For the last couple days, we knew we wanted to get out of the city but also wanted to do something that wasn’t too exhausting. We booked an overnight trip through Peru Hop that took us south of Lima to a few amazing spots over two days.

The first stop was on the way to Paracas for a Peruvian Horse Dance Show.

We then went to Paracas where we hung out by the beach for the afternoon and stayed the night. It was a super chill day as the last day was going to be CRAZY! We caught an amazing sunset that night.

We left around 8 am the next day from Paracas for a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands. I have never seen more birds in my life in one place! In fact, they export their poop as there is so much of it in a concentrated area. We were worried about getting pooped on but luckily, we were okay. We saw penguins, a BIG pelican, a few sealions, and a ton of Peruvian boobies. These islands are considered Peru’s Galapagos because of all the wildlife you see!

From there, we headed towards Huacachina where we would be sandboarding at sunset! But along the way, they had a few lookout points so you could see the picturesque sight of the desert meeting the ocean. It was amazing and probably my favourite viewpoint in Peru. We only stopped for about 15 minutes at each stop.

We got to Huacachina in the afternoon and got ready for sandboarding. It was our last day in Peru, so it certainly meant going out with a Bang! Huacachina is a city that is surrounded by sand dunes and is a party spot for tourists… we soon found out why.

To go sandboarding, you take a dune buggy from the edge of the city. There are hundreds of tourists there getting ready for a ride of a lifetime. The dune buggy drivers are crazy! They take you up and down the dunes and right to the edge of them at times. It feels like a roller coaster – they deliberately make the ride scarier than it needs to be to give tourists a wild ride. Your adrenaline is pumping when you get off the buggy and you are fired up for sandboarding. By the time you get back to the city, people are ready to party. Unfortunately, we had to head back to Lima as we had an early flight the next morning back to Canada. But it truly was a special way to end!