A whole lot of Sand: Southern Peru

---

Happy Birthday to me

My birthday "day" actually started at 4am in Cusco when mum proceeded to call me to wish me Happy Birthday, forgetting that there was a five hour time difference! Never mind, I had to get up early anways as we had a 10 hour journey to Arequipa ahead of us. So after a quick bacon baguette brekkie to take-away, we left the hotel and headed back to Swampy, who´d had a paint job and a really bad one at that. So on we hopped and off we went to Arequipa. The journey on the bus was unbelievably boring and felt like the longest bus journey ever. We had a quick stop pff at a view point where we got to see El Misti volcano from a distance. We eventually arrived at this very cute hotel where half of us were upgrading to a room and half were camping in the hotel garden. Although I had no money, I decided to upgrade as I did not particularly want to spend my birthday night getting ready in a tent. So we quickly got all togged up and headed into town to a restaurant called Zig Zag, where we had some amazing food and Michelle and I (it was her birthday the following day) got cocktails free from the restaurant inside an Ostrich egg. So cool! We also got a massive chocolate birthday cake each bought on by a series of Happy Birthday singing and some presents. The group had come together to buy me an alpaca rug and scarf which were beautiful! After dinner a few of us headed to a local bar called Deja vu to see out my birthday and see in Michelles, who by this point was exceptionally drunk. All good seeming we had never seen her drunk before! All in all a very good night, thank you to everyone who made it so!

Arequipa - a town full of rubble

The following two days we had time to explore the town of Arequipa. Unfortunatly, the town experienced a massive earthquake a few years ago and the town was essentially destroyed in many parts, so a lot of the city was covered in rubble or building work. The day after my birthday was to be a chilled out day, so a group of us headed into town and had brekkie at an ice cream parlour (no where near as good as the one in Paraty) and then headed in taxis to the outskirts of Arequipa and to the mall where we did a bit of shopping, had a junk food lunch (burger king, KFC etc) and then several of us went to the cinema to see "27 dresses." We then headed back to the hotel for a healthier dinner and had a beauty session where Mette cut my hair and Liz and Caroline dyed it. So its now more back to the colour it was when it was first dyed rather than the light brown/dark blonde it has become!

The following day we decided to be slightly more cultural. The two main things to see in Arequipa itself are the Santa Catalina convent and a museum with ice mummies. Knowing my fair share already about convents, I headed off with Liz and Grace to the museum. Around several mountains and volcanoes in Peru, several bodies have been found of children that were sacrificed to the Gods during the Inca period. One of the most famous is a girl called Juanita, who was of an upper class in society but unfortunatly she was not there for our visit so we saw another girl called Surita instead. They had been sacrificed high on the mountains to appease the mountain and volcano Gods. Due to the altitude, the bodies had been frozen in ice and thus very well preserved until discovered over various points in the last century. It was all very fascinating and a very interesting tour. After lunch at an amazing crepery and some internet time, we headed back to the hotel to chill out a bit and to pack up to move on the following day towards Puerto Inca and our first sandy stop.

The beach

The journey from Arequipa to Puerto Inca was the first time we got to glimpse at the Pacific Ocean during our trip and thus we had succeded on our Atlantic to Pacific journey. Most of the journey was along the Pan-American highway which ran along the coastline, with the sea and sand on one side and the desert on the other. We arrived around lunchtime at out campsite which was right on the Puerto Inca beach and was just beautiful. Everyone quickly put up their tents and got changed into their swimming cossies to experience the ocean. I naturally only went in up to my knees but this was primarily because the waves were just too big and after watching everyone else get dragged under and knocked off their feet, I decided it wasn´t for me so I sunbathed by the pool for the afternoon. We also watched a few games of touch rugby between Swampy and Doris (another budget expeditions group) but after it started getting a bit violent both on and off pitch, I went back to sunbathing on the beach. In the evening we had the most amazing BBQ and a party on the beach which, although was amazingly fun, I felt sorry for all the other people camping on the beach with us. Especially as after I went to bed at about 2am the music was still blaring and when Green Day came on at 4am it was beyond a joke. But definatly one of the best nights.

The following morning I spent sleeping due to the lack of sleep I got from the music and after lunch we packed up and headed back onto Swampy and off to a little town called Nazca, where there are some unexplained lines in the desert.

Unexplained Lines in the desert

Now, i know most people probably know what the Nazca Lines are but for those who do not, they are a series of geoglyphs located in the desert stretching over 50+miles representing all sorts of things from animal to geometrical shapes. They were created by the Nazca culture (pre-Inca) and are only really recognisable from the air. Numerous research has been done on the lines and whilst people know how they were formed, no one really knows why and they are numerous theories circulating to try and answer this. Unfortuantly though, no one theory is accepted.

So we arrive in Nazca and set up our tents etc and spend the evening watching a documentary on the Nazca lines. I almost did not watch it as I wanted to see the lines first hand myself. It is a good job I did though as the flight was possibly one of the worst experiences ever. It all started off good the following morning. We were about one hour late being picked up and after we´d paid our airport tax (on top of the 60 dollars we´d paid for the flight) we headed over to our little 5 seater plane. All was fine, the take off was great and it was all really exciting with the sharp turns and the G-force etc. However, after seeing the monkey shape, which was about 15 mins in, I soon started to loose feeling in my hands and legs which shortly progressed to me passing out and then throwing up when I woke up. I then spent the next half and hour with my head in my hands, not able to look up or out of the window. Eventually we landed and I spent the next hour trying to get my head from feeling like it was being squashed. So all in all a waste of money though I did get to see about 5 figures and have now realised that a career as a pilot probably will not work for me! Luckily the girl behind me also threw up so I don´t feel so bad!!

After lunch again we boarded back onto Swampy and headed out to a place called Huachina where we were to spend the afternoon and night out in the desert: our second sandy experience and how very sandy it was!

Sandboarding and Buggying

Thus in the late afternoon, we arrived at Huachina our base for the desert trip. After about an hour of sorting out our overnight bags, it was off to the Sandbuggies for some driving time. These machines were amazing and after Gracy had screamed "vamos" as the driver for about 10 minutes, we were off into the desert. The experience was so sureal, it was like being on a rollarcoaster ride but with a driver. He kept going up and down these almost vertical sanddunes and the whole things was incredible. Possibly one of my favourite excursions on this trip. Unfortuantly it only lasted for about 30 minutes before we stopped at the top of this one particular dune to start our sandboarding time.

Most of us sandboarded by lying face first down on the board and being pushed which was a lot of fun, though some did try and actually stand up. Though because of the weight of the boards you cannot turn so you either have to go straight down which sometimes ended in disaster or you had to go heels first. After we´d had a brief session on the baby slope, we hopped back into the sandbuggies and headed for a much bigger slope. And I mean much bigger. I´m not scared of much but I was a bit nervous about this one. And for good reason too it would turn out. Half way down, my board hit something hard and I wacked my nose of the board and rolled off. Everything was fine but it hurt like hell and put me off my sandboarding experience!!

We then hopped back onto the buggies and were taken to this random place where we would be spending the night. Unfortuantly (or fortuantly depending on how you look at it) we were given unlimited free Pisco Sours (a local drink) which meant that everyone was pretty drunk before we even ate the BBQ. As it was Doris´s last night they were the worst, though several members of Swampy were also unconscious by 11pm. There was a small group of us that were ok though and after a good night of partying fun, we slept on top of the sand dune with sand getting all over our sleeping mats and bags, but that was all part of the fun. There was also the romantic going on as well with Matt proposing to Rebecca out in the desert. Very sweet.

We were woken up at about 6am the following morning which was quite amusing as most of us had only had a few hours sleep, but the sun was just too bright and intense. It was also amusing because the night before, everyone had just found a spot to sleep and being pitch black, could see nobody else. However, in the morning all you could see was all these bodies sprawled out over the desert. The journey back to town was fun on the buggies again though not for those that had drunken too much the night before. We then had about an hour to chill before hopping onto Swampy again and journeying on towards the capital of Peru, Lima.

To the Capital

The drive to Lima was broken up by a quick stop in a town called Paracas which again had been devasted by earthquakes a short while ago. The reason for the stop was for people to do a two hour island boat tour. I, however did not go as I was running short on money and was in a foul mood about my banking situation. So i spent the two hours on the internet trying to sort out what was going on to very little luck. It was then back onto Swampy and we were soon to arrive in Lima in the late afternoon. After being sorted again into our rooms, we chilled out for a bit and got ready to go out for a big celebration of Oa and Hannah´s birthdays and Hannah and Fi´s leaving us in Lima. So we got into taxis and headed down to an area outside of Lima called Miraflores (a bit like the Orange country of LA but on a less-rich scale) and went to a gorgeous beach front restaurant called Mangos, which although lovely, was completely out of our price range. It was a nice evening though and we did the whole birthday celebration thing again before some people headed out and I headed back to the hotel with others. Unfortuantly it was not the most successful night for them however after walking into a dodgy club full of only guys and Nats got her purse stolen. Our first crime of the trip, poor girl.

The following day, some of us headed back down to Miraflores and the area where we had eaten the night before to do some shopping, or in my case to watch some shopping! We had a nice lunch at a little cafe with a balcony overlooking the seafront and wandered around for a bit before heading back to the hotel. In the evening we decided to all go back to the Cafe Cafe where I´d eaten lunch due to its ok prices and then after saying goodbye to Fi, who had to leave for the airport, we decided to enjoy a night in the casino. Again I watched, but it was a lot of fun. Some people won some money, some people lost but thats the way it goes.

The following day I finally got to enjoy a MacD´s after craving it for so long (everywhere seems to only have KFC and Burger King in south America). I then spent hours on the internet and phone trying to sort out rest of trip, banking etc etc. Finally it was all done and I got to just chill out at the hotel for the evening with some guys, a take-away pizza hut and gladiator on tv. We also had to pack for the following day where we were leaving to head towards a town called Huaraz, which meant climbing back up from sea-level to 4000 m.a.s.l and back up to the mountains again. Only one week in Peru left to go and three weeks left in South America

---

Photos

Charlotte and I
On the way to Arequipa with El Misti Volcano in the back lefthand side

Debs and I
In our little plane

Me with my board
Trying to climb back up the sanddune

Charlotte, Kat and I
At Mango´s with our free Pisco Sours