lunahuana and the gringo trail

Who loves pisco sour?  (not to be found in Pisco)

The Reason Why There Is A Gringo Trail

After over seven months living under tge direction of another, after blindly obeying tge word of the "travellers bible", we reached that time in our development where the urge to rebel runs stronger than reason.  For one of tge first times on our trip, we shut our Lonely Planet and ventured off the gringo trail (or at least the most trodden parts of it anyhow).

Like a kid with booze-filled fantasies going off to college, the first moments of our adventure-to-independence were rather liberating.  Dreaming of the most authentic experiences Peru could offer (like becoming besties with every local we met or kissing Peruvian Llamas), we embarked to Ica.

To put it bluntly, the the bus dropped us off on the side of the road in what best could be described as an ugly, shady town.  Like the panicked college kid who realizes they now need to wash their own laundry & cook their own meals, we did the most sensible thing we could think of at 4:30am, we went crying home to Lonely Planet and found a nearby gringo "oasis".  We hopped into a tuk-tuk with strict orders to return us to the less frequently visited gringo stop.

What we found was sand, a lot of it, a meagerly-filled "lake" (water-sorce: gringo tears from the depression of staying at a so-called oasis) and 10 overly-priced hostels, which were all filled in honor of saint something-or-another.  "No Problem," we thought. "Let's vamos to Pisco.". Pisco being the city that the name of the booze is derived from, we assumed it to be the major producer and retailer of the delicious white grape that we've enjoyed (in it's sour form, so often) since arriving in Peru.  What we didn't know is that Pisco must take its namesake from the unpleasant hangover one encounters when visiting the dusty town which left us with little to do besides the towns insistense that we go to Isla Ballestras, most famous for bird shit piled 50m deep (this is not an exaggeration, it's really their selling point).

With discouraged hearts we decided to give it one last chance before heading straight to Lima: Lunahuana, a little river town at the gateway of Peru's winemaking region.  Fortuitously, a switch of luck brought us a beautiful river, free pisco samples, a great camping spot along the river (fully equipped with 2 dogs who adopted us for our few day stay) and gringo-free happiness as we recharged from a rather discouraging, though hidden-gem-encountering, venture off the gringo trail.  

living the high life in lunahuana. 

proof we were there, or weren´t.  Our journey off the gringo trail.

Oh thoust lonely little tent, how I love thee.

The best thing about being off the gringo trail, finding hidden cauliflower heads dwarfing the orbitary object that is Beth´s head.