Within the hour Luis was back with his tiny little car full to bursting with even more stuff…AND people!

Cameras, video cameras, sliders, tripods, lighting, tin foil thingies…you name it was crammed in there along with Freddy Luna (aka Mr Moon…videographer), Alejandro ( Luis’s assistant) and Denys (Freddy’s assistant)!

We had no idea that there were going to be so many of us on this roadtrip and it just got all the more exciting!

We met Freddy’s camera first and then his little face popped out from behind it and said hi and we knew we were going to get on like a storm! We finally hit the road towards Arequipa and followed along behing Luis as Freddy filmed from all angles, hanging out of the window, in the wing mirrors…at one point he even strapped a video camers to the outside of Peggy!

We stopped for chiccarones (fried pork!! Yummmm!) on the way and I continually tried not to mess up my beautiful hair and super bride make-up!
We drove about 2ookm in convoy stopping now and then for camera swaps and as it got dark we pulled up at a restaurant for some more traditional Peruvian food! We managed for the first time to grab the bill as Luis had been beating us to it every other time! Once we were stuffed and very smug with ourselves for paying said bill, we took Peggy to the petrol station and filled up her huge guzzling tank. This was where Luis told us that the garage had sponsored our fuel and our dinner for us! The fuel and the food was FREE! 28 gallons of fuel and six meals! I have no idea how he did it but Luis had talked them into giving us a tank of fuel for our roadtrip…we were gobsmacked and are still unaware of how on earth he had managed to arrange so much! Of course we had messed it up by paying for the food but hey…the thought was there! We drove away in silence our mouths hanging open not quite believing that we had just driven away with $150 of fuel!!

We stopped in the seaside town ‘Paracas’ and booked into a hotel with the gang so I could wash my beautiful make-up off and my hair otherwise I would have looked something like one of the Addams family the next day! We sat and had a couple of beers with Luis and Freddy and crashed for the night ready for another big day tomorrow…all the days are big when you are roadtrippin with Luis and the gang!

Bright and breezy the next morning and ready for another adventure we met with the gang and hit Paracas National reserve. It was so strange to us after so long to have no idea where we were going or what we were doing. We have been our own guides for so long and if we don’t know what we’re doing for the day its cos we don’t wanna know…but here we were following Luis, Freddy, Alejandro and Dennys into the distance completely blind to anything and everything except the views around us…and they were amazing!

The national reserve covers a whopping 335,000ha and is Peru’s only marine ecosystem protected area with a wide scope of marine wildlife including sea lions, penguins, flamingos and several sea gull species. The contrast is astounding. Driving along dusty desert tracks with the sun beating down on you and wind whipping sand into your eyes, you can imagine you might go for hours before seing water and then suddenly there it is…the Ocean! Yellow sand dunes all around you and you skid and bump along the tracks and then you come to a plum coloured beach, an amazing rock formation, a colony of sealions or a huge flock of pink flamingo’s. It was so surreal and very very beautiful.

We sped along on some really awkward angles and at one point had to turn back for fear of tipping Peggy into the Ocean below us and made our way along the coastline. We stopped to see the remains of the Cathedral, a rock formation that was sadly destroyed in the 2007 earthquake. It was a peaceful stop and we all just stood and gazed upon the lone statue of rock, the seagulls soaring by and listening to the waves crash beneath us. Once we were thoroughly chilled we went back to Peggy to get changed for some pictures. We donned our new wedding attire and jumped out of Peggy to see Luis returning his things to the car. A ‘security’ guard had told him we could not take pictures without written permission!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I suggested we asked what time his lunch break was and go back then but instead we found a better spot further into the park where there wasn’t a guard to bother us. We skidded to a halt and all tumbled out of our vehicles (my dress came with a hoop and anyone who has worn one of those will know they are not made for tight spaces) and into the sand. Before us was the most beautiful wreck of a boat I have ever seen…it was like a prop…perfectly placed in a perfect setting with amazing colour, texture and background…it was perfect!

We took some pictures and did some walking for Freddy (his favourite things to say are “just walk” and “one more time please” and I love him for it because we laughed soooo much!) and then all piled back into the cars to go who knows where. Luis is like a walking lightbulb. You see the inspiration hit and then there is no stopping him! It is almost like he really is electrically charged!

We next stopped at a plum coloured beach. The difference between the sand on top of the cliff and that on the beach were like black and white. Ocre yellow and deep plum, side by side…just amazing! We drove around a little way more and suddenly stopped, Luis jumped out of the car and disappeared over the cliff edge!
We stood around a little while and watched Freddy disappear too…we looked at each other and waited a minute longer and then Freddy reappeared and said “come with me, this way” and skipped across the rocks down towards the Ocean. We looked at each other again, nodded and followed. As we tip-toed our way over the slippery cliffs Freddy filmed from a little ledge he had found and as we got closer to the water we found Luis squished into a nook between two rocks just watching the world go by. He pointed at a rock IN the water and in we went. The rock just peeped above the waves for 7 out of 8 swells so we were just drying each time we got an 8th wave. We stood and tried to look as cool as cucumbers with our feet in the crisp waves and the winkles beneath our toes. It was an exhilerating feeling with the sound of the waves behind us and the lapping in the rock pools in front of us. As we posed and shuffled around poor Alejandro had to balance on one foot in a rock pool with a 6 foot lighting pole and flash, he was slipping all over the place and getting wetter by the second…all in the name of THE shot. We had a great laugh standing there and guessing when the ‘big wave’ was coming and we even had an audience! Typically a bus of teenagers had rolled up and they all perched along the cliff edge to laugh at us getting wet. We had some shots with them before getting changed and dried and we set off on the next leg of our magical mystery tour!

We drove 100 or so kilometers and stopped in Huacachino as the sun dropped out of the sky behind towering sand dunes. We sipped coffees while crazy people boarded down dunes as high as 300 feet. As the day came to an end we carried on 100 km more to Nazca and found a place to rest our weary heads…but not before we ate enough fried chicken to feed a small army and laughed at being questioned about ‘seeing dwarves’ (don’ t ask…its a long story)!

What a crazy but amazing day one of our fabulous Peruvian roadtrip!
We went to sleep with no idea what to expect next!