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Published: April 13th 2007
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We arrived in Lima late at night and took a taxi to our hotel in Mira Flores, the affluent area of Lima which had a more Mediterranean feel to it. As we drove through the city it was refreshing to smell the sea breeze coming off the Pacific which was in complete contrast to the polluted city air of Quito.
Our first couple of days were spent checking out the area; the shopping malls (quite Americanised), the beach and even a little cultural visit to Convento De San Francisco. In the evenings we ate at restaurants in a complex that overlooked the Pacific, with the sunset it was very romantic.
On our second day we spent the morning having surfing lessons with a Peruvian ex punk called Edger who loved the Clash, Sex Pistols and Boddingtons Bitter!!! Unfortunately we forgot the camera so no evidence exists of our exploits so you’ll have to do with the narrative. Tom looked like a giant seal in his wet suit and we were worried a Great White would mistake him for lunch.
The lesson started on land and Gemma excelled at ignoring the instructors demonstration, having to repeat the movements
Just for Jo!
First starbucks! Although unfortunately the card only works in Europe.. Will now have to trek round there too!!! many times before being allowed anywhere near a wave. However in the water it was a different story altogether. Gemma was a natural, well kind of, she managed to ride a wave standing up once (apparently...although no independent witnesses were found) and had numerous other half baked attempts. Tom on the other hand was just plain abysmal. He had enough trouble paddling out to the waves let alone riding them. Balance standing up on a board?...no chance..he couldn´t balance lying down and was heard complaining that his board wasn’t ´regulation size´ .
Bruised, battered and in Tom’s case beaten, we finished our two hour lesson and spent the rest of the day recovering in bed. This is where Tom (sad bastard!!) spent the happiest 2 hours of his trip to date. Flicking through the cable channels Tom came across a 90 minute repeat of West Ham beating Arsenal at the Emirates...now if there is one thing better than watching that, its watching it with south american commentators shouting “goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal BoBBy ZaMoraaaa Goligoligoligoligoligolg” or Tom´s favourite and which he has repeated many times “Super Super Mocho, Super Robert Green”. Gemma thinks Tom thinks he can now speak spanish!!!
In
the morning before we met up with our Gap group we visited Convento De San Francisco, a monastery in Lima’s old town (Gemma finally got her way after watching apparently too much football...if there is such a thing). We had a guided tour around the church and Tom actually found it quite interesting. We had a mooch around a couple of markets and came across what looked like a Peruvian Pop Idol´s rejects party!!! The biggest rush of the day though came from travelling around Peru in one of their taxis. Like Ecuador they don’t use mirrors or signals and just rely on their horns, unlike Ecuador though, they have three lane motorways with four or five lanes of cars.
We met up with our GAP tour group and in the late afternoon went off to Pisco, the first and smelliest town on our adventures to date. The town is next to a massive fish processing plant and stinks of fish carcases all day long, even in the hotel room!!!! Nice!!! However we were lucky enough to have an exclusive live performance by the Three Amigos, Panpipe tastic mate!!! We stayed in Pisco as it is close to the
Tom, does culture!
Not really loving it though! tours for the Ballestas islands, which is home to sea lions, seals, Penguins!!! and many many different types of migratory birds.
The next morning we had an early start (6.30am!!!) for our tour. We took a speed boat out to the island to see the wildlife. The highlight of the trip was seeing two sealions ruck over who would have the best bit of rock for sun bathing. Basically one sea lion bullied the other so it fell off the rock and into the sea. Undeterred, the smaller and more cunning sea lion dragged itself back onto the rock before biting its foe on the bum. As it turned around the smaller sea lion snuck around the other side and pushed the bigger aggressor off the rock. Very sly and very funny to watch from only 7 foot away.
In the afternoon we went to the sand dunes that make up part of the Nazco Dessert. The highest of these is the largest in the world and a massive 2100 feet high. A Terry Savalas look alike sped us around the dunes. We were expecting a nice leisurely drive across the desert before attempting to sand board. What
we got was a scary but exhilarating ride up and down dunes that seemed like vertical drops. The driver (Terry) took great pleasure in hearing us scream and used it as motivation to go faster and higher. We stopped at peaks of various dunes which were each of differing heights. We were each given a snow board and had the option of either going down on our stomachs or standing up. Lying down meant you went a lot faster and was better fun on the larger dunes. In attempting to stand up most of the group spent the majority of time on their arses. Tom did have one good run though that was caught on camera, but he was fortunate that this attempt was the only one caught on camera. After a number of attempts we went and relaxed at a nearby hotel pool which was the best way to end probably our favourite day so far.
Our hotel that night was just outside Nazco, a small and peculiar town where 60% of the people work in Tourism. The town is in the middle of the Nazco desert and the average temperature is 46 degrees in the summer and
32 degrees in the winter, just right for Tom & Gemma´s complexions!!!! Tom didn’t think we’d survive the night at the hotel as he thought it was like a setting for a murder mystery. It was located a mile down the end of a dirt track with a high wall enclosing it. The hotel staff seemed like they’d seen too much sun and the layout of the hotel was reminiscent of the old mental asylums as well as being covered in the moths from ´Silence of the Lambs´. Everything creaked and wined when it was switched on and we were just waiting to be taken out one by one.
Our next day was an anti climax after the fun we had the day before and seemed a bit like a school trip. We went to a pottery (Rock and Roll!!!) which was run by a Peruvian Pat Butcher who made various pots that were shaped like phallic symbols. The tour guide apparently described the history and culture of Peruvian society through its pottery and later through the mummies at its cemeteries, but nobody could understand a word she was talking about and it was more like a sketch from
the fast show…scorchio!!!
We also had the chance to fly over the Nazca Lines. These are massive drawings of various animals and shapes that date back to pre Inca times 2000 years ago. The latest thinking behind them is that the local farming population carved these massive drawings into the desert planes (some covering over a square mile) as offerings to the gods to ensure they had rain. The symbols used were of animals that the Shaman (holy men) would also need when embarking on spiritual out of body adventures when communicating with the gods. We decided against the flights due to Tom’s vertigo and Gemma’s tightness, although Tom was keen to try some of the Shaman potion’s that helped them with their out of body experiences. Unfortunately for Tom these weren’t on offer.
We spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool before getting on a night bus to our next stop….Arequipa
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Faye
non-member comment
WOW AGAIN GUY'S
Your trip sounds excellent, the pictures are wicked and gemma your look stunning and very well in them, and Tom looks more human now as when i first meet him at your leaving do he could'nt even focus straight so say hello to him again for me hun. Gemma was it cold when you were in fransico cause you had your jacket and scarfe with a hot drink, Bibi was asking and iv gave her your web site cause she would like to see what you are up too aswell, Adrian,Judy,Natasha,Angela .C.and Vince said hello and are all missing you loads, anyway girl im always checking to see how you are and what adventures you have been on take care and have a great time love faye.xxxxxxx