Midnight at the oasis - Peru

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We were sad to see Jo leave Cusco after having such a brilliant time, so after cheering ourselves up with HUGE Pisco Sours and a scrumptious meal at 2 Nations (Aussie Peruvian fare including stuffed alpaca and quinoa risotto!) we got the chilly night bus west, across the Andes, to Nazca. Went straight to the tiny airport and got ourselves an early morning flight to see the famous Nazca lines. We were a bit scared because there had been 3 fatal plane crashes in 2010 but did our research beforehand and went with a reputable company (Aerodiana!).

We went up in a 12 seater cesnar and both got a window seat. We took off (shakily as aways in a small aircraft) and the pilot took us to see the main and best preserved geoglyphs in the baking Nazca desert including the Whale, Spaceman, Hummingbird, Monkey, Condor, Pelican, Parrot, Hands, Tree, Spider, some triangular shapes and various straight lines. They were amazing to see from the air and the photos we took from our little camera don't do them justice. Interesting that nobody knows why the lines were created and there are so many of them, like 300 geometric shapes and 70 animal and plant shapes in total!! The pilot circled round each geoglyph so both sides of the plane could get a good look but this did mean the flight was more like a rollercoaster and Holly looked pretty green towards the end. Landed safely and we were really pleased to have seen the lines .......and not died.

Got a bus north to Ica and stayed in nearby Huacachina, a strange but nice tiny desert oasis town built around a small man made lagoon. Found the worst quality and value accomodation since Australia here but there was a pool, sun loungers and sun, which we hadn't seen for months so wasn't all bad. Found a nice cafe run by a lady from Cornwall, which is always an welcome sight after travelling for so long. We do miss a proper cuppa tea!! Apart from sunbathing, we did a dune buggy trip out onto the huge Sahara-like sand dunes, which was excellent. The buggy drivers are mental so it was like a sandy theme park ride driving down almost sheer verticle dune sides. We also stopped to have a go at sandboarding down the huge dunes. Dee, being a boarding expert, stood up all the way but Holly was chicken and went down on her stomach. Excellent fun and we were COVERED with sand afterwards. Despite the town being dead, we still managed to get a bit pisco on Pisco Sours and Holly reluctantly accepted Salsa lessons from a local who looked like a toad while Dee made friends with two local grave diggers. True story.

With our time in Peru rapidly coming to an end we got a bus south and stopped at Arequipa because the road to Puno was blocked by protesters. While waiting for the road to unblock, we hung out in our favourite Casa de los Penguinos hostel with our new Dutch friends Otto and Bridgitte. We all went to a Pre Inca restaurant one night, famous for it's local meats cooked on hot stones. Otto, Brigitte and Holly went for Alpaca but Dee decided it was time to sample the Peruvian speciality, Cuy or guinea pig! It was a difficult decision with guinea-loving Holly giving him hurt looks but ''when in Rome'' as they say. The chef bought out the whole and flattened cuy on a hot stone and pressed the girls to kiss it's face before Dee could tuck in. He gave Dee a pair of seceturs with which to tackle the pig, which tasted like porky chicken. We were also sat with a local couple who encouraged Dee to eat the cuy's head (the best bit apparently) and suck out the brain, which he did but wished he hadn't as it wasn't good at all, very slimey and tasted like snotty king prawn brains. Yuk.

Protesting over, we took a bus to Puno but only stayed for one night before getting another bus to La Paz. We were sad to leave Peru as we liked it a lot, beautiful country, great people and culture and we did a lot of memorable trips there. But onwards and upwards (litterally) to the worlds highest capital city and our penultimate country on our trip, Bolivia.............

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