Nazcar Lines, Lima and Galapagos

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Am back home now!! Well, until the first week in October anyway.........


Here's my last installment of South America, covering the last bit of Peru (Nazca for the famous Nazca lines, and Lima) after which I flew to Quito in Ecuador. Quito is where you fly to Galapagos from, and also where I was flying back to England from.

Had such a great time in South America, it was quite a wrench to leave. Especially as I met a lot of people in Galapagos who were just starting their South American trip. They were full of talk about going to some of the places I had been too. Was very tempted to cancel my flight and do the whole thing again!

But then, its always best to leave a party too early than too late, and besides, South East Asia is calling......Who knows what to expect there!

I didn't know what to expect in South America, and in the words of the Glastonbury website "Its always better to find new things you didn't know you liked, than confirming the things you already know you like" and this is how I felt about South America. Add to that the list of about 100 places that I never made it to this time, and I know that one day I will definitely be going back!

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Photos

Sacred valley
Sacred valley near Macchu Picchu. There are lots of Inca ruins here. And lots of doll sellers too....

Huacachina
Tiny oasis village, surrounded by dunes where you can go sandboarding and dune buggying. I was ill here so unfortunately just spent 2 days lying by the oasis feeling sorry for myself......

Nazcar lines - Spaceman
Can you spot him?
The lines were made by removing the top 20cm of earth and reavealing the white rock underneath. Nobody know why they were made.......

Nazcar - Spider
Honestly it is!

Nazcar - Humming bird
Some of them are over 400m long. I think this one is about 200m long.

Nazcar - the plane
Tiny little thing with 6 of us in total, and a mad pilot doing acrobatics and screaming at us about some non existant shape on the desert...

My round in Lima
A Dutch girl I was hanging out with in Lima played the violin for a band at a fashion show. She got tickets for the afterparty, and here´s me at the bar....

Lima - Neske
This is Neske, the Dutch girl who likes to fiddle. (That´s play the violin in case you were wondering....)

Neske making the tea.
They are well trained these Dutch girls - in the kitchen making the tea, and I didn´t even have to ask!

Becky and Sarah
Two gorgeous English girls who I travelled with through Brasil and Argentina. We met up in Lima on their last night. Very cool young ladies, who obviously know a handsome chappy when they see one!

Galapagos
Wildlife in Galapagos is fearless. Sea Lions, iguanas, boobies etc....They dont care about humans.

Sea Lions
Got about a million pics of sea lions looking cute......

Iguana
They wait under a cactus and wait for bits to fall off, so they can eat. It´s a hard life being an iguana..

Hawk eating baby sea lion
This hawk was not moving, 16 tourists or not!

Our boat
Spent 7 days on this boat, the Free Enterprise,cruising around the Galapagos islands. Did 4 dives, and lots of snorkelling. Saw plenty of white tip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks, sea lions, turtles and rays. Didn´t see any hammerheads or manta rays though.............Next time!

Giant Tortoise
Huge beasts, and ugly too! Apparently ET was modelled on one of these. Live to over 400 years old, or so our guide told us..........

Beer spill.....
What a waste, treating perfectly good beer like this.....

US air force.......
That pinnacle in the distance is not its natural shape. The US airforce used it for target practice during WW2. We also found some unexploded bombs whilst diving on the other side of the Island from the yanks too. Whilst building an airbase on one of the islands, they somehow managed to completely eradicate the island´s entire population of iguanas. These iguanas are unique to the island, and were lost forever. God Bless America!

Classic Galapagos shot
So beautiful....