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Juliaca
Corrogated sheets on a bicycle, phah, how about a sofa.Hello again. I trust you have all had time to read our last blog where we were just about to get on a bus in Puno.
We had seats 1 and 2 at the front of the bus and above the driver, with the large windshield protecting us from oncoming bugs and wind. It was somewhat reminiscent of going to the cinema! The bus went via Juliaca, a town much larger than Puno. Our seats gave us a great view of Peruvian life and we were amused to see the bicycle rickshaws carrying people with large tyres. We were more surprised when we saw these bicycle rickshaws carrying corrugated iron sheets, a 3 seater settee and even one with a wardrobe, all with a passenger frantically holding on to their newly purchased goods. Somehow I don’t see that happening at Ikea. The front seats of the bus did provide a great panorama of the landscape between Juliaca and Arequipa as we descended off the high plains into the volcano region. Passing lakes of flamingos, we were confronted by El Misti mountain, an active volcano that looks surprisingly like a volcano (no, I am not mad, most volcanos look like
The road to Arequipa
Its vast and flat up in the Andes mountains). A taxi from the bus station took us to our hotel, a rather comfortable place with a pool - shame it’s a bit chilly to go for a swim.
Arequipa has a colonial centre (don’t they all) which is quite pleasant to walk around. Leanny had found a nice jumper in Puno in a shop called Kuna. Well, surprise surprise, there was one in Arequipa and all I saw was dust as she raced in. There was a rather pleasant shop assistant who, it turns out, is the nephew of a well known Perth restaurateur. I tried out some Spanish on him, which he understood. Anyway Leanny got a new dress, so she was pretty happy. We dined in the hotel as it was pretty decent food and quite cheap. Their wine was 20 soles cheaper than local restaurants bargain, should've got 2.
We wanted to get out to Chivay and Colca Canyon to see the Andean Condors so we booked yet another organised tour for 2 days, as it was just as efficient as going it alone. Pulling out of Arequipa at 8.00am, the roads were surprisingly quiet, particularly when compared to the daily
El Misti
Now that's how a volcano should look commute elsewhere in the world. However, it later dawned on me that it was Sunday! (This is hapening more frequently as we forget what day it is - oh dear what a shame!). Our first stop was a viewpoint just above the city to look at the 2 volcanoes that embrace Arequipa. Being over 4,500m they are covered with snow and make for a pretty contrast to the ugly urban sprawl below. A small valley in front of the lookout is still used for crops and is green and lush. It is a pleasant oasis with a stunning backdrop, although our guide was quite positive about the fact that the land will be developed as they have plenty of other land for farming. It is at times like these that you appreciate planning controls such as London’s green belt.
Heading back up the mountain we passed a very large cement factory, which our guide advised created a big pollution problem for the city and many people complained. Now they operate the plant at night and the problem has gone away (gotta love Peruvian logic!). After an hour we were back on the high plains of the Andes and
it still surprises us how vast and flat the area is (it is bounded by mountains). The road splits to link to Puno (the way we arrived) and Cusco / Chivay. The road to Chivay quickly loses blacktop and becomes a dusty track, although oddly an hour later it is blacktop again. The scenery is very impressive and soon we were winding our way back down the mountainside into the valley of the Colca River. Passing through the town of Chivay we headed to our hotel in the village of Coporquaque, where we had lunch and a walk for our free afternoon! (included in the cost of the tour) Chivay is locally famous for hot springs and included in our tour was a bus ride there, albeit rather slowly without a made road. The springs are at a very pleasant 39 degrees, well pleasant if you keep away from the pipe feeding the pool - that was damn hot!
The hotel staff awoke us at 5.00am by tapping on our door. Our neighbours were either heavy sleepers or acted as we felt. It took quite a few knocks for them to respond. I sometimes think this is not
Colca Canyon
Downstream from Chivay a holiday! We headed out to the Colca Canyon to the condor lookout and were pleased that a large group of condors took flight that morning (about 17). These birds are like a cross between a vulture and a turkey with a wingspan of about 3m. Whilst not a pretty creature, watching them glide on the thermal currents is quite amazing. For an hour they circled below us, flying higher with each pass until they reached the top of the canyon. Several flew directly overhead a few metres away so a fine view of these creatures was to be had. Once all the birds reached the top of the canyon, they flew off over the mountain and that was it. Walking back to our bus we met up with a NZ couple whom we had met in Samaipata weeks ago. After a brief chat we rejoined our group for the bus back to Chivay with stops in some villages on the way. The Colca Canyon is suggested by our guide book to be the second deepest canyon, but this is by virtue of the mountains either side of the canyon. The canyon itself is only a few hundred metres deep
(from where we stood) and forms the bottom of a rather picturesque valley. As canyons go, it didn’t have much wow factor.
As a captive audience, tour groups take you to their “own” restaurant for lunch, although this one wasn’t too bad. But as usual the Peruvian pipe band comes on to busk and if you don’t buy their CD they expect a tip. I think most tourists must get sick of this as all of our table ignored Don Carlos (that wasn’t his name) the very tanned Spanish singer in tight black pants, as he approached our table with his CDs and a tip tray. I remember many years ago when I lived in London, there was a Peruvian pipe band that busked in our town. It was different back then. Nowadays they are prolific and it brings to mind an episode of South Park where all the Peruvian pipe bands were deported from America under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Having been subjected to too many of these band playing “If I Could”, I can relate to that South Park episode! After lunch it was a 3 hour ride back to Arequipa at the hands of our less
Colca Canyon
The early morning view from our hotel window. than experienced driver.
We returned to Arequipa for a few days rest and relaxation as our next movement was going to be hectic. We departed on Wednesday night at 9.00pm for the overnight bus to Nazca. The bus had big comfy leather seats, but we still didn’t sleep much. By 7.00am we were in Nazca and met by our tour guide to be taken to the local airport for our flight over the Nazca Lines. No safety demonstration was provided, we just jumped into the back of a 6 seat Cessna, chocks away and sped off down the runway. The flight was 45 minutes and passed over the main lines. Actually most of the lines are pictures of creatures (geoglyphs and biomorphs) although there are some very straight lines there too. The lines are quite fascinating and are worth the cost of the flight (US$145 for the 2 of us - cheaper than flying to Gero and a lot nicer!).
We then had a pre-arranged trip to the cemetery of Chauchilla and two Spanish guys from our flight were also doing the same trip. Our guide walked back to his little car (Noddy has a bigger
Colca Canyon
Condor in flight, they're quick too. car) and told the driver to get out so he could fit the four of us in. It wasn’t too bad a squeeze, but you wouldn’t want to go far. With far too much weight in the back, the noddymobile car scraped its way out to the cemetery for a rather ghoulish encounter. The cemetery dates from 300BC, but sadly has been continually robbed of anything of value (people were buried with jewellery etc) until the 1950s when the Government took control of the site and restored 13 grave sites for tourists to gawk at. The area is one of the driest places in the world and thus the bodies (bones) are well preserved. There are some cool bodies and so many album covers for Megadeth! Back in town we were obliged to visit a pottery museum (actually interesting) and a gold factory (mildly interesting) before we were taken back to town. Unlike Egypt, there was no hard sell at the two sites and they happily waved us off even though we bought nothing (our guide advised us that the middle finger wave is customary here).
As we had completed our organised reip in nasca, we were left
Colca Canyon
Looking upstream from Condor lookout. to our own to find lunch. We choose a chicken restaurant, which had a bit of a do on that day. After half an hour we asked to have our food to-go as the bus was due to leave in 15 minutes. With chicken and chips in a bag we boarded a bus for Paracas, some 3 hours further north.
It was reasonably late by the time we arrived in Paracas as we were delayed in a small town by a procession for something (probably religious, but could have been for fun). Our hotel was a bit of a sorry old place, but they kindly gave us a front room with an ocean view. Having had a full-on day, our firm bed was a welcome relief. Early the following morning the hotel manager woke us up to let us know breakfast was being served. We hadn’t asked for a wake up call, but he knew we had a 7.50am pick-up for our last organised trip to the Islas Ballestas. Our bus took us the 3 minute walk down the hill to the port and our big speedboat. The islands are rock outcrops in the ocean full of birds
Nasca Lines
Picture of the Condor, although hard to see. and are famous for the guano (bird shit) they scrape up and use for fertiliser. Our guide pointed out several “humble” penguins. They didn’t look humble but rather quite cute (they are actually Humboldt penguins). The islands are full of seals, penguins and birds and stink real bad, but the trip was worth it and we got some great photographs (you guys better brace yourselves, we have taken over 4,500 photographs to date and we’ve only been gone 3 months!). The ilsands are referred to as the poor man's Galapogas, so we don't need to go there now.
Paracas is a sleepy coastal town of typical Spanish architecture (what ever that may actually be) and has a rampant building programme. In 10 years this town will probably resemble San Antonio in Ibiza, but without the high rise. Saturday afternoon we caught the bus to Lima and a taxi got us to the Hotel Gran Bolivar in Plaza San Martin. This is a lovely regal hotel in the centre of Lima which is now quite cheap (US$75) due to the terrorist problems Lima had many years ago. The hotel is very olde world and is reminiscent of the hotel
in the Shining, with long ornate corridors (Little Pigs was very tempting). We were provided with a internal suite, which at face value was excellent. Upon entry it was quiet and quaint and we even had our own sitting room. Happy in our find we popped next door to KFC for a feed before retiring for the night.
Our return to the room was shocking to find there was a party at full volume in the courtyard below. At 1.00am I complained and the desk clerk gave us another room over the hallway “to sleep“. This was a little better, but there were 2 nightclubs across the street. If that wasn't bad enough there must be a rule in Lima that if you don’t honk your horn when you drive, you must be gay. By 4.00am I had had enough and went back to our previous room and sat and read whilst the party continued for another half hour below. Finally it quietened down and we got some sleep only to be awoken at 7.00am by a television in the same function room (I thought it was the cleaners and went down to have a go, but the
Nasca Lines
Hummingbird room was full of Japs). Well ,we were assured that there were no functions on Sunday night so we stayed and thankfully it was blissfully quiet.
Sunday we spent looking around the city and went to the movies (Wolverine and Star Trek) for the price of one person for one movie back home). The first cinema had a poor picture but the second cinema (recommended in our guide book) was great. They even had girlies coming around asking if you wanted drinks and popcorn - how cool is that.
Monday we caught our flight from Lima to Caracas. You have to pay airport tax to leave (US$31) so the government can employ slackers to sit around and make the place look busy (they are pretty lazy here). The exchange rate is 3 to 1 everywhere, except the airport who use the daily rate, so we were 40 centavos short (15c) and they would not let us off (ars***les). Further to my public announcement for charity, a kindly Spaniard gave us 50 centavos so we could get our tax stamp to leave. Yep, same everywhere, you can’t avoid taxes!! That evening we arrived in Caracas confronted by
Nasca Lines
Tree and Hands. Remember they did these from the ground, there is no evidence they had alien assistance!! masked officials. Swine flu is getting closer and you can't get a bacon sandwich anywhere (let's not talk about a decent cup of tea!).
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