Peruuuuuuuu...

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Welcome to Peru!
Immediately once we crossed the border there's a really obvious change in scenery, it went from green to dry brown sandy landscapes. Crazy how quickly it's changed. Had desert on one side and the ocean on the other. Spent three days in Mancora a small town a few hours south of the border, relaxing on the beach and by the pool and indulging in the lovely food and dangerously good rum and vodka slushies. Played some beer pong with rum and coke, pool, darts, table tennis and lots of dancing of course. Fun times at Loki hostel Mancora!

Moving on to another beach further down the coast called Huanchaco, we camped here a few nights in a place right on the beach. Spent a morning in the nearby city of Trujillo which was lovely, beautiful main plaza and cathedral. Spent the afternoon on the beach watching lots of surfers, some massive waves here, pretty scary looking and the water is freezing so I wasn't tempted to learn! Spent another day visiting some temples nearby including the temple of the sun and moon and the mud city of Chan Chan.

The next travel day we climbed all the way from sea level up to the city of Huaraz in the Andes at an altitude of 3900m above sea level! Lea and I sat up front with Damo in the cab that afternoon, very exciting, amazing views along the way, we could see how the vegetation changed from really green to just rocks as we climbed higher. Passed some women and men siting randomly by the roadside or going about their business herding sheep in the fields in the middle of nowhere on the steepest inclines, I can no longer say I live in the middle of nowhere! The most spectacular view was as we approached the city we could see the highest peak of the Andes in the distance, Huascaran, beautiful.

As soon as we arrived I could feel the difference in altitude, I was getting short of breath a hell of a lot quicker than usual! We signed ourselves up for the trek to lake 69 the next day and went for some Chinese take away with soup in a plastic bag and settled for the night to watch a movie called touching the void, about two mountaineers who climbed the mountains nearby and a guy called Richard who did nothing really. These were the same moutain range we were going to hike in the next day so it was cool to see it from a hardcore mountaineers perspective!

Early start for the hike, we left the hostel and drove just 10mins only to be stopped by a blockade on the road, teachers protesting and brought the town to a standstill. We sat and watched for a while but there was no sign of it ending, they were lighting fires, throwing eggs and stones at people who tried to pass the barrier, not a pretty sight but still we couldn't stop watching! In the end we turned back and went to another spot to hike to another lake called Lago Churup, a slightly shorter but tougher version of Lago 69 and just as picturesque. We started climbing and within minutes we all felt the effects of altitude. I was breathing as if I was out for a run while going at a snails pace uphill, and my heart was going ninety too, very strange sensation. After about 2.5hrs hiking up, some hairy rock climbing holding on to cables and plenty Kodak moments we reached the lake at 4450m it was breathtaking, a placid blue lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. We had some lunch there and I had what has to be the most impressive view I will ever have while having a pee!

The trek down was tough on the knees and the rocks we had climbed up were even hairier to negotiate on the descent! But we all survived just about. I was bed bound with a headache from the altitude that evening but all was good the next day. We explored the town of Huaraz where we happened upon some more less than friendly protests. Got barricaded into the post office while posting a birthday card to my sister which was a surprise. It was just kicking off when we were let out and we swiftly headed in the opposite direction!

My final journey in Rosita, the big yellow Tucan truck was from Huaraz to Lima back down to sea level 😞 leaving Huaraz we stopped at a petrol station which happened to provide a great view of Huascaran, photo time! There was also a random sheep market going on there, fun to watch. The views on the road from Huaraz were unreal, the mountain range is so vast stretching on forever. As it was my last travel day we stopped to take a group photo with the mountains in the background and of course our truck Rosita.

Lima is massive, it took us an hour and half of driving through the city to get to hotel. We stayed in the old centre part which was nice, beautiful plazas and lots of shopping! I wandered with Lea, Isabelle and Lauren to see the plazas and a park, also wandered into a lovely dodgy area to get my bus ticket, passing by some nice prostitutes along the way..went to a light fountain show that evening which was cool, followed by a night out in the Miraflores area of Lima, my last night with the Tucan group!

I left the gang the next morning, a blubbering mess of course and got myself on a bus to Huachachina a tiny village 4hrs south of Lima. Arrived there and within minutes of getting to my dorm I'd befriended two lovely Canadians, Billy and Stephanie and I'd signed myself up to do a sandboarding and dune bugging tour with them an hour later! Brilliant evening in the sand dunes, I was fairly bricking it, it had been compared with a roller coaster in the book and I don't like roller coasters! But this was much more fun! Driving up and down dunes at high speed and then stopping at the top of tall steep ones so that we could be pushed over the edge lying belly down on a sandboard, legs flailing in the air! I ate a lot of sand that day. Such fun though.

Next morning I went on a tour to Isla Ballestas a bunch of islands a bit north of Huachachina, nicknamed the poor mans Gallapagos Islands. The place stank something awful but was great to see lots of sea lions, some dolphins, jelly fish, starfish, sea spiders, penguins and a serious amount of birds and poop. Also when I got off the boat the Tucan tour were waiting to board so got to chat with them for a few minutes!Returning to Huachachina, myself, the two Canadians and an English guy in the dorm all decided to go camping in the desert that night. So at 6pm we got another fun dune buggy ride about 20mins into the desert and down into a dip surrounded by dunes for shelter. There they had a campfire lighting with a BBQ cooking and a big jug of rum and coke waiting for us. After the BBQ the guys packed up and left us with two tents and a campfire to fend for ourselves! It was pitch dark but we had our headlamps. We climbed up the dune which proved difficult, it was so steep and the sand kept falling burying our feet deep. We lay at the ridge looking up at the stars. The sky was clear so had a great view. We clambered along the ridge around the top of the dune to the other side and eventually made my way back to the campfire. Got some cool photos!spent hours laying in the sand at the fire looking at the sky. I counted 9 shooting stars that night! It got so cold that night, not much sleep was had! We were buried in a dense mist and fog in the morning until we were picked up at 8am. Amazing night.

That day I left with the Canadians for Nazca. Went straight to the airport there to get a flight over the nazca lines. They're drawings and shapes carved into the earth in the desert by the incas hundreds of years ago and they stretch for miles. Took a Very bumpy flight in a tiny plane and saw the monkey, hummingbird, parrot, dog among others. Weird but interesting. The location of some lines and shapes have been linked to the rise and setting of the sun on the solstice days. Spent the eve ing in the town and bumped into the Tucan crew again! Went to a planetarium show that night which explained a bit about the lines. Hopped on overnight bus to Arequipa at 10pm...

First day in Arequipa was a rest day. Stayed at the amazing house hostel, the amazing thing about this place were the super comfy beds and the free pancakes with banana and caramel for brekkie, so healthy, yum!Spent a couple of days exploring the city, really pretty place, beautiful square and cathedral. I visited a museum of the ice princess, Juanita, a 13year old girl who was sacrificed on top of the nearby volcano by the incas and her body was preserved as she was frozen, her body was found and is now in the museum, creepy as!Also visited the Santa Catalina Monastery, it occupies an entire block and is a little city within its walls. Really impressive, nuns used to live there in isolation and some still live there in a new section. It's beautifully maintained with streets lined with flowers and you can see living quarters to kitchens and beautifully painted courtyards.

Spent three more days near Arequipa trekking in Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world. It began at 3am Friday morning, after a few hours drive, we stopped to see some condors soaring in the canyon, then we hiked downhill to the base of the canyon in about 3hrs. My poor knees didn't like it much but there were spectacular views. Spent the night in a tiny village called San Juan de Chucho in little cabins with no electricity. In the evening we climbed down to the river and went net fishing and caught some trout for dinner!We trekked another 3hrs the next morning to an oasis, a little bit of paradise! It was like a resort with pool, huge gardens with colourful flowers, basic cabins and hammocks and surrounded by the huge canyon on all sides. I whiled away my evening in a hammock taking in the scenery. Starting at 5am the next morning we began the climb back up to the top of the canyon..tough enough but I really enjoyed it, managed to do what should have taken 3hrs in 2hrs10mins, was well chuffed! A brilliant few days.Returned to Arequipa for one more day and unfortunately my bus to la Paz was delayed a day due to strikes in la Paz..I made good use of my extra day by buying some crayons and having a make 'n' do day and made a lovely banner for Sinead and Bernie's arrival in La Paz. Said adios to my two Canadian friends and now writing this I'm entering my sixth hour waiting in the bus station for a 1.30am bus..zzzz...Bolivia please stop striking and let me in!Peru..I'll be back...

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