Lima

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Hi folks, no photos at present as the usb port are blocked, I will try another place later on.

So where are we - Lima and at the end of our tour.

Where to next - Buenos aires tomorrow although we have a minor problem - our apartments under went renovtion by fire and are not habitable so the bosses (yes clare ruth and sheena) are now investigating other options. They sent us phtotos of the apartments after the fire and showed a burnt toilet - I guess it was one curry too much. Hopefully within the next hour we will have it solved and I will be told where I am staying.

So - health - well all us us with the exception of Pete are fine. Poor old Pete is suffering from a dicky tummy, the plus side for him is there is no vomitting. He is now on Noroxin and lomitil, as Terry said apply equal parts of sand and cement until it blocks the pipes.

Well we left Arequipa eventually and had a lovely 10 hour bus ride, at least we are a small group which means we can spread out, Ruth seems to spend a lot of time on the back seat, spralled out and snoring, I guess because of her age she needs Nana naps like Terry and Pete. We have been spoilt having a 30 seater bus for the seven of us.

We stopped at Puerto Inca for lunch which was actually very good, they had some ruins there that we could wander round and look down holes which had lots of bones at the bottom. Lunch was served under the umbrellas on the beach, all around us was inca ruins and rocks. On one side there is a lot of paths which dissapear up the hill, apparently one tourist went up there looking for Inca graves which apparently are plentifull but sometimes hidden, the tourist has never returned, it appears that the tourist fell down one of the holes and will be found one day. The clue might be the digital camera in an inca grave!

We headed off and went to Chaucilla cemetary which is stunning, lots of mumies including many kids. Interestingly all the kids had had their heads removed and replaced by cotton wool, this was done by the pre-incas as this cemetary was before the incas. No obvious reason for removal of the heads just the thought they were used in some strange practises.

We eventaully got to Nasca late into the afternoon.

As for the coast of Peru the impression is of desolation, vast tracks of desert, interspersed with sand, rocks, sand and rocks, green patches and lots and lots of plastic bags and bottles. I understand why we no longer use plastic bags from the supermarket, the bags over here make a real mess.

On he next morning we got ready for our flight over the Nasca lines, talk about Mickey Mouse! We were told to be ready at 730, dont eat breakfast as it can be rough. Then we were told 9, then 10 then 11 and finally we took off at 1215. Peter was in one, Terry and Sheena in another and finally Clare ruth and I in the last. Ok, now as some will know (becuase of Ruth´s harsh emails) it was not my finest hour - after 15 minutes in a stinking hot plane I was reaching for a plastic bag. The plane was a four seater, pilot + 3 passengers and the pilot made me feel skinny, but the heat was incredible, Ruth had water in the back that came out of the plane as hot water. To be fair I never actually chucked but tried hard. Clare was not looking at me as she was not feeling much better and Ruth was also starting to think of a bag. I did manage to multi task - try to chuck and take photos at the sanme time - and if I could load the photos you would see the humming bird and other Nasca symbols that I did sucessfully take photos of.

After the flight, I did have a Nana nap on the bus as I was feeling quite sick, no lunch for me that day which indicates the severity of the problem. But after my nap I was back and we were on our way to Pisco.

It was interesting to see the amount of empty space and piles of rubble in Pisco, they had sugffered from a large earthquake last year and were still rebuilding, the army base had been flattened totally and had been moved. But the Pisco sours were nice except we did see the amount of sugar that went in to one glass, just think of the amount in coke and you are probably close - but the three nips of Pisco in each glass made it somewthing else - lovely. I think at Xmas the margaritas are off the menu and the pisco sours are in!

The next morning it was off to Ballestos islands to seen the wild life. We were lucky and saw dolphins within 5 minutes of leaving, then once we got to the islands there were sea lions, pelicans many types of shags, turns, boobies, spiders (looked like crabs to us) , penguins and a few red headed buzzards. Pete had a quiet ride as he was not feeling very well, you could say he stayed stuck to his seat. It was a good trip.

Finally we arrived in Lima and have now settled into the hotel, it is covered in our washing as we did not want to pay their laundry charges. Narelle our token Australian has left the group now so we are back to the Original Cripts.

Pete is recovering now and has had breakfast so he is on the road to recovery, all other Cripts are fine and hopefully soon will have a roof over our head in BA.

Thats all for now, I will add photos later.

Ian

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