...after back to back treks. I was ready for a relaxing day in Cuzco before moving on to the dessert with Justin. I was envisioning reading my book on the sun and a quiet night in before a long bus ride the next day...yeah that didn't happen. The power went out at the hostel and we all took this as an excuse to start drinking cocktails. Then I left to go up the road to Loki to meet Brent (the Aussie from La Paz and Sucre) to have a catch up and a few beers. More then a few beers were had and i don't know how it happened but I woke up the next morning horribly hungover and frantically trying to pack before check out (cursing myself for buying so many alpaca sweaters!). I flopped myself on the 2pm bus to Ica and prepped myself for a long 17 hours. The bus was the nicest I've been on, but even full cama and a personal movie screen couldn't numb my pain. Also a stunning but very winding journey resulted in running to the loo to be sick (I'm gonna go with motion sickness as the reason) and texting my mother saying I needed her! I got to a cloudy Huacachina at 7am and collapsed for a for a few hours of peace before Justin's bus arrived.
Once Justin arrived, we meet an English girl in our dorm and laid in hammocks till our sand boarding tour in the afternoon. Got on the dune buggy and Amy and I screamed all through the dunes. Then we started sand boarding, and shocker Justin was the best and fastest at it!! I kind if more flopped down the dunes. That night we planned on a big night out at the local bar, but then we had 3 cocktails at happy hour that were so strong your hair stood up, Amy went to bed at 7pm and I fell asleep on the couch at hostel after the BBQ. Justin was shaking his head at the stamina of his friends. The next day we conserved out energy to hike up the giant sand dune behind the hostel to watch the sunset. Once again, tired and out of breath with Justin racing ahead of me I made it the top. But it was all worth it to watch the sun go down and then skip down the dunes like 5 year olds. The rest of the evening involved playing cards and having a quite one with the hostels dog Toothy (see picture to understand name). Justin and I got up the next morning and squeezed onto a bus to Lima. Arriving in the afternoon I dropped my bags at his hostel and then we went to go check out the lovely neighbourhoods of Barranco and Miraflores. We did all my final things, final ceviche, final afternoon beer in sun, final souvenir shopping, and final sunset with pisco sour. The little of Lima I saw was lovely and I wish I had a few more days there, then again I wish I had a few more months. That night I said goodbye to Justin and South America and got on the plane back home.
Now I'm sitting on a train back in a sweltering 100F LA going to get my car from my cousins thinking about my trip. I knew it would be good but I hadn't realised how many amazing things I really would do and all the beautiful moments and scenes I would witness. And as always what makes these trips so magical are the people you meet along the way, their stories, the experiences you share together, and the honesty that comes out with people you will meet for a few hours or a few weeks. Their are people that your only meant to meet for a moment and friends like Phillipa that will be there for a lifetime, and then a few of these you will be lucky enough to stay friends with for years to come, even if it takes that long to see them again. I never feel more like I'm living my life the way I should when I'm travelling, that if you only have one life you should see as much of this amazing world while you can and all the amazing people and places in it. And now that I'm back I'm gonna do just that by visiting my family, friends, and my dog.