Last Updated on January 24, 2024 by Tori Pines
Buenas Noches de Perú! My sister Ally and I are in Peru for 10 days, exploring the landscapes, eating delicious food and learning about the incredible history. Today we crossed off a few new bucket list items of mine. We will be sandboarding in Huacachina and seeing wild penguins in Paracas!! Follow along on my Peru Travel Journal to hear all about our wild adventures.
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Peru Hop Tour: Paracas and Sandboarding in Huacachina
Today we had the most adventurous and exciting day. We booked a full day tour through Peru Hop to take us from Lima to Paracas, then to Huacachina and back to Lima. It was a total of 18 hours for the tour. They picked us up at 5:45am from our hotel, The JW Marriott Lima, and dropped us off at about 11:30pm. The tour cost $130 per person and included everything except for food.
A quick note about Peru Hop. Based on the one tour we took with them, I would highly recommend using them for any tours and transportation around Peru. They were extremely punctual, organized, friendly, and fun. They offer day tours like this, multi day tours and they also offer just strictly transportation around the country. Whether you want to go sandboarding in Huacachina like us, or do a 2 night Lake Titicaca experience from Cusco, book Peru Hop for any tour you’re interested in as I am confident they will be amazing.
We were lucky enough to have Diego as our guide for the day and he was THE BEST!!! He was so sweet and funny and took such good care of our group the whole day. Thanks Diego!!
Paracas
The bus ride was very comfortable as it was a luxury style bus with reclining seats and air conditioning. Honestly, way more comfortable than an airplane! There are about 40 people in the group which sounds like a lot but we liked it. We felt safe in the group, we got to meet a lot of different people and we broke up into smaller groups for activities. The drive was about 4 hours to Paracas. It’s a cute seaside village where we grabbed coffee and some super flavorful empanadas for breakfast.
After a short break, we walked a few minutes to the port with the group. That’s where we hopped on a speedboat for our tour of the Ballestas Islands for 2 hours. The boat ride was relaxing and the views were beautiful. The water was a bright turquoise color and the land around us was desert, it was super unique! We even saw one of the carvings like the famous Nazca Lines. It is believed to be the start of the Lines and potentially dates back up to 2,000 years ago!
Pro Tip! If you do a boat tour of the Ballestas Islands, be sure to sit on the left side of the boat for the best views!
Ballestas Islands
But the Ballestas Islands were the real gem. We circled the island for a long time admiring the wild penguins, sea lions and various birds. The island itself was beautiful with caves and arches. I was so excited to see the penguins and there were so so many! They were little and adorable. This was the first time I have ever seen wild penguins!
After the island we got to see a shipwrecked boat where male sea lions like to sunbathe. There were tons, they were huge and we got so close to them, you would even see their whiskers. It was really special.
Lunch in Paracas
After 2 hours we got off the boat and headed to lunch. The tour guide had given us menus for a restaurant on the bus earlier and let us order in advance if we wanted to.
We were so glad we did because the food was fast and so incredible! It was very traditional Peruvian food with lots of flavor. One of the dishes we tried was Aji de Gallina, loosely translated to Creamy Chicken, is one of Peru’s best dishes. The server, Ruben, was so sweet and just wanted to talk to us about American football. It was a fun lunch and we love getting to meet the locals. Shoutout to Ruben for being so awesome!!
Sandboarding in Huacachina
We hopped back on the tour bus for our hour ride to Huacachina. It’s an oasis in the middle of the Sechura Desert. It’s beautiful and unique and better than I had dreamed of. The Sechura is the driest (non polar) place on earth, it sees less rain than the Sahara!
We got to do a dune buggy and sandboarding in Huacachina tour. It lasted about 3 hours, the desert was huge and our driver Arturo drove us around, up and down the dunes like a crazy person! It was so exhilarating and a little terrifying and a ton of fun. We legitimately caught air several times. It was a blast.
In the middle we stopped for the sandboarding. We got to do five huge sand dunes and it was so scary at first (I actually was convinced I would not be taking part when I saw how steep the first hill was). They turned out to be really easy and safe and an absolute blast. We ended the tour with a lookout over the dunes for sunset and it put the perfect ending to an amazing day.
Follow me on Instagram to see more of my photos and videos from the sandboarding in Huacachina and more of the Sechura Desert!
Back to Lima After Sandboarding in Huacachina
Now we are on our 4 hour bus ride back to Lima, scrolling through our thousands of amazing photos, (Seriously we took so many) laughing about the memories from the day. We of course called mom and dad to tell them about all the wild adventures sandboarding in Huacachina, and are trying to nap as much as we can, as we are exhausted. It was a perfect day, I could not have asked for more!
Goodnight! See you tomorrow back in Lima! Read about our Lima Cooking Class in my Peru Travel Journal Day 3 for more adventures through this incredible country!
