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Published: October 29th 2008
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after the trek ended i wanted to go to chavin, the majorly important ancient culture in this region. they have an underground complex with carvings and interesting history. i wont waste any more time explaining about them because the road to it was blocked by a rockfall and there being no other road we couldnt go so we went to a galcier instead, like you do!!
on the way we went through the national park again and saw these really wierd plants, i am ashamed to say i didnt write down the name so until i get back i dont even know what they are!! but they were very bid and alien looking on the landscape. we drove to the foot of a mountain and walked up to the tip of a glacier at the top. it was really cool (!) quite dirty though which i wasnt expecting, and i love these pictures of the icicles. the scenery was beautiful and fresh and clean. the mountanous places in peru are all fresh and make you feel lie you are breathing clean air.
shame i cant say that about lima, i arrived there in the evening and the temperature doubled and noise,
and the pollution is so thick that after a couple of hours of walking around you can scrape black off your skin. it is a typical bustling heaving city on the coust, which is kind of grey because of the coastal fog that hangs around at this time of year. having said that i was lucky enough to be couchsurfing in the nice part of town which was higher up and sunny and clean and quiet(how the other half live!!) my host was fantastic, a crazy lad, an economist (reminded me of nick a lot) and he had travelled around south america on a tny budget so had some fantastic tips and stories to tell. including staying on a favella in brazil, travelling on the half price smuggling buses is brazil, sleeping in nightclubs til they open at 3 am and sleeping in shifts in one hammock on a boat, all just to save money, fantastic! he also, being of an analytical mind has worked out the exact amount of cheap foods you need to eat (to the gram!) to avoid getting ill when you cant afford to eat! in lima however he is the king of all food information
and immediately i got off the bus we went and ate a typical peruvian coastal meal which in his word contains "every part of the cow". yes folks i have eaten intestines, stomach, lungs, tounge and god knows what and enjoyed it. and had fantastic cebiche which i now have a taste for (raw fish). he quite rightly explained to me that peru has probably the most diverse and flavoursome food in south america, due to the many diff climatic zones here and the fact that there have been immigrants and trade with other continents for thousands of years, each bringing their own spice to the party! you can see the influence of genes from asia, indo china africa in the indigenous faces here if you look for it too, i have started doing so. the people in arequipa where i am now have a distinctly thai/asian look to their eyes.
while in lima i wanted to get a bite looked at on my arm which i have had since guayaquil and i was convinced there was something living in it so we found the cheapest clinic with specialists in and i got to try out the peruvian way! my
host being an economist was very interested in how it all works and i think he has a good theory. the only way business compete here is price competition, that is true for everything, but when you see the prices for all medical procedures diplayed on the outside of a hospital like a chinese take away it is a bit scary at first. everything from birth to plastic surgery, and special offers!! the doctors in the big clinics like this one specialise in one field only so no money and time is wasted learning irrelavent things. the customers are on a kind of imaginary conveyor belt so it is imagined that these doctors get better at what they do because they are dealing with the same thing all day long, like in a factory. service is totally efficient and no time is wasted, you get a card with you details on when u make appointment then queue out side right door, go in get seen, prescription, down to pharmacy where you buy your drugs, including injections (!) then to nurse for any treatment. quality of service is excellent because they cant afford to make any mistakes, although my host did
tell me that behind the really cheap hospital are all the undertakers offices!!
it got me thinking what else i could get done while i was there, it was that well organised and efficient, why not!! anyway i think i aggree with him now that this is the way forwrd for countries that cant afford free health care and in a way i think it is better than the gp system in england, in the cities anyway. the doc i saw was lovely and gave me drugs to sort every eventuality it could be cos i wasnt hanging about in lima and i think he quite enjoyed it because he had actually worked in the jungle and we talked about nasty bugs for 10 mins!
from there i went to paracas, perus most important natural shore reserve. i got there too late for the boat on the first day but being a sleepy little seaside town, pop no more than 200, i was offered the agency hut to sleep in for free which was nice!! the only other hotels there are expensive and i am getting to the stage now where i look quite poor so more people are taking
pity on me! i sat and watched the sea for a bitthen went back to the office to check my stuff and there was a little party going on which i was practically forced to join! 4 bottles of pisco and 2 of pisco wine later it was over and i camped in my free hotel!
the next morning i was on the boat praying i wasnt going to be sick speeding out to the islas de ballestas which are home to among other things the peruvian booby, humbolt penguin, pelicans (which look like dinasaurs when they fly) and sealion colonies. it was lovely the sea lions climb up onto high rocks after huntingonna high tide and stay there chilling and posing for the cameras during the day. the rocks are smelly and covered in thick guano (poo, again!) which is collected and exported to europe. during the pacific war the chillians fought bitterly for this land so they could have the valuable guano business. really nice day, even had an ice cream!
that night i went to ica which is rather dull then to nasca at 4 am the next day with the idea of going straight to the airport and buying a ticket before i had time to think about what i was doing. it worked i ahd done my flight before half 9!! bear in mind its 4 hours on bus ica to nasca! it ws a lovely clear day but i just couldnt enjoy it, i opened my eyes long enough to point the camera and press but as you will see i needed to focus because you cant see any thing!! (will buy a postcard!) i could make out about half of the images but i wasnt about to ask him to go round again for another look! am never doing it again, ever, ever, but kind of glad i made myself do it once.
after i stopped shaking i went and looked at the aqueducts of the same era and wells which were cool and had spiral slopes down to the tunnel for ceremonies, also saw the commercial growing of coccinneal (red) which was used by the nascas for painting ceramics and is still exported todat to europe for make up and clothing dye and paint. it is the larvae (i think) of a beetle which they grow on a certain type of cactus, which has tiny sharp spines which lodge firmly in ones butt when one leans over for closer look and hurts all day! from nacsa i took night bus to arequipa, which is beautiful and deserves a blog of its own so next time folks!!
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