Desert, desert, and lines in the desert

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There was a noticeable difference after entering Peru from Ecuador; rather filthy, arid flat land, slums, crazy 70’s American cars. Our first stop was a little beach resort called Punta Sal. We were suppose to camp however I checked into a hotel will a pool, genius idea! The beach was rather wind swept and the surroundings were basically dry rocky hills. Jogging down the beach in the mornings was the highlight as there were billions of tiny little crabs scurrying around and freaky looking red faced vultures sitting on fence poles surveying the area, up to no good I imagine. I spent a lot of time lying by the pool on the first day there, the rest of the tour spent the entire day watching a pig on a spit roast they were cooking for dinner - pork, pork, pork. This is the point Kara and Jonson caught up with the tour, hooray! The following day Kara and I were on cooking duties, yes on this trip there is roasters and duties … a little weird, moving forward. We were on fish duty, they had bought massive fishes, the larges was about 80cms long, we had to stuff and wrap. The boys cooked them on the beach BBQ, slightly over cooked in the end, but not a bad meal.

Our next stop was another beach town; Huanchaco. The drive was the same as previous - desert and more desert, ocean on the right. We did make a stop at the very modern Lambayeque Museum, this was a rather fascinating place displaying booty from near by tombs - it was good to finally be doing something cultural. The VIPs in the time were buried with articles required for the next life and dressed to the nines; lots and lots of gold. There were patches of crops on route, the Peruvian government had commissioned an Israeli company to put in place an irrigation system using water from the Andes, this is the case right the way down the coast. I once again opted for a hotel room with Kara and Jonson rather than camp. Kara and I were on a full cooking day! We were up early to make a big fry-up our task was scrambled eggs for 16, the pan was not burnt at the end of the exercise. Some of the muppets from the tour were still up drinking, hmmm, am I on a Contiki Tour?? It was a brilliant day of site seeing, first stop was Chan Chan. This was a massive mud-brick city made up of 9 palaces, it was the very impressive home of the Chinu civilization, they were around before the Inca. But the Inca did manage to rule eventually. If you didn’t know you could just zoom past the place and think it was sand piles. At each site we visited that day there were these filthy hairless dogs, they are so hot blooded they are used as water bottles, nothing I would be taking to bed! Next stop was the Pyramid of the Sun and the Moon. There were heaps of tombs and art on the walls, it was still in the process of being excavated. Apparently there are thousands of these type of places but Peru doesn’t have the funds to excavate them all at once.
Peru is the largest producer of asparagus in the world!
We then went into Trujillo, it is the 3rd largest city in Peru, and it felt like it, people everywhere. The main plaza was nice, very well maintained, lots of bright pretty colours. Kara and I bought the compulsory 2007 fluro yellow glasses, it was new years eve the following night. Carrying on with our cooking duties, we did a spag bol which by all accounts was a roaring success, obviously I didn’t sample the dish.

Next stop, Lima, it was a long, long drive, out the window was sand, sand, sand. On arrival in Lima Kara and I headed for the fancy hotel, which is famous for making the best Pisco Sours, delightful but very potent drink - especially when ordered Cathedral size. So this was New Years Eve, we had dinner at the hotel then headed out to a bar. It was a very ‘A’ for average NYE … moving on. Lima had two massive plazas with churches and colonial buildings joined by a pedestrian shopping street. We spend most of our time in Lima by the coast; Miraflores and Barranco - there was a bit more character out there. As you can probably tell, I wont be rushing back to Lima in any kind of a hurry. It was rather interesting leaving Lima, we drove past the slums, which there are a lot of in the hills as people from the country side move to the cities looking for work. The city have been trying to improve the quality of life for these people and had built big long yellow stairs up the side of the hills so the people have better access to their shacks, it looked very strange.

We took a trip to the Ballestes Islands, close to the tiny fishing village of Paracas. We all jumped on a speed boat, we now being 26 people as more people joined the tour in Lima, and had a look at a candle type drawing in the rock, it must have been about 80-100m. After that we zoomed out to the Islands, got super close to pelicans, penguins, gannets, sea lions, the odd seagull, and other birds I forget the names of. Grand! These Island are a large source of income for Peru. There was a massive War over these Islands early 1900’s, as they are rich in fertilizer, i.e. bird poo. Chile ultimately won this war as England entered the war on their side, this was due to a crazy act by the Bolivians. The Bolivians sent the Queen of England a donkey as a ‘gift’ / warning not to enter the war, bold and detrimental move, Bolivia lost all its coast line in that war. We stayed in Pisco that evening, it was a complete slum. The following morning we drove to a Oasis - Huacachina, it was kinda spooky. A small lake with reeds, plus pollution, surrounded by a few palm trees and massive sand dunes, strange. After lunch we headed to Peru’s largest and most famous vineyard - Tacama … now we are talking! A vineyard in the middle of the desert you ask … yes very odd. Down a duty road we came across bright crimson buildings of the old monastery (since turned into the vineyard), the Spanish monks were the first to plant the vines, they needed the wine for communion of course. Interestingly they used the technique of flooding the vineyard as a means of providing water, thus wine can be produced in the desert. We tasted 4 average wines and the Pisco (yuck!), Kara and I ended up buying a few bottles, can leave without doing that!

Nazca was the next stop, we drove through more desert, desert, desert to get there. I camped! Not sure I can blame the camping, but the following morning I awoke with very sore intestines … the runs, great. But I soldiered on and did the Nazca Lines flight. The mysterious Lines are legendary; parallel lines and geometrical figures were etched into the desert floor thousands of years ago. They included drawings of a whale, monkey, hummingbird, dog, spider and what looks like a spaceman, to name a few. And these lines are enormous. The flight itself was an experience, a 4 seater light aircraft, catching every bump and knock from the wind. The worst part was the ‘left side’, ‘right side’, circling motions around the etchings, urgh, stomach all over the place. Even give my delicate situation I managed not to puke, Kara was not so lucky, blah… but not in the plane. We drove to Puerto Inca in the afternoon, I slept and felt sick, but I am fairly sure out the window was desert left side, pacific right side. I obviously couldn’t camp so it was a room for me, not too upset about that. Not very exciting time at this small beach, the only thing going on was one of the boys deciding to stay in the pool 10hrs (after drinking all night and jumping in there pissed at 8am). He managed the task and jumped out very wrinkly and boozed to a hearty round of applause. Kara and I were once again on cooking, we had to make this rice chicken mince dish, it was a lot of effort for a very average outcome. There were a few people sick the following day, I would not like to blame the blue mince.

Luckily I was on the mend for the 8 hour drive from the coast to Arequipa, we passed lots of sand. There were not many facilities around so we had to make loo stops on the cliff edge looking out to the Pacific. Kara was involved in a very unlucky incident at one of these stops, she managed to wee all over the leg over her jeans as the wind suddenly changed direction. I obviously had to laugh heartily, tremendous stuff. Arequipa has been great there is a cute main plaza with the standard church and colonial buildings. The highlight has been a mountain bike trip we took down to Arequipa from the foot hills of the volcano Mt Misit. We drove up in a jeep to about 3200m and took off down hill, I can’t say I was feeling very confident, fingers gripping the brakes for dear life and every bone in my body being jarred. I was a long way last in the pack. But it was a great ride through a couple of little villages and fields where locals were working. Our first up hill was tough in the altitude, puffing away, and the ride back through the outskirts of town to the center, dodging traffic, was brilliant. We also visited the Santa Catalina convent, a convent with a very glamorous past. It was once traditional to send your second born into religious service, these young nuns were sent with a lot of cash and servants / slaves. So there are beautiful furnishings and their quarters were very plush for the time. Rumor has it they use to have parties etc, and while excavating the site a baby fetus was found hidden in the walls, not very nun like behavior really. The pope caught wind and sent across a strict nun to sort them out, so it got a bit dull after that. The convent itself is beautiful, it is like a little town, the streets are named after towns in Spain. There are pretty court yards painted blue, yellow, orange, with paintings surrounding. Tomorrow we head for the Colca Canyon, and then on to Cusco for the big ticket item - Inca Trail.

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