In the week I had before I had to meet my parents in Ica, Camilo finally asked me to be his girlfriend. If anyone had asked previous to him asking if we were already together, I would have said he was my boyfriend anyways. But we finally made it official after months of flirting and having fun together. So I started to look for somewhere relatively close to Lima (within 10 hours) to go check out before my parents came to Peru. A traveller had told me that he really enjoyed Huanuco. It's 9 hours from Lima and in an area I hadn't been yet, so off I went. I found the cheapest bus I could that left during the day so I could enjoy the changing landscapes as I left the desert of Lima to the mountains of Huanuco. Of course, the bus ended up leaving about 2 hours late, cutting my daylight hours significantly. In the end it too just over 10 hours to get there. The scenery I did get to see was still spectacular nonetheless.
Peru never ceases to amaze me with the variety and beauty of the landscapes it provides. Every 30-60 minutes there can be a drastic change so much so it's like you're in a new country every time. Driving from Ontario to Nova Scotia in 15 hours, generally everything looks the same before you hit Nova Scotia. So I find it pretty fascinating to take a long distance bus during the day here if I'm not going north-south along the coast. Once we left the desert, we hit some beautiful green, mossy, rolling mountains that looked as though they belonged in Ireland (I didn't think to take any pictures at this point). Next we headed up over the mountains passing 4000m+ above sea level. There was snow on the ground and the clouds were so thick I could barely see 3 feet out the window. We then made it to Laguna $@),,6/82&; near Morococha*** where there's any icy blue lake surrounded by yellowy-green mountains. Next we flowed into mountains full of geological striations that had been flipped on their side at some point in their history. To finish off with the colourful sunset we were in planes of green lush fields. The city of Huanuco itself is beautiful with multicoloured houses spattered up the sides of green mountains with red earth poking through.
When our late bus arrived near Huanuco a passenger told me we had only reached an outer suburb of Huanuco and I should wait for the terminal downtown, this made sense, so I listened. As the bus proceeded to drive along the outskirts of the city and come out on the other side, I quickly realized there would be no other stop and I had to go ask the driver what was going on. They let me on the side of the road but luckily I had realized early enough that there were plenty of taxis to take me into the city. Turns out there's not a lot to do in Huanuco. I spent most of the first day wandering around and got dinner with a French couple staying at the hostel. The next day it rained all day and was supposed to again the next day, so I decided to take the night bus back to Lima because I missed Camilo and could see him in Lima. And that's when he actually asked me to be his girlfriend. He took me to the bus station to send me to Ica to see my parents and he finally mustered up the courage to ask me. It was pretty hard to leave him in the bus station after.
Right beside Ica there is a desert oasis called Huacachina. I decided to relax and stay there till my parents arrived. It's a very quiet and relaxed spot, though expensive because its just for tourists. The sand dunes around the oasis are huge. There's also a reserve around the are, so the dunes go for miles in some directions. The first day here I thought it would be fun to climb a dune. I left around 930am hoping to get back down before the sun got too hot. Turns out by 10am the sand is way to damned hot for my poor sensitive feet. I stupidly only wore flip flops, which were completely useless and it was easier to walk bare footed. Going down the dune, I basically burned my feet. Luckily I wasn't the only moron burning their feet, on my way back down some people were just starting to head up.
There's usually some pretty awesome sunsets along the coast, so I figured at night I'd climb a different dune I the direction of the ocean. Apparently the ocean is further than I thought, so I couldn't see it up on the dune, but the sunset was spectacular. The progression from blue to yellow to pink to neon red was gorgeous. And to top it of the red soaked dunes behind me had an almost full moon rising above them, the city and the mountains beyond. I went up again the next night to the highest dune I could find and the sunset was even better, even though the moon was covered by clouds. I got absolutely drenched in sand though. The wind at the top of the dunes blows sand everywhere. I've never been so completely covered in sand. When I got back to the hostel I let my hair down and a lot of sand showered all over me again. But it was worth the views.
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