Meeting Peru

I had the opportunity to travel to Peru this week and it was an awesome experience. I travel for a living, but I have to admit my geography skills are “meh” at best. I really thought Peru would be lush with vegetation. I’m here to tell you, Peru is a desert. The terrain is jagged and fierce and the ocean front property is endless.

The sun rising over Lima
The sun rising over Lima
The Andes
The Andes

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I had three stops in Peru: Lima, Las Palmas, and Pisco. Visiting a new country (and new continent in this case) is always incredibly exciting for me. On approach into Lima and Las Palmas I couldn’t really see much, but Pisco is a different story. Along the coast, about 150 miles south of Lima sits the tiny fishing town of Pisco, Peru. I could go full pilot on you right now and talk about the intricacies of landing and taxing my massive plane into this tiny airport but I’ll spare you the gory details and just say we were the first of our kind to land in Pisco. By the time we taxied in we had been working for 23 hours and 45 minutes, nearly our maximum duty day. Have you ever operated heavy machinery at hour 23 of your day? I can tell you it takes an unnatural amount of caffeine and concentration. We sealed up our jet and set off to our hotel. On trips like these, our lodging and meals are generally planned in advance so we can show up, check in and go to sleep because our ground time is usually limited. Well due to some unforeseen math issues (hi, simple math is hard) I managed to finagle us  about 20 hours off at the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton.

Photo courtesy of DoubleTree Resort by Hitlon
Photo courtesy of DoubleTree Resort by Hilton

Y’all, this hotel was THE BEES KNEES. When we arrived and this sweet Peruvian woman handed me a hot-out of the oven chocolate chip cookie, I wanted to cry. I’m only slightly kidding. We all quickly showered and changed and set out to the pool. The resort was immaculate! The rooms are beautiful, each has a balcony with the comfiest lounge chairs. The pool was the perfect temperature and had a great view of the beach. Everything about the resort seemed well thought out and the staff was extremely helpful and friendly. I went to bed after eating enough food for two grown men and slept for 12 hours. No exaggeration.

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Paracas National Reserve
Peruvian Pelican
The massive Peruvian Pelican
Private Beach
Paracas Beach

In the morning I woke up and took a stroll down the beach and to my surprise there was a bird sanctuary right next to the resort. Now is a good time to say that at dinner I swore I saw a flying dog. Like a modern day pterodactyl. (yes, I had to look up how to spell that) My crew told me I was crazy and sleep deprived and I couldn’t argue. Fast-forward to my morning stroll and I see the biggest freaking pelicans ever floating in the water. After a little research I found that they are Peruvian Pelicans. Ha! Imagine that. But there were flamingos and other cute little creatures. Even an adventurous bird trying to eat a sting ray. I spent most of my morning by the pool before heading back to the jet to head home. Well, due to 12 hours of unforeseen maintenance delays we got a second night in Pisco! JACKPOT! We all enjoyed another great night of food and conversation and spent our morning at the pool. Overall I had a wonderful stay in Pisco and I could seriously spend a week just sitting around that amazing pool and sipping Pisco Sours. 

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Clouds over the Gulf of Mexico
Clouds over the Gulf of Mexico

I hope you enjoyed reading about my most recent adventure! Tell me about you favorite vacay destination in the comments below.