12/08/2019 – Travel day Cusco to Ica, Peru

We both had earplugs and eyemasks on before midnight and dozed through the night until breakfast was announced at around 08:00. We were served a little boxed breakfast, which we ate whilst watching a couple of episodes of Friends. By about 10:30 we were in Ica, our destination. We grabbed our luggage (amongst which was a caged dog, poor hot thing!) and before long were being tirelessly heckled by taxis and mototaxis. We hopped into a mototaxi and drove around a bit aimlessly until our mapps.me app started working and we could direct the driver. We eventually found our accommodation, called Wild South Peru, which was only a couple of minutes away from the bus terminal it turns out! I don’t think it is a big town but taxi drivers seem a bit confused when we are staying somewhere that looks like and is more like a house, rather than a hostel, which have signs outside and are much easier to find. I guess we are kind of doing it off the beaten track in our own way. We were greeted and shown the communal areas, where we sat and chilled whilst our room was being cleaned. Josh is trying to negotiate our trip over the Nazca lines and I a tour to the Colca canyon, so we sat and sent a few emails regarding those. We were kindly let into our bedroom early at around 11:30. We unpacked a bit, had a much needed shower, and got refreshed. Hungrily, we left and aimed for the main plaza of Ica, which was only a 10 minute walk away. We ate in a Peruvian restaurant called Plaza 125, recommended by the lonely planet, and had some traditional Peruvian rice dishes. We had tacu tacu (rice and beans) and chaufa rice (chinese style egg fried rice) and papa a la huancaina (cheesy/creamy potato and egg starter dish.) Then we went next door and had a nice coffee and Josh had his new favourite - tres leches cake (a sponge cake that is soaked in three types of milk – evaporated milk, condensed milk and cream.) We managed to find a laundrette (the man there definitely saw us coming and overcharged us, I am still not skilled at all in bartering!) and then a supermarket to buy some groceries. I did not see any other tourists around, which was a stark contrast to Cusco. We even got some locals saying ‘hello’ and giggling and a few stares along the way. I believe most people backpackers stay in nearby Huacachina, but it was more expensive to stay there, so as it is only 10 minutes away by taxi, are planning on doing day trips there instead. We got back to our hostel and, pretty tired from the overnight travel, collapsed onto our beds to chill on the WiFi. We both sent some workaway emails that took quite a lot of time! There are some exciting opportunities so we need to get organising, time really is flying, we both can’t believe it has been over four months of traveling! We made an omelette dinner and had it in the flat – we are staying in a really modern, but quite empty apartment. With no other guests here tonight, it literally feels like we have our own place! It is the first time we have been this alone in four months. I don’t even think the owner/host lives here so it is deadly quiet apart from the odd sound of a car driving past. Downstairs there are rooms that are used as treatment rooms during the day, and in the hotel reception we could see someones bottom on the security camera screen, which was amusing! I think it is a couple that own the building, the guy runs the hostel/accommodation and the girl runs the treatment rooms. We washed up, and got ready for bed.