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Published: June 20th 2007
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Derick, Jill & I
warm sweet red wine...not exactly to anyones taste!! Arriving into Lima from a luxury night bus, Ana, Phil, Jill & I (buses are great places for meeting gringos....everyone just chats away in English regardless of the locals looks!) headed off to a HI hostel...which considering they are supposed to be fantastic and of a much higher standard, to be honest, im not at all convinced!! We headed out to the market after showers and some OC watching....where much restraint had to be exercised....however I did manage to pass off my fake 100soles bill to a market dude for a poncho...so really the poncho was free because I´d already written off that 100 bill!! Hehe!! Cooked dinner that night...so cheap, and had a very early one...buses aren´t that comfortable after all!!!
Friday Phil & Ana pushed off early, but Jill & I checked into our respective hostels...rather HOTELS no less!! Jills doing a paralell tour to me but with an Ausie company....anyway, we headed out into town to explore the old town with a guy from her tour, Derick. Had a good laugh wandering around getting lost, finding restaurants and posing with the guards at the palace...which was actually v pretty, and eyeing up the guards at the
palace!!! The day passed in a very disorganised fashion, later on we jumped on a bus to the summit of a hill that overlooked the town....only the view was somewhat disappointing....in fact Lima as a whole wasn´t what I expected....totally clouded over with a cloud of pollution, meaning nothing looked spectacular, and it was a little cold out....damn rude!! The views were muddy, couldn´t see the horizon for fog...but glad we went up!
Met my tour group that evening at my hotel, there´s 14 of us in total, everyones lovely, a mix of nationalities and a spectrum of ages, a few 19ish through to mid 30s, 40s. Good fun though. We met our tour leader too, Tad...although hes not quite what I expected...more introverted than you´d expect. Ohh well. Went out for dinner on one of the squares in Miraflores (the tourist area) and to bed.
Saturday was a lazy one, involving a 4hr bus journey up the coast to a place called Pisco, famous for its Pisco sour drink...so of course we sampled a few...was similar to apple sours, quite drinkable!!! Wasn´t much happenning in Pisco though, and some of the guys had chosen to go out
to some islands to see birds at 7am...having been to the galapagos I decided to give it a pass...really not worth the early start, or the money!!
After the others had been to the island on Sunday we headed off to Ica that afternoon, an oasis in the middle of the desert, was really cool. We stopped at a winery for lunch though, taking a tour to inform us how the pisco was made, and of course a little sampling here and there!! :D From there to Ica, where I bumped into Jill & Derick again...definitely the same route!! Anyway, we headed off Dune Buggying-Sandboarding....It was awesome, absolutely fantastic, loved every second of it....especially when I wasnt tumbling down!! The driver of our buggy was a maniac and accelerated up and down huge sand dunes, bumping all over the place....the sandboarding was fun too...I was getting the hang of it too, one time I got the whole way down without falling...only for on the next run me to get cocky and go too fast, I totally crashed and burned, and managed to break my board....DAMN!!! We pushed on to Nazca from there, 5hrs away...woohoo, dont we love the buses!!
Monday we were booked in for the Nazca lines flight after a tour of a pre Inka cemetary....the cemetary was quite interesting...but one skeleton looks a lot like another...except that in some tribes they would manipulate the shape of the skull at birth, so some of the people had really thin but long, stretched heads...it was wierrrdd!! The flight over the Nazca lines was cool....they were patterns formed thousands of years ago by the Nazca people, believed to be a praise to the gods above, to encourage rainfall (as Nazca is a desert). The shapes are only visible really from the air, but the shapes are so defined its mad. Something to do with the air currents and the lack of winds has allowed the lines to be preserved for so long!! There´s a monkey, a hummingbird, a tree, some hands, a whale, triangles and loads more...was cool. From there we went for lunch in town and then chilled out back at the hotel in our pool....love it!! Pushed off that evening on a night bus for Arequipa, and it was another luxury bus...but this time sin bingo, which was a little upsetting....nevermind!!
Tuesday we arrived in Arequipa,
checked into our hotel for a free day wandering around town. It´s named the "white city" because its buildings are all white (suprisingly) but the whole place is very colonial and spanish, (founded by the spanish, suprisingly!) , and very very beautiful...We headed to the monastary, which was interesting, before lunch and shopping....damn!! Dinner was good, and was supposed to be followed by a night of much drink...unfortunately it all went horribly wrong....the people of Arequipa were striking on Wednesday, thus nobody could leave the city or enter the city (something to do with transport tax or something) so to avoid the roadblocks, we had to leave at 5am instead of 9am...goddammit!! Scuppered any drinking, dammit!!
Today (Wednesday) we were therefore supposed to be heading out to Colca Canyon, a canyon bigger than the grand canyon, to see condors...however we woke at 5 and got on our bus...urgh, such a horrible hour...only to come across a roadblock with lots of people milling around....not safe to pass apparantly...so we headed back to the hotel....our early start and lack of drinking was for nothing, DAMN!! So today we´ve hung around town again, which has been cool actually because there´s no cars
on the street, and there are protest marches going on left right and centre..haven´t seen more violence than a rock being thrown at our bus first thing this morning...( but it didnt even reach us!) Lots of riot police around though...has been interesting. The idea is that the road blocks will pass this afternoon and we should be getting going in half an hour or so, hopefully we´ll get to the canyon tonight and can go condor watching tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!
Other than that, alls good, am loving the exchange rate, although struggling to control how much I spend...ooo I ate Alpaca steak last night...was soooo goood, and some of the lads had guinea pig...it tasted somewhat like a cross between chicken and duck...mmm!! Looked very wrong though!! Tour guide isn´ the most inspirational guy ever, but I think it´s because he hasn´t done many tours before...nevermind...he´s only the guide for 21days. Only 7 of the 14 are pushing on for the full 45 days actually...most people stop at La Paz in Bolivia. Anyway, hope alls well, ciao, xxxx
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Tricia Owen
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I can't believe it
Catherine You are packing so much into your time: I just can't believe how much you are seeing and experiencing. I am finding out about a whole new world from your blog and great photos. Keep it coming! Going to see your family on Sunday en route to Manchester.