Rest of Ecuador and Peru so far

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this is the third time ive tried to write this blog so hopefully the computer doesnt crash. So last time i wrote i was in a very subdued Montañita, due to the election there was an alcohol ban. My plan had been to go to Puerto Lopez to see the poor mans Galapagos but i then managed to get food poisoning so thought id cut my losses and headed for my final stop in ecuador Cuenca. Much like the rest of ecuador this was a very beautiful city but had nothing going on. So after two days of wandering around i headed for the Peruvian border and the draw of Loki hostel in Mancora. After having to wait at the ecuadorian border for 2 hours at 1am I finally arrived at what is best described as a resort that wouldnt look out of place in tenerife, with a pool, bar and two second walk to the beach, which was packed with surfers and kiteboarders. Also Loki was packed with gringos so i could finally get out of my head and meet some people, which I did with the Sowden twins and their friend Laura. As we were going the same way we traveled to Lima together on a lovely 17 hour bus after two very messy nights in Loki, with nothing much done in the day but sunbath. Lima was a bit of a shithole as we had expected, but we were only staying one night so decided against staying in the Loki there, mainly because it had been held up at gunpoint twice in the past few weeks. Despite the hundreds of cats in the park in Miraflores, which kept vanessa and katie amused, Lima was pretty quiet and we got the us the next day to Pisco to see the peruvian poor mans galapogos. Pisco was a horrible little town, probably because it had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1997ish. And so we decided to stay in the hostel and cook, which went well until it came time to actually eat when the spag bol had managed to acquire a soapy taste. Early the next morning we headed to Islas Ballestas to see hundreds of birds, some sealions, and penguins. Also there was the poor mans nazca line on the cliff face so we had an excuse for not going to the actual Nazca lines. Although another reason for doing this came from one of the twins friends who told them that the pilot had used sticky notes on the controls to remind him what each one did. Islas Ballestas was quite cool but im not sure i would recommend it, unless birds are your thing. Not wanting to spend any longer in Pisco we left straight after the tour to go to Huacachina for some sandboarding in this tiny oasis. This has probably been the highlight of Peru so far, as it was a beautiful spot surrounded by huge sand dunes with a lagoon in the middle. After lunch on our first day we decided to climb the biggest sand dune behind our hostel, not the best idea. The girls dropped out at varying levels, with Laura hardly trying, but i made it to the top and a few photos the sand decided to break my camera. So i headed down to find that the sand had done the same to Katies, luckily the guy at the hostel knew where to get them fixed and took us into Ica and got us a good price. We left them there overnight and our impromptu guide showed us around Ica before taking us back to Huacachina. The next day after we´d collected our cameras, we headed sand boarding with a dune buggy and a guide. This was insane. The desert was neverending and full of huge dunes. We didnt quite get the hang of standing up on the boards so opted to lie on our fronts instead. the last two dunes were huge and our guide waxed our boards so that we were literally flying down. A last stop to see the sunset and it was back to Huacachina to pack up and get another overnight bus to Arequipa.
Arequipa was very much like Cuenca except that it had a wild rover hostel (much like loki but a bit smaller) so it was full of gringos and alcohol. After a night here we headed off on a day trip to Colca canyon to see the condors and some indegenious people. Unfortunately this started at 3am, so we checked out and i stayed up in the bar whilst the girls stole someones bed for a few hours of kip. After a few stops at little towns to see local people and llamas etc, we got to the condor viewpoint at 9am. This was stunning watching the condors ride the thermals over the second deepest canyon in the world (150m deeper than the grand canyon). After a few more viewpoint stops we got to one that hadnt been mentioned and it was at 4910m!!! As you can expect this made breathing very tricky for me who wasnt used to it but the girls having been in La Paz were laughing at me. Several photos later we were back in Arequipa where after saying goodbye to the twins and Laura, I left for Cusco and they headed to Santiago.
So at the moment Im in Cusco waiting to check into Loki, from here Im going to plan my Machu Picchu trip and do all of the inca ruins around this area before heading off to Lake titicaca and Bolivia. Peru so far has been awesome but its also been quick as i only got to Mancora on the 12th and Cusco is my last stop in Peru. The landscape is also completely different to ecuador, with huge expanses of desert and general nothingness combined with huge altitude and llamas.

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