" Dream. Commit. Succeed. "

We left Arequipa very early in the morning with our Peru Hop bus. We arrived in Juliaca where we took a transfer (all arranged by the company) all the way to Puno and drop off at our hostel. We stayed at Suite Independencia, which is just a few blocks from the main Plaza and the main touristy street. As a lot of places in Peru, there was barely any heating and the rooms were cold. I also skipped shower for a few days in Arequipa and Puno due to the lack of consistent hot water in the shower… ha well.

Our first stop after leaving Huacachina was Ica and the winery El Catador. This was an included short tour and tasting arranged with Peru Hop. My only downside was that the group was too large for my taste, but the tour was short and we got to taste 4-5 different products. Their wines are wayyyy too sweet for me!

As part of the Peru Hop ticket, we had an included stop at the Nazca lines viewing tower. This is basically a massive staircase tower on the side of the main highway where people go up for typically 2min to take photos of 3 of the well-known Nazca lines. Basically, we still are unsure what they were for and how they were made, but you definitely needed to be up high to see and understand the full shape and meaning of it (although they were made way before we could fly). Quite honestly, I’m glad this stop was included in our bus ride and I didn’t have to make special arrangements to get there. It was super short and we can’t really see much from the tower. I heard from other travelers that staying in Nazca one night and taking the flight over the lines was incredible, however there is nothing really to do in Nazca after your 20min flight is over.

We stopped in Nazca quickly to get some food as take out (about 20soles for the dinner, all pre-arranged by Peru Hop) and hit the road again. Usually, this stop includes a proper stop for dinner in Nazca with the group. However, there were some strikes happening recently and farmers were blocking the roads at random hours to protests a massive government investment in mining. Our guide decided that we should make it short and just keep going and try to be in Arequipa early. Turns out we were fine, but a group who left a few hours after us go stranded for 38hrs in total (instead of a 12h trip) as they hit the strike at 2 different locations on the highway. We’ve heard that the president had heard them and was going to post-pone his decision in order to reopen negotiations. Which was good for us and meant we had no bus issue for the rest of our trip! Yay!

Our bus came to pick us up directly at our hostel that morning. We jumped in the bus and drove a few hours until Paracas, where we stopped for lunch and for the first tour of the trip. For 50 soles, we did the 2h boat tour and ride to the Ballestas Islands.

These islands are Peru’s own version of the Galapagos and you will ride around the islands and see tons of wildlife. Be ready for the smell and lots of bird poop falling down on you – I would strongly recommend bringing a small poncho or at least a hat that you can easily wash afterwards. I ended up putting my soft rain shell on as we got to the islands and I’m glad I did, because it would have stained my other layers otherwise.

I have been planning to come back to South America from the second I left back in 2016. Life happened, and turned out this summer was finally my time. After chatting with a few friends, I decided to go for Peru for a total off 23 days. The trip is different this time, because I am travelling both with my mom and a friend, who are both first-timers at backpacking and South America. I built the trip around my friend schedule, who was with us only for the first 10 days. This meant that we had to include Machu Picchu and make our way from Lima to Cusco within that time frame. Read More