The Cube

Miraflores is a suburb in Lima. It is said to be one of the safest suburb in Lima. I didn't have much planned for Lima and even though I am aware of historical center of Lima with impressive buildings, I didn't make my way there. (Gasp! Horror!). As I booked a hostel in Miraflores, I went with the recommendation from the hostel's staff and went about Miraflores.

Insertion of unrelated photo

Interestingly, she didn't suggest Huaca Pucllana ruins which is one of the few ruins remaining from historic pre-Columbian period in Peru (which I have just found from googling). I have also realised that I have spent a whole day despite the whole route only took 1.5 hours.


I started from the hostel after breakfast and my first stop was a nearby supermarket. Haha. I needed to replenish my water stash and grabbed some tea to bring home. I noticed that chocolates in Peru comes with a premium price tag. I saw that the supermarket also sells tamale so I bought one to try. Tamale is made from corn based flour with meat fillings. I bought the one with pork. Umm.. the version I bought wasn't very tasty.


If you are after post office, there's one nearby too. I bought some postcards in Cabanaconde, got stamps in Arequipa, wrote them in Huacachina and wanted to post them before I leave Peru, unfortunately it was a Sunday and post offices are closed. I also found out that there is no post box outside in Peru, at least outside the two post offices that I went. Lucky for me though there is one Serpost that is open on Sunday - in the airport :)


There are many markets on Avenue Petit Thouars if you haven't bought enough Inca handicrafts, alpaca scarves or other typical Peruvian souvenirs or you are not going to the the Sacred Valley area. I had a quick browse and think that the prices are more expensive comparatively. I feel that things in Lima are more expensive which is understandable, and harder to haggle though.


Next up was Parque 7 de junio and Parque Kennedy (parque = park) which are next to each other. Kennedy Park was named after the U.S President for the aid he sent to Peru during his presidency. These parks sit in the centre of Miraflores shopping and restaurant district. I sat there to eat my lunch - the takeaway tamale.


It wasn't very good, at least the one I had so to remedy it, I thought I'll try a Peruvian dessert - the suspiro limeño or suspiro de limeña, S/12 (~USD 4 / ~AUD 5.50 / ~RM 15). It is translated to sigh of a Lima lady because it is supposed to be sweet and light like a woman's sigh. It is definitely right on the sweet department as it consisted of condensed milk, evaporated milk and sugar. Probably the sweetest dessert I ever had, and my face showed it all, much to the amusement of the couple at a table across from me. Haha.



After that I finally reached the much hyped Larcomar. I was told I must see this shopping center which is located on a cliff with view of the Pacific Ocean. Coincidentally when I was there, there was an exhibition to celebrate Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday together with a Peruvian artist, Marcelo Wong.

Cariñoso - fresa (strawberry), chirimoya (custard apple) y mandarina (tangerine)

Ceviche clásico

Side note: Slipping glasses is flat nose people's woe

I was told Ica lies on the border of the Atacama desert but I can't be sure as when I was trying to search for the name of the desert in Ica, all I found is Peruvian coastal desert. The other closest desert is Sechura desert. Even then it doesn't seem to be in Ica. So I'll just go with Peruvian coastal desert.

Ica is famous for its wine and pisco and is the largest producer in Peru. So if anyone spent some time in Ica, wine tasting would be in the list. In fact, the taxi driver who sent me to the hostel also offered wine tasting tour. I was a little scared of his over friendliness so I did not contact him for any tours and skipped on the wine tasting as well.

Huacachina is a desert oasis around a small natural lake. It is only about 10 minutes drive away from Ica. According to legend, a native princess removed her clothes to bathe and saw a male hunter approaching her from behind from a mirror she was holding. Startled at the intrusion, he dropped her mirror and fled away. The mirror turned into a lake which formed the lagoon Huacachina is at. Another version is that the pool of water that the princess had been bathing in became the lagoon.



Lunch was at a restaurant named Rumi Wasi. They didn't serve set lunch so I order tacu-tacu (Peruvian style fried rice with beans), S/25 (~USD 8 / ~AUD 11 / ~RM 31), it was served with a yummy chilli concoction. The rice serving was huge!


After lunch, I continued walking to the oasis.


I didn't shop around to see which travel agencies offered the best deal but just booked via the hostel, so I am not sure what was the name of the shop. I booked a sand dunes buggy ride + sandboarding tour, S/50 (~USD 15 / ~AUD 21 / ~RM 62) and a day trip to Ballestas Islands + Paracas National Reserve tour, S/60 (~USD 18 / ~AUD 26 / ~RM 74). Both tours included pick up from hostel but I asked to be dropped off at Paracas instead of returning back to Ica.

Paddle boats for rent

The price of the sand dunes buggy ride + sandboarding tour does not include sand dunes entrance fee of S/3.60. This fee is only collected just before the start of tour, so please remember to bring some cash. I vaguely remembered this from my readings prior to the trip so I brought along a S/20 note because coincidentally that was the smallest note I had with me then. I was also paranoid of dropping my things during the buggy ride so I only brought along my sunnies, a mineral water bottle and mobile phone aside from S/20 note.

2 of my fellow sand buggy mates didn't bring any money (read: nobody wants to drop anything in sand dunes and have them forever lost), and as fate had it that I had enough to pay them too. There's a part 2 to this story - because I met them again the next in Paracas, they were also taking the same bus to Lima! What a coincidence! Mr U and his wife insisted on paying me back the sand dunes entrance fee. They are a lovely couple really. Mr U and his wife were celebrating their wedding anniversary and he wanted to bring his wife to see Machu Picchu.

From memory, the tour starts at about late 4ish-5pm, but I was picked up from the hostel at about 4:00pm so that I have some time to walkabout the oasis. I didn't know of this earlier and had already made a trip there myself. It last about 1.5 hours or so, and there were 10 of us including the driver. Wow, the buggy rides were like roller coaster!

We were also brought to the top of some dunes and had some photo taking opportunities.




Then we had a sandboarding practice, from a little dune. I had done sandboarding once, many years back when I was in Perth for the first time but I remembered I sandboarded down by sitting on the board. This time, however, we were taught to lie on the board, tummy down. I did the practice run but wanted to sit out on the ones from higher dunes. The driver was not having it though and I ended up went another 2 times. Scary but not as scary as walking on the wooden plank bridge though! Just remember try to keep the mouth closed to avoid eating sand. I passed my mobile phone and leftover change to my fellow buggy dunes mate for safekeeping when I went down those sand dunes.

Sandboarded down to where the buggy is

One more on the oasis before walking down from the dunes. I think it looks better in sunset colours.


I saw someone selling papa rellenas (stuffed potatoes), S/3 (~USD 1 / ~AUD 1.50 / ~RM 4) and of course I had to try it.


I met the sand dune buggy driver and his partner on my walk back to the hostel and they gave me a lift back.




Side note: Mr U told me that Nazca Lines are amazing - I didn't have time to go... 

I was in time for a 2pm bus back to Arequipa but I have booked a night in Cabanaconde so the balance of the day was rest and relax. I must've hiked downhill the day before in snail pace as there were no sore muscles, no sore knees.

There isn't a lot in Cabanaconde. Aside from the Parroquia San Pedro de Alcántara church next to the Plaza de Armas, there are some shops around the plaza.


The buses also depart from here. Bus tickets are sold at the shops around the plaza, you won't miss them as there are many signs indicating which shops sell bus tickets. I bought a ticket from Andalucia for bus departing at 9:00-9:15am. I got the tickets the day before at about 3ish, the shop is usually closed but will open when there is a bus arriving. The Andalucia bus from Arequipa is scheduled to arrive at Cabanaconde at 3:15pm. There were also people who bought tickets on departure day. You can pick the seat that you want. I paid S/20 (~USD 6 / ~AUD 9/ ~RM 25) for the bus fare.


I had lunch at a nearby shop, Sol y sombra. The lunch set menu is the cheapest I had in Peru at S/8 (~USD 2.50 / ~AUD 4 / ~RM 10) consisting of soup, main meal and a drink. Dinner was at Hostel Pachamama itself. I ordered a la huancaína con pollo (chicken breast and yellow pepper with huancaina sauce) served on pasta, S/19 (~USD 6 / ~AUD 8/ ~RM 24). I asked for a smaller portion so it looked little. Huancaína sauce is made of cheese, yellow Peruvian pepper and milk.


After breakfast the next day and checked out, I walked to Plaza de Armas to take the bus back to Arequipa.


The bus finally departed at 9:22 am. From Cabanaconde, the bus passed through other little towns - Pinchollo, Maca, Achoma, Yanque before arriving at Chivay. The bus only stopped to drop and pick up, not any longer.


The kind gentleman next to me in the bus would tell me the name of each of the town when the bus passed through. I showed him where Malaysia is, he pointed out the corn fields and asked me what was the produce in Malaysia. Anyway, here are some photos taken from the bus.








With view like this, no one is falling asleep. I was on the left hand side of the bus. The bus arrived in Chivay at about 11ish. I don't remember exactly when we arrived but we were there for at least 30 minutes before departing. At Chivay, we were told to get off the big bus and were re-distributed to colectivos to get to Arequipa. The bus left Chivay at 12:06pm and arrived in Arequipa passed 3:00pm.

There are at least 2 bigger scale bus stations in Arequipa but they are near each other so it isn't too bad if ended up to going to a wrong one. After arriving in Arequipa, I walked to Terrapuerto where my bus to Ica will be departing. I checked in my backpack, then took a taxi to the historic centre. After a couple of hours, I took a cab back to Terrapuerto to catch my bus to Ica.


Side note: There needs to be cheaper Peruvian food in Melbourne!