one down, one to go

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I have finished my first tour...and i can´t believe just how quickly 45 days can go...

but to return to the story...so a quick flight took us to arequipa which is a very pretty colonial town - which has some very decent restaurants...just a quick note in terms of food to let you know what sort of stuff we have been eating...llama, alpaca, guinea pig, ceviche (raw fish in lemon juice), stuffed potatoes...seem to make up the peruvian diet...and all are very good...as are the pisco sours...the cocktail here...

after a night in arequipa we headed out to the colca canyon...which is apparently the second deepest canyon in the world...and i can confirm it was pretty deep....and again saw shitloads of llamas and alpacas etc....then headed to some thermal baths which were nice if not a bit smelly...then had a great meal in this little local restaurant which just bbq´d meat....the meal was accompanied by a demonstration of local dancing (yes i did join in) and music....i hate the panpipes so i didn´t particularly enjoy it...but the dancing was amusing...especially since me and dave seemed to think we were at a barn dance and danced accordingly...

the next morning we had to get up at stupid oclock to go and spot some condors.....this seemed to involve sitting on the edge of the canyon for hours doing very little....but it was hot and i did get to top up my tan...and i saw one condor...which to be frank wasn´t that exciting...i shall never make a twitcher...

after arriving back from the canyon we all headed to the cinema...which was a nice change actually...and then we took a bus to nazca....

at nazca i took a flight over the nazca lines...which are giant drawings in the ground ..made by some pre-incan civilisation..it was really good actually..then we went to a cemetery from th same civilisation and looked at dead people...which was a bit odd and necesitated several sixth sense style jokes...

the evening in nasca was spent in a karaoke bar...and yes i did sing - thanks tot he encouragment of a few margaritas...several classics, including - like a prayer (madonna), power of love (huey lewis and the news), heaven is a place on earth (belinda carlisle) and most unfortunately for the rest of the room - my heart will go on from titanic..altho that was ordered by the boys and was particularly painful...there was also an excellant group rendition of we built this city on rock n roll......we did manage to empty the place...

after nazca we headed to pisco via ica....ica was great as we hired dune buggies and spent the afternoon being flung around in them in the desert....we also did sand-boarding which is basically snowboarding but on sand....both great fun..altho i am still finding sand now...then carried onto pisco via a pisco distillery where few tasting was had...'pisco tastes a lot like grappa btw..

in pico took a quick boat trip around the ballestras islands...lots of birds - penguins, pelicans etc and sea lions...and then headed to lima...

and i now in lima....so we have successfully made it across the continent...lima is pretty busy, v smoggy etc so am heading out tonight...up to the north coast for some sun sea and surf for the next week...

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