So. The Magic Fountain turned out to be a whole park of magic fountains. Awesome. Apparently the whole project cost something like $13 million, funded by the US Embassy and Movistar, a phone company in Latin America. There were about 15 of us who went on the tour organized by our hostel, so we had a decent group of tourists walking around with cameras and getting to know each other: 5 Israelis, a German couple, 2 girls from Belgium (Marilen and Valerie), one girl from Tasmania (Sarah), an Alaskan (we called him Alaska), an Oregonian (Zach), and even a fellow Coloradoan (Lance, from Montrose)! There were a lot of the people at the park, probably about an equal amount of tourists and Peruvians. It cost S/.4 (4 soles, or a little under $2) to get into the park, and we stayed for an hour and a half or so. Definitely worth the money.
One of the highlights was the Children's Fountain, which is a large flat concrete circle punctuated a bunch of small water jets that shoot up at unexpected times. The catch is that children (or in our case, tourists unleashing their inner children) run through the fountain area, from outside in, and try not to get wet in the process. This is where the unpredictability, combined with wet concrete, can produce some pretty entertaining spectacles. Most of us managed to run there and back without getting wet, because you can stand in the middle and you won't get sprayed, but a couple people were the soggy victims of bad timing and slippery flip flops...they were falling down and getting nailed by water, but everyone was giddy and laughing about it.
At the end of our tour around the park, we watched a 15-minute show with some pretty cool light effects and a video projected on the jets of water. Not quite sure how that one worked, but it was pretty neat.
After getting back to the hostel, Lance, Zach, Sarah and I decided we were hungry, so we ventured out for some food. The boys had a short amount of time to catch a bus to Huaraz, so they opted for a quick Burger King feast. Neither Sarah or I were feeling the burgers, but we sat and talked with Lance and Zach while they ate. Once they ran off to the bus terminal, Sarah and I kept walking around looking for some more appetizing food. We ended up wandering down the Pizza Street, which turned into a hilarious competition between all the doormen to get us to come into their restaurant and not their competitors'. Some yelled at us in Spanish, and others proffered some token English phrases like "Ladies, I'm in love wit chu." Ha. We walked all the way down the street laughing and basking in the attention, and then turned around until we found someone who offered us the best deal...a free drink. Sarah and I were both feeling indecisive, so that was as good a motive as any to choose a restaurant. We proceeded to sit there for almost 3 hours, sipping pisco sours and feasting on grilled trout with salad and rice (her choice) and papas a la huancaína, or potatoes in a spicy cream sauce with a hard-boiled egg and olives (the vegetarian's choice). She's a really easy going person and has an awesome accent (Tasmania, duh), so we found it pretty easy to get along, and we talked about a wide range of subjects. We finally decided to call it a night around midnight, when we walked back to our hostel and I crawled into bed for a short sleep.
At 6 the next morning, Carlos picked up Brandee and I and we hopped on a southbound bus to Parácas and Huacachina. Parácas and the surround area were hit hard by an earthquake in 2007 I believe, but since the area is pretty poor, a lot of the buildings haven't been resurrected and people are living in thatched reed huts amongst piles of rubble. It was a sharp contrast to Miraflores, which is a relatively clean and well-to-do area of Lima. On top of that, we had ventured into the desert, so everything was dry and flat, lending to the desolate feeling. In Parácas, we went on a boat tour of the Islas Ballestas, home to sea lions and thousands (maybe millions) of birds, such as pelicans, terns, cormorants, gulls, and Humboldt penguins! It struck me as a kind of Peruvian Galapagos, a strange but interesting environment. Once we got back from the island tour, we sat down at a little oceanfront restaurant for some lunch, where we were visited by an adorable little calico kitty (of course this is important for me...I'm experiencing cat withdrawals, although the park in front of my hostel is home to about 20 of them).
After food, we caught another bus, this one bound for Ica. Brandee parted ways with us there, as she was continuing on to Nasca for the night before setting off for Chile the following day. Carlos and I went to Huacachina next, a desert oasis at the foot of extensive and very unexpected sand dunes. We walked around the laguna there for a bit, waiting to join the next dune buggy and sand boarding tour. Our guide, Marcos, was a very friendly man with sun-darkened skin and a love for the desert. He took our group (me, Carlos, 2 guys from L.A., 2 girls from the Netherlands, and 4 last-minute additions who I suspect were from Chile) on a wild ride around the dunes and encouraged us down some pretty long and steep dunes on our sand boards. The biggest ones we did on our stomachs, but on some of the gentler slopes we tried our hand at standing up, snowboarding style. The velcro straps that held our feet in place weren't the best, so there wasn't much carving to be done, but straightlining the hills was pretty fun. We stayed and played in the dunes in the sunset, and then Marcos brought us back to town. I was really impressed by how far the dunes went. As we drove around, I felt like we were so far from the oasis where we started, but there were miles and miles of dunes we didn't even get close to. I'm not sure how those dunes came to be there, but it's definitely worth looking up.
We had originally planned to visit some wineries in the area as well, since a lot of the wine and pisco made in Perú comes from the Ica area. However, as it was already dark, we eventually decided to leave it for another time, and hopped on a 5ish hour bus ride back to Lima.
Today was more relaxed. I repacked my bags, keeping things with me for hiking and staying at higher elevations in preparation for Huaraz, Cusco, Puno, and Arequipa (an ambitious list that I probably won't complete, but I'll give it my best shot). Carlos has agreed to let me leave my duffel at his house while I travel around, and it's nice not to have to juggle that with my backpack and day pack. After reorganizing my things, we went to see a movie (Real Steel, about boxing robots) in a mall close by. It turned out to be really good, and while it's not what I would've thought to do with the day, it was a good afternoon activity. Tonight at 11, I'm hopping on an overnight bus to Huaraz, in the Cordillera Blanca, home to massive mountains and crystalline lakes. I'll get there around 7 tomorrow morning, at which point I'll head to my hostel and figure out how best to take advantage of my time there. I caved this time and went for the bed bus, where the seats are wider and fully recline, so I can actually get some rest. It's more expensive, yes, but I'll be useless tomorrow if I don't get some decent rest tonight, and I don't want to squander any time when I could be hiking or climbing. I'm really looking forward to leaving the city and getting acquainted with some new mountains, so I want to make the most of it. Here's to a return to altitude!
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