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Published: September 30th 2005
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Arriving in Lima two days before our tour started gave us time to explore Lima with Jason, Katheryn and Cynthia before they flew home.
We celebrated Ella's birthday in style at the Rosa Nautica, a top class restaurant situated at the end of a beautiful pier on the seafront, with the waves crashing around below us as we ate. We enjoyed cocktails and gorgeous local fish and although it was pricey by Peru´s standards at around 25 pounds a head, it was well worth it.
The next day we explored the city and took a taxi to a pottery museum in an attempt to get a bit of culture. The best bit was the Erotic collection - basically rude pottery depicting things like "dead woman touching dead mans penis" which amused us no end and made the trip worthwhile in itself.
On the way back to Miraflores - the area where we were staying we passed through some very poor suburbs and the taxi driver pointed out an orphanage on one side of the road and a mental hospital on the other. He told us that people went mad from not having any food and they would then
be put in the hospital!
That night we enjoyed the hospitality of a friend of Alex´s aunt who we had not met before. He gave us lots of champagne and a barbeque on the terrace of his apartment overlooking the city. Thanks Carlton for a great evening!
The next day Ella and I waved a tearful farewell to our friends until we see them again in Oz, and left Lima on the Kumka tour truck with 19 fellow passengers. Party over, this is where the serious travelling really begins, with 3 nights of continuous camping ahead of us!
Well we were supposed to be doing serious hardcore travelling which means travelling light! I had been stressing for three days as I hadn´t brought enough knickers & t-shirts. However I had squeezed in my hair straighteners which I made Katheryn promise not to tell Ella about on the condition that she could use them!..She grassed me up on the first opportunity!..Then Ella turns up to catch the truck and it turns out she has swapped her back pack with Jason giving her an extra 20 litres on mine (Ella "yes but I have to carry it!!!, so I´m
paying now, I have huge biceps!)...
The first camping stop was Paracas National Park where we camped on the beach. A baptism of fire as there were no facilities (i.e. toilets!) and it was very windy as we attemped to put up our tent, despite sensibly taking shelter behind the truck. Even with our limited camping expereince we managed to get our tent up first and it was still there in the morning! After dinner and a few marshmallows toasted on the campfire with the waves crashing on the beach behind us, we decided the camping had the potential to be quite fun.
Up early the next day (but not early enough as we slept in and Ella missed her breakfast cooking duty) we packed up our tents and set off for the fishing village of Paracas. Here we took a boat trip to the Ballestas Islands where we saw a huge colony of sea lions comorants and Peruvian Booby birds.
Then it was on through the desert to Huacachina for a bit of sandboarding and zooming around the desert in buggys. Having attempted snowboarding in France last season and failing miserably, I decided to give the
sanboarding a miss as I didn´t want to be getting sand out of my knickers for the next week. If they´d offered me a pair of skis I may have considered it!
That afternoon the group were given the choice to stay and relax by the pool or drive another two hours to Nazca. Obviously we stayed, Ella and her team had to cook dinner which was lovely and we all survived!!?? The hotel offered us the opportunity to upgrade our tent to a dorm for 7 people for about two pounds - needless to say we bit their hand off - after all when it comes down to it, we really are 5 star hotel girls at heart!...Actually after a night of snoring from the other people in the dorm we were quite looking forward to camping in our lovely number 12 tent!
Up at 6 the next day we headed off to Nazca to take a flight in a tiny 5 seater plane over the Nazca Lines. These are mysterious huge shapes of birds, spiders and astronauts on the desert floor that were allegedly etched over 2000 years ago.
From Nazca we headed off to
Puerto Inca to camp on the beach, stopping on the way to see the mummies at an ancient cemetary in the middle of the desert. They didn´t look well!
Setting up camp on the beach alongside two other tours gave us the opportunity for a party and a bit of bonding with our fellow passengers. Being in the group on cooking duty (Alex that is) - we were presented with 12 whole chickens to gut, dismantle and cook on the camp fire. I quickly downed a couple of glasses of the "all you can drink for 10 soles punch" to calm my nerves and the rest of the evening was a bit of a blur. Thankfully the chicken was cooked and eaten and nobody was ill, so a good night was had by all.
Insert from Ella... Actually Alex was totally wasted by about 8.30pm and insisted on moshing in the pitt with John and Amy, La tania stylee!... She got hit on by some dodgy Aussie guy and Alex shouted to me at the top of her voice to get this guy away from me!!!?? The whole group heard!
Around midnight after Alex had walked
around in a circle with Amy for the tenth time saying oh, where is everyone I decided to put her to bed.......I left her and went to say goodnight to the others and when I came back Alex must have had the munchies as she had tucked into her treasured bag of peanuts which half eaten where lying next to her. When I asked her if she had eaten them she said in her most indignant voice "no I was sleeping"!!!???
Enough said and I went to sleep. About 3am I was violently woken by Alex crying Ella, Ella I can´t get out of the tent ,I cant open the door and I need to go to toilet. Sleepily I found my torch and shone the light at the tent door it was wide open!!!???......Alex woke the next morning and doesn´t remember a thing but then neither did the other members of the group!
Back to Alex.....
Nursing our hangovers, we set off the next day on an 8 hour drive through the desert and along the wild coastline to the city of Arequipa from where we are writing this update. Arequipa is the second
largest city in Peru and a lot nicer than Lima. We enjoyed our first taste of traditional Peruvian food, feasting on fried guinea pig and alpaca steak - Ella of course went for the veggie option at this point!
We have spent the day seeing the sights of Arequipa. Firstly visiting Juanita - an Inca mummy preserved in ice who was sacrificed to the inca gods 500 years ago and then wandering around the beautiful Monastario de Santa Catalina. This is a secret city within the city were 450 nuns lived with their servants in the 16th century. Not quite what you would expect a convent to be like, the nuns all had their own room and at least one servant each - we thought about checking ourselves in!
So we are enjoying Peru and the company of our fellow passengers - a good crowd, all around our age and half of whom are Australian.
Tomorrow we head off to the Colca Canyon and then on to Cuzco and the Inca Trail.
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Coco (aka Kat)
non-member comment
Love it!
Girls - you found any RnB music yet.....i can always send you the 80s CD from Venezuela Ella if you like...????!?! Hmmmm Alex so much for 'I'm not drinking at all on this trip' - that lasted for all of a day then!! Keep having fun. xxx