Lima, Paracas and Ica

After we crossed Ecaudor's border we stopped in a little town just inside Peru called Piura. The men left the women with the bags and went looking for accommodation around the town. After some exploring we finally found a decent spot but Neil and I are sure that the clerk thought we were bennies when the two of us went in and asked if they had a double room. He immediately smirked and said no. After we mentioned going back to the girls he had a sudden change of heart and said "Oh wait, actually I have two double rooms!" That quick turnaround had us convinced. I'm sure the fact that we were holding hands didn't help!!! That evening we hit the slots. There were a number of seedy casinos in the area and the girls were feeling lucky. We broke even and after a little more searching around the town we couldn't find a watering hole so we hit the hay

Off to Lima! We got a luxury bus for the 10 hour trip during which we were served a meal and enjoyed a nice offering of Legally Blonde 2 in Spanish. Delightful!

When we arrived the security was clearly visible for the Asia Pacific conference where a number of world leaders got together to discuss future investment and who's been seen kissing who. Vicki and I made a trip down the Malecon and got our first view of the Pacific which we will become entirely more familiar as time passes. That evening we hit the sauce. 4 Irish, confined to our room, drinking all sorts. It was a classy affair. After Laura passed out and Neil quickly followed suit it was left up to us two intrepid creatures to fly the flag and continue with the boozing. The next day, due to her immunity to the rum, Vicki was up doing cartwheels around the room from the early hours whereas her partner in crime was not so fortunate and neither were the other two. I felt crap! However not so bad as to deny the public my much anticipated return to the world of footy. The hostel organised a game of ball and who were we to refuse. With Vicki and Laura chanting a series of indistinguishable cheers and catching all the action shots, the game went off without a hitch. We sweated some of the drink out of us, thereby making us more attractive if that's possible and soon it was time to hit the showers

That evening we got back to a bit of normality and saw the new James Bond film in the cinema, which was a welcome change to the unusual lifestyle we have been leading for the past 3 months
After a couple of nights in Lima we said goodbye to Laura and Neil and then there were 2

We took an early morning bus to a little place on the west coast called Paracas. Known as the poor man's Galapagos, Paracas is the point of departure for the Islas Ballestas. We took a boat tour of these islands and saw many's the wild beast including sea lions, penguins, vultures and pelicans lazing about on the rocks and caves. Victoria aka Vicki Chattenborough was keen to give her insight into the various unusual names and habits of some of these creatures. After reaching dry land once more, we took a tour of the Peninsula de Paracas, a desert filled national reserve. This was quite a laid back deal and we stopped for a nice lunch in a remote fishing village. That evening we hopped on another bus and went on our way to the town of Ica

We stayed in a lagoon, 5km outside Ica, called Huacachina. It is beautifully located and something you'd expect to see in a film, surrounded on all sides by gigantic sand dunes as far as the eye can see. The following morning, us madsers partook in a spot of sand boarding. We hopped in a dune buggy driven by one of the local psychos and tore up and around the desert as if we were being chased. Thank God for seat belts. When we finally began sand boarding there was no instruction given which was encouraging although given the rotund caliber of our driver we weren't too surprised. There were two options - go down face first on your stomach, which was faster or try standing up and surf down. Vicki went with the former, I with the latter. The results were hilarious. We got countless sand burns, ate more sand than Sara Maguire on Dollymount strand when she was a nipper and brought home half the desert in our pockets and socks. Good times! After a quick shower we headed into Ica town to wait for our bus to our next destination. In a delightful turn of events we found out that there was maintenance works being done and there would be no electricity for the entire 6 hours we were hanging around the town. Luckily for us, Vicki recently acquired gambling addiction helped us along as we noticed that all the casinos were being powered by mobile generators so in we went for a quick run around the floor. Having finished up 5 soles (about 1 Euro) up we skipped off for an entire chicken between us in our local Norky's (what a name!) and made our way onto the bus to Arequipa

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