Hopster

Just before we left for the Amazon, Tim and I rearranged our Peru itinerary. Originally, we were planning to head to Cusco after the jungle, but we decided to take a few days and explore southwest Peru before going to the highlands.

Tim, ever the travel researcher, found Peru Hop (www.peruhop.com), a bus company with a hop-on, hop-off system that lets you travel at your own pace. We signed up for a three-day tour on Peru Hop, going from Lima to Paracas to Huacachina to the Nazca Lines and back to Lima. Based on Peru Hop's website photos, we anticipated we'd be both the oldest and the youngest passengers on the bus; we were right.

On Thursday morning, we woke up about 5am in order to be out front of our Miraflores, Lima hotel by 5:50am. Peru Hop had promised to pick us up between 5:50-6:05am. On the elevator ride down to our hotel lobby, Taylor threw up. It wasn't major, but she looked and felt awful. I dragged her through the lobby and outside to the grass area, where she threw up a little more and then recovered. A kind hotel staffer brought out a first aid kit and helped her clean up. Not an ideal way to start the next leg of our trip.

Within minutes, the Peru Hop bus showed up -- and it was packed. We threw our backpacks in the belly of the bus and climbed aboard. Tim and Taylor found seats toward the front; Wyatt and I found seats in the back, directly in front of the bathroom. We picked up a few more passengers, and began driving out of Lima. Shortly, the Peru Hop guide, Claudia, got on the intercom system and explained where we were going and the day's plan. Let me just say Claudia had a lot of energy for 6:30am.

After taking a nap on the bus, Taylor still didn't feel well. She and Wyatt switched seats, so she could be near the bathroom just in case.

Close to 11am, we rolled into Paracas, a beach town popular with backpackers. Paracas is known as an ideal departure point for the Ballestas Islands (sometimes called the “Peruvian Galápagos”) and the enormous Paracas National Reserve, a desert peninsula which acts as a protected area for wildlife and is an important archaeological zone. 

The first Peru Hop activity was a visit to the National Reserve. Taylor wanted to lie down and rest, so she and I stayed behind at the Peru Hop meeting point, which was also -- conveniently -- our hotel. Luckily, we were able to snag an early check-in, so Taylor and I went up to our room while Tim and Wyatt jumped back on the bus for the drive to the reserve.

At the reserve.

Wyatt licking salt from a stone at the reserve.

Just desert -- for miles and miles and miles.

When Tim and Wyatt returned a couple hours later, it was officially HOT outside. The kids wanted to swim in the hotel pool, and we agreed. They swam for more than two hours (!) before we pulled them out to get on with our day. We walked outside of our hotel to a nearby cafe and sat down for cool drinks and free wifi. Wyatt and I got smoothies, Taylor got a juice, and Tim got a beer. But our sitting didn't last long, as Taylor started to feel terrible again. The kids and I headed back to our hotel (Tim opted to stay at the cafe, as he needed to troubleshoot airline tickets on reliable wifi), on up to our teeny, tiny hotel room, and did our best to cool the room down (there was no A/C, but we did get a fan). During this time, I was also in panic mode about the Cusco leg of our trip -- I hadn't purchased tickets to Machu Picchu yet, I hadn't booked hotels, I hadn't confirmed transportation. This Cusco leg was my responsibility, and I was starting to get anxious about bookings.

In our hotel room, I knew the kids were exhausted. They both laid down on the two double beds, and asked to watch soccer on TV. I turned on the TV, found a soccer game, and told them I'd be downstairs in the courtyard on my computer -- the courtyard was the only place where we could get wifi at the hotel. Not long after I left them, they fell asleep. Tim returned about an hour later, having successfully purchased the airline tickets we needed.

With the kids asleep, Tim and I took turns grabbing dinner. I walked down to the Paracas boardwalk, found myself a restaurant, ordered some chicken and rice, and read my book while dining. It was glorious -- I was alone and eating dinner! I walked back to the hotel and tagged Tim. Tim tried to wake Wyatt for dinner, but Wyatt wasn't budging. And we intended to let Taylor sleep. So Tim enjoyed a solo dinner as well.

By 9pm, all of us were in bed. Tim and I read for a little while, and had just turned off the lights when we heard: "Mommy." I turned the light back on, and we saw Wyatt throw up. That smoothie he'd had earlier, plus ingested pool water? All. Over. The. Bed. And. Himself. I put Wyatt in the shower, Tim stripped the bed, and I took the dirty linens down to the front desk. I brought fresh linens upstairs and we re-made the bed. Wyatt threw up once more, but this time in the trash can. It was after 10pm; we turned out the lights and promptly fell asleep. It had been a day.

On Thursday morning, Taylor again complained about her stomach. We were scheduled to visit Ballestas Islands, but she was concerned about getting sick on the boat. Tim and Wyatt set off with the Peru Hop crew for the islands, and Taylor and I stayed behind at our hotel. We had to check out of our room, so we sat in the courtyard where I could have internet access. While I was sitting in the courtyard, the hotel's front desk employee came over and showed me a picture of a mattress -- the mattress of the bed that Wyatt had thrown up on. She asked me about the stain on the mattress; I told her the story. She let me know I would have to pay USD$30 to replace the mattress. I said that was fine and paid her.

Taking in Ballestas Islands, with all the other Hopsters.

More of Ballestas. Turns out this place has a ton of birds, so much so that bird poop is harvested from these islands for use in fertilizer.

When Tim and Wyatt returned from their island visit, we set off to find lunch. We had to hustle back to the hotel/Peru Hop meeting point to catch the 1:30pm bus to Huacachina. This time, we had a strategy. The kids and I would line up as fast as we could to get on the bus and score good seats while Tim put our luggage in the belly of the bus. The strategy mostly worked, although these Peru Hopsters have no shame about throwing elbows in line.

I was more than ready to get out of Paracas (and that hotel room, which I had definitely had enough of).

Following a 90-minute drive through the desert, we made it to Huacachina, population 1,000. Huacachina is a small oasis surrounded by the largest sand dunes in all of South America. These sand dunes will blow your mind -- they're crazy big! We checked into our Huacachina hotel and then joined all the other Hopsters at the Peru Hop meeting point at 4:30pm. Claudia, the Peru Hop tour guide, led us on a walk around the lagoon to one of the sand dunes. We hiked up the sand dune to where all the dune buggies were located. Claudia separated us into groups -- about eight of us per dune buggy. Now would be a good time for me to mention that the average age of all the other Hopsters -- of which there were about 50 -- appeared to be 25. We were referred to as "the family" on this bus tour. 

Hiking up a sand dune.

At any rate, we climbed into our dune buggy, buckled up, and took off. Ohmygosh, it was a wild ride. It kind of felt like a rollercoaster and I kind of felt like I was going to lose my stomach. Surprisingly, I loved it. You know who didn't love it? Wyatt. That poor kid was beside himself with angst.

How about our dune buggy?!

Wyatt is faking a smile here.

This is how Wyatt really feels.

We also went sandboarding while on the dunes. That was pretty fun, too. We ended up with sand everywhere!

Tim tried sandboarding in an upright position.

Taylor gets ready to sandboard down the dune.

Ready to sandboard!

More sandboarding. Tim and Taylor are in the line to the left. You sandboard alllll the way down, and meet up with the buggies and people on the right in this photo.

One buggy got stuck (just for a little bit). That's our driver in the foreground.

A sunset photo that Wyatt wanted no part of.

The sunsets at the sand dunes are very cool!

The next morning, we were up by 6am in order to be at the Peru Hop meeting point by 7am. We were booked on a shuttle van to drive to the Nazca Lines, the geoglyphs created by the Nazca between 500 BC and 500 AD. The Nazca created these lines in the desert by clearing away the dark red topsoil and stone, leaving the pale underlying soil exposed. Since the plain where the lines are carved receives little rain or wind, the lines are still visible today.

We met Claudia at the meeting point, and she ushered us into a shuttle van, along with another Peru Hop couple from Spain. Claudia would be staying in Huacachina with the rest of the Hopsters while we drove to Nazca and back. The drive to Nazca took us two and a half hours, and it was a doozy. Our van driver talked on the phone multiple times, blared techno music while we were napping, and otherwise barreled down the highway and around steep curves at ridiculous speeds. The Spaniards admonished him about halfway through, as did Tim. Tim also sent an email to Peru Hop customer service to complain about the driver. We learned later from the Spaniards, who were sitting closer to the driver, that they saw him nod off a few times. It was a fraught drive to Nazca.

It was also a depressing drive to Nazca. We drove through a very unsightly part of Peru -- it was pure desert, bleak and barren. And we saw a lot of poverty along the way. Definitely heartbreaking at times.

We made it to Nazca (alive) and were dropped off at the tiny airport for our flight -- we were going up in the air to view the lines from above. That flight did not disappoint; it was super cool to fly over about 30 of the geoglyphs. The plane itself was small -- two pilots plus six passengers -- and the bumps and turns to the right and left made Taylor and me a little squeamish. But totally, absolutely worth it.

Our Nazca Lines plane.

Getting ready to fly!

Taking selfies in the air.

After the flight, we drove back into the town of Nazca and met up with the Spaniards, another Peru Hopster from Texas, and a new Peru Hop guide, Sandra. Tim's email had made its way to Sandra and the Spaniards had informed her of the driver's behavior, too. Sandra had a talk with our driver and joined us on the drive back to Huacachina, which calmed us all. The drive back took more than three hours, which tells you how fast our dude was driving on the way out.

Our in-air Nazca Lines photos didn't turn out so great, so here are a couple from a lookout point along the Panamerican Highway. This geoglyph is a tree.

This geoglyph is a frog.

Here's the Panamerican Highway and desert -- for miles and miles and miles.

I'm going to blame my bad hair day on our van driver.

Back in Huacachina, we had a few hours to kill before jumping on our final Peru Hop bus back to Lima. We crashed a hotel pool and grabbed dinner, then hit a mini-market for waters and cookies. At 6:50pm, I walked to the Peru Hop meeting point and checked us in for the bus ride. Strategically, Tim and the kids had grabbed our bags and walked up to the bus pick-up zone. We wanted to be first in line to board the bus so we could get good seats. After checking in, I walked to the pick-up zone, and the bus showed up just a few minutes later. But those Hopsters, man, they crushed us getting onto the bus. Evidently lines don't matter when it's time to board. It all worked out though -- we were able to nab seats together in the middle of the bus. We settled in and waited for everyone to board. About 7:20pm, we drove off to Lima. The kids passed out about 8:30pm and slept and slept. Tim and I slept off and on.

Now, a plus with Peru Hop is that they drop you off at your hotel. But for us, that meant we were the very last drop-off since we were staying across from the airport (most everyone else was staying in/around downtown Lima). That was painful; we didn't get back in the vicinity of our hotel until about 2am. The bus driver stopped the bus a ways away from the hotel and told us we had to get out. We didn't understand -- we could see our hotel a long walk away -- and asked him to drive us closer. He was adamant that we get out of the bus right there. Tim argued with him and he relented, driving us much closer to the hotel. We got off the bus, grabbed our backpacks, and started walking to the airport entrance to reach our hotel. And then we were stopped by airport security. "You can't come through here," they said. "You have to go down there if you want to walk onto airport property" -- and they pointed to the spot where the bus driver had tried to get us out. 

There was no way we were going to backtrack, so we hailed the first cab we saw, had that cab driver drive us into the airport and around to our hotel. Two minutes and five dollars later (money well spent), we were checking into the Wyndham.

Somehow we made our way to our room and fell into bed. It had been the longest day, and the longest three days, but we saw what we had wanted to see.

Given that so many travelers tour Peru by bus, we were glad to have had our bus experience. Do we need another? Nope, no way. We're done with tour buses and moving around to activities in packs or with crazy van drivers. We're back in control of logistics now, although still digging sand out of our ears. 😉