 |
| Amy and I attempting to row... :) |
When I returned to the resort, I went to the Spa for my massage. It was a nice massage, but I had always expected my first professional massage to be much better than that. Good thing I only spent about $14 on it! I was sad to leave the resort but of course it’s back to real life, or at least as real as it gets for me right now!
No comments:
Post a Comment