Fun Times in Peru

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Needless to say that while we worked hard volunteering we also had the opportunity to play hard! This involved a ´vacation´to Ica, paragliding, and lots of nights out!

We also did lots of chilling out watching dvds in the house, reading, playing cards, talking a lot,.... Cooking was also a favourite pastime! We had wonderful roast dinners cooked by Gerry followed by my cheesecake or scones or Julia´s devine brownies! Ours Mums would be proud! Thankfully there was a gym around the corner where I went to spinning and aerobics to work off all the food!

Of course we didn´t stay in all the time. We had numerous nights out in Cusco which was about 10km from Larapa where the volunteer house was. Nights out generally involved our favourite restaurant Los Perros, Cusquena the local beer, free rum and coke, lots and lots of dancing to salsa and to music you haven´t heard in years and, as is par for the course in Cusco, dancing on the bar!! The nights often went into mornings and I will admit to hearing the birds twittering on occasions on my way home! Cusco certainly knows how to show you a good time!

It was also a great place to spend Christmas and New Years. Christmas Day involved a big BBQ / party in the house. We did a lot of eating and singing Christmas carols and also set off lots of fireworks! The rendition of 12 Days of Christmas was the most entertaining! New Years also involved a punch party in the house and then into town to watch the fireworks in the square. People also join hands and run around the square 3 times for good luck. I didn´t partake given it was torrential rain - I didn´t want to get my hair wet!

Our holiday to Ica was also great fun and well worth the 35 hour round trip through the mountains. Myself, Julia, Asha and a few of her friends came on the trip who were all really good fun. We stayed in Huacachina, which is an oasis in the desert outside Ica. The town is really pretty and is a great place to both chill out and have fun. We went on a dunebuggy trip into the desert which also included sandboarding. Was such an adrenalin rush! I almost lost my voice I was screaming so much! (Check out the video on facebook!) We also climbed the dunes to watch the sunset and chilled out by the pool. It really was heaven after the rain and muddiness of Cusco! A definite must for anyone visiting Peru.

And finally, I went paragliding over the Sacred Valley. That was an amazing experience as I had never done anything like it before. After much hanging around waiting for rain to pass over and for the right wind, we finally managed to take off! The views over the Sacred Valley were amazing and it was cool to feel that you only had the wind keeping you in the air. I will admit to feeling a bit nauseous though! I was lucky to have the time to go twice and the second time wasn´t as nauseating as the first and lasted much longer. A bit of a hard landing the second time though!

I really did love living in Cusco for six weeks. I met lots of amazing people and definitely several life long friends. Many of them I will be able to visit in Australia so its not ´Chao´ for long. Roll on the rest of South America - my true solo adventure begins!

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