A relaxed Peruvian start

We came here for treks but Peruvian stories begin with an overnight flight from New York, a nap in a cute b&b in Lima before a 3 hours bus tour southwards, direction Paracas, for the first ceviche and Pisco sour of the trip, by the beach.

An early morning boat visit around the Ballestas islands is the occasion to accept the "guano" challenge: avoid being hit on your head by the bombs released by the thousands of birds living there in peaceful cohabitation with the sea lions.

Next is the oasis of Huacachina, to relax, enjoy the desert, get into a buggie to climb those mega dunes and descend with a sandboard.

The best in Huacachina - we are told - is the aperitif at sundown and backpackers parties.

But by that time we are already on a bus to the next destination.

Next destination being Nasca, home to the pre-inca (or alien, who knows?) lines in the desert, some hundred metres long, in amazing shapes (including that of an astronaut) which you can best admire flying in a small plane over the desert, around the local chunk of the Carretera Panamericana