Chiclayo is a large, bustling town, where we found a cheap but nice hotel not far from the bus station. It was conveniently located on a street with plenty of restaurants, shops, and most importantly, right next to a little casino where I won 55 soles on a 1 sol bet at the slots. I can see why these gambling addicts like it so much.
In the morning, we walked down to the huge market in town, wandering around trying to find the famous African medicine, voodoo, witchcraft section. We kept asking, and getting different directions, eventually backtracking a dozen times or so over a few hours before finding a few small stalls with some herbs and bizarre knickknacks. Interesting, but maybe not worth a full visit. Of course, I still managed to have a great time.
The next stop was Lima, but really more as a way to break up the long travel across Peru. We hadn´t really heard too many great things about the huge capital, but figured there must be something there to justify a one day stop over. We found a nice hostel in the modern, touristy section of Miraflores and our two Swiss amigas cooked up a fantastic meat ‘n’ pasta dinner. We went to the old San Franciscan monastery and toured the catacombs there.
We caught a (relatively) short 5 hour bus from Lima to Ica and got a cab over to nearby Huacachina. Huacachina is a tiny town settled around a small oasis among huge sand dunes. We went on a dune buggy/sandboarding tour which may have been the most fun I’ve had on this trip. The dune buggy was like an amazing roller coaster ride, and the sandboarding was incredible. It even made me think about eventually trying to snowboard. Although the better part of sandboarding was going down on the board, lying on your stomach. You got some incredible speed that way.
Next stop: Cuzco!