El Mejor Poo Poo del Mundo!

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So we´re in Peru. We flew from Guyaquil in Ecuador to Lima on the 21st July. Arrived in Peru in the evening and other than Heather being allowed to stay in Peru for 90 days and me for 60 days...not to eventful. Clearly I look dodgy...but then most of you knew that.

We had a little eventful start when we arrived at the start hotel for our GAP trip and discovered that they had changed the start hotel. The taxi we took from the airport had of course left by the time we realized this, but we got to the new hotel..if not a little pissed off.

The next morning was a free morning to explore Lima. Lima is huge with over 8 million people living here. The centre of the city looks like anywhere in Southern Europe with big palaces and Cathedrals. It is independence day in Peru on the 28th so there was flags everywhere and we´re looking forward to a big party on the 28th in Cusco. We went to the San Francisco catacomes which was fun. I especially like the pretty patterns arranged in the bones. The skull pit was a little gory.

The highlight for me was the museum of the Spanish Inquisition. Interesting to see where the phrase came from. Not so nice torture techniques...not just the Spanish that were evil but Í´m sure we were doing similar things in the middle ages too (to Canadians I suppose...).

In the Afternoon we met the rest of our group and took a local bus to Pisco to spend the night. This is a small town named for the brandy made around here. The Pisco sour is made with egg white, pisco, lemon juice and amgustine bitter - hmmmm. We did discover that I am the oldest person in the group...but only just older than Heather.

Not much sleep was had that night since the locals were having a party in the main square...until 5am. I did think at many points that I should get up and head to join them. A bright and early rise the next day to take a boat to the Ballestas islands. A large bird colony lives here and is protected. Heather enjoyed it - despite the fact that a large bird crapped on her leg. These islands are famous for the bird poop. At one point it was 50m deep! This was when the phrase the best poop in the world (el mejor poo poo del mundo! for future reference) was used...never to be used again I hope. But seriously the poop is used as a fertilizer in the western world and at one point the Spanish even went to war with the Peruvians over these islands (yes - unbelievably for the poop!).

We saw another species of penguins...and i have decided that our quest is to see all the worlds pengiuns...this is of course a great excues for lots of holidays. This one was slightly bigger than the galapagos ones(like 5 cm taller!).

We then drove up throught the desert and stopped at a Pisco distillary...they still crush the grapes by feet here...and I thought I could taste the delicate aroma of ...Neither Heather or I were fans of pisco...a little too strong for us.

Then we headed into an oasis in the desert for lunch before going sand dune buggy-ing which was so much fun. We screamed rather a lot and the shadows on the dune curves were amazing. We did some sand boarding and I managed a spectacular wipe out and ate some sand. I still have sand in my ear today. We had a lot of fun.

At the end of a busy day we ate some traditional Peruvian food cooked a bit like in New Zeland in a pit in the ground. It was put directly into the dirt and definately had a little earthy taste to it.

Today was a flight over the Nasca lines. Both Heather and I nearly puked due to motion sickness, but it was truely amzing. These lines are perfectly straight and created around 400 AD or so and are up to 30km long. From the air you see that there are animals 90m accross drawn in the lines. I rather liked the picture of the astronaut and the monkey. Pretty cool. Some people believe these are evidence of aliens existing...others think they are a complex mathematical model. Clearly though these are from the aliens...

Heather here - As an update on the Fried Foods Heather is Eating in South America... I´ve discovered Churros here! I know, you all thought they were only available during Stampede, but nope, they´re all over the place here.

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Photos

Lima main square..
But could have been anywhere in Southern Europe

Lima main square.
Fun apart from the pigeons

Dem bones...
The theory was to get buried beneath the church made you closer to god...

Sand sand everywhere...
Heather even wore sun screen...

Comments

[anonymous]

Why no photos of the poop? Or the lines? H