Lima and Pisco

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I flew down from Quito to Lima late Wednesday evening and after a little hiccup of going to the wrong hotel I checked in and met my new room mate, Vicky. The next morning we got up and had breakfast with a couple of other guys from the group and changed money into sols which is the Peruvian currency. Then we caught a taxi to the old town. The ride took about thirty minutes from the hotel and the driving and traffic was crazy! When we got there me and Vicky walked around the main square then went to the monastry. We saw lots of art and artefacts and the catacombs which was really cool. They reckon up to 75,000 bodies were buried under the church and you can see all the bones and the tombs. Lots of bodies of poor people were all piled in together and then they used lime to decompose them quicker and fit more in. There were thousands of bones and you could hear the mass going on above in the church. Was a surreal experience. After the church we met up with Justin and Kevin and found a dodgy looking cafe we had lunch in. My sandwich had meat, fried egg and crisps inside! Interesting! We then got the taxi back to the hotel and we all caught the bus to Pisco. The ride took around 4 hours and lots of locals got on and off and the conductor checked our tickets about 8 times! There was some great films though to keep us entertained such as The Order starring Jean Claude Van Damme! We were just about to watch Eclipse in Spanish when we had to get off. We checked into our hotel and then went for dinner and sampled our first Pisco sour - the local drink. We also had a very large bottle of beer! :)

The next day we woke up early to go to the Ballestas islands. We went on a speed boat out to the islands and cruised around looking at the thousands of birds and sealions. We also saw some penguins. On the way back the boat went really fast and it was freezing! But then the boat slowed down and we saw dolphins! Was soo cool! We watched them really close for about five minutes before heading back to land. After that we had brunch before heading to the Pisco factory to learn how they make Pisco. The guy was really funny and we saw how the grapes were fermented and made into Pisco. We then got to taste some samples some of which were 45% alcohol! After the factory we headed to Huacachina which is a oasis in the desert and went sandboarding. Was sooo much fun! We went on these funky sand buggies and went speeding through the sand dunes! It was like being on a really fast bumpy roller coaster! Was awesome! Then we got to the top of some dunes, laid on a board and got pushed down them! :D So fun. Afterwards we were covered in sand so got to use the showers and swimming pool at the nearby hotel before we headed off to Nazca for the night.

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