After leaving Lima, it was another 3 long days of riding through the desert. The deserts of Peru are vast and desolate. When riding along the coast, there is a constant strong wind blowing in from ocean that makes riding difficult and tiring. The wind is also freezing so I had to bundle up to stay warm. It is a bleak desert where nothing grows, not even cactus or sagebrush. Just sand and rock and wind for days on end. The sand dunes go on forever, and I even rode past the biggest sand dune in the world, which happens to be in Peru (fun fact!)

There are some really incredible sights to be seen in the desert, they’re just separated by hours and hours of wasteland. The first one I stopped at was Huacachina, a natural oasis situated right in the middle of the desert. Just like in the movies, there’s a little laguna with trees and plants and greenery sitting smack dab in the middle of the desert surrounded by sand dunes. There’s also a little village built around the oasis. I didn’t think places like this actually existed in real life but here we are.

The next cool thing I passed in the desert was the Nazca lines. This series of drawings and giant lines in the desert were created over 1500 years ago by an ancient civilaztion and are still visible. They’re scattered all across the desert in southern Peru and some of the lines are miles long.

The last thing I saw in the desert was the pyramids in the lost city of Cahuachi. Way out in the desert there’s a little dirt road that leads even more way out into the desert and at the end there’s the lost city of Cahuachi. A city over 2000 years old that was buried by the sand. It’s been partially excavated, including the pyramids. It’s so far out in the middle of nowhere that I was the only one there visiting. There’s also so many ancient ruins all across Peru that many of them don’t get any tourist attention. This one was really cool though and the old man who was there told me the city went on for miles all around but it’s all buried in the sand and there’s no money to excavate the rest of it.

And with that I was ready to be done riding through the desert and the wind and head back to the mountains. Or maybe ready to become god emperor of the universe? Only time will tell.