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Published: April 13th 2008
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Peru was very manic and as we arrived into the airport we were continously warned that we must check that our taxis are real taxis etc. We left the airport and took a ride with a taxi company through one of their reps and headed to Loki, our hostel. We saw a lot of poverty on our way, the streets seemed full of beggers and the buildings in a bad condition. The driving was some of the worst we have experienced in South America (and that it saying something), the drivers swerve in and out of traffic and constantly beep their horns. We breathed a sigh of relief once we had made it to the hostel and once we made our way to our rooms realised it was one of the nicest hostels we had stayed in. All the people seemed very friendly and the bar served very cheap food and had that all importnat happy our.
The next day we decided to take an organised city tour so as to visit the most important areas of the city safely. Our host was extremely good and we were on an English bus which meant that we were able to undertsand
everything that was explained to us. We firstly saw the pyramids of the city that were built in the pre-inca period. We saw a strange looking dog that was a breed of this time and has apparently won awards in America for being the ugliest dog on the planet, awwww!! There pyramids were typically used for sacrifice, where a young female or sharks from the Pacific were bought here to be sacrificed to their gods. We then moved on to see some olive trees. Olive trees do not typically grow in the country but because of the Spainsh influence that the Peruians are so proud of they had some imported and planted them by hand. We were shown some very impressive buildings.
The food in Peru was amazing, Lima is famous for its seafood so I was sure to try some of that much to Shanes disgust 😊 They also have a very common dish, that is usually served as lunch or a snack. These are small pastry envelopes usually filled with either mince meat and egg or cheese and onion. They remind me of cornish pasties but are much tastier.
We got chatting to some girls from
our hostel that told us about a small desert town called Huacachina and the pictures looked so amazing that Shane and I couldn't resist. We took a good old coach jouney for 6 hours to reach the nearest town and were then driven out into the sand dunes to reach our hostel. Once we arrived it was very late and we could only make out a faint line of sand that towered miles above and around us.
Our hostel was amazing, a quaint little building with a relaxed atmosphere and a beautiful pool and bar in its back garden, little did we know that this garden also belonged to 3 parrots that were soon to wake us up at the crack of dawn. At 5.30am Shane and I woke to what seemed to be a group of kids screaming, we shut the window- which at that temperature we were begrudged to do, only to find the noise increased. At 9am the noise finally subsided and we managed to get back to sleep, it wasn't until we ventured down to the pool that we were told that it was the parrots and that we should expect it every morning. The
parrots were there by there own free will and would willingly hop on your shoulder. So long as you understood that they were boss all was fine, needless to say there were a few conversations at the pool bar as to wether the hostel owners would notice if the birds were to "accidentally" drown!!! By the final morning I honestly thought shane was going to strangle the nearest bird, but he exercised good self control.
Our pool bar did the cheapest fruit juices we had come across (about 45p). They had all kinds of fruit lined up at the back of bar and threw whatever we wanted in to the blender so it was all completely fresh. We topped up on our fruit whilst sunbathing around the pool and the most remarkable thing was our view... walls and walls of white sand that seemed to go on for miles- this strange little village was smack bang in the hole of a great circle of desert sand. When we decided to explore we realised that there was nothing there besides a few rustic looking restaurants and a natural lagoon.
We stopped off for pizza at one of the restaurants
and as we were waiting for our food a monkey came flying round the corner and leaped round Shane's neck before its apparent owner came and clawed him off. the monkeys name was Marvin and he belonged to the restaurant so after our meal we went out to play with him where we also found a token tortoise who was extremely large and nosy. Marvin was a sweet little thing and climbed onto our shoulders, the only time he got nasty was when you went to take him off, he would then cling to you and start crying. At one point he dived into my bag and pulled out my sunscreen lipbalm, I couldn't catch him and so he proceeded to wind the lipbalm up and then ate the whole thing- I'm pretty sure he must have been ill later on that night, which served the monkey right since those things are damned expensive!! After this he lept onto Shanes back and stayed there for a little while, that was until shane said, "Lauren..... my back feels warm". Yep..... he had had a wee all down Shane's back which I found hysterically funny but i'm not sure Shane was quite
so amaused.
The next day we decided to do a dune buggy tour which included some sand boarding. Our driver was a mentalist and flew up and down the sand dunes as though he had just escaped from a mental asylum, It was exzilarating and petrifying all at the same time! The sand boarding was great fun, you got what looked like a smaller version of a surf board and laid flat on your stomach lifting your legs into the air before pushing yourself over a sand dune and flying down it. For some reason shane couldn't balance himself properly and so whilst the rest of us were shooting down the dunes at a million miles an hour, shane would slide slowly and stop half way down the dune, which got him stressed but amused the rest of us.
We met an American boy called Josh in our hostel who hadn't taken a shower for 3 weeks and seemed slightly pround of this fact- BOYS!!!!! He was heading to Pisco and told us about an amazing island filled with wildlife and so on a whim, we packed up our things and headed in his direction. We were both
sad to leave Huacachina, there wasn't much going on but the place itself was so magical and hidden away, it's strange to think that a handful of people live their lives here.
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karin
non-member comment
wot a gud read ive been laughing my head of thanks lauren xxxx