The Dry South

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Little Red Dune Buggy

After a marathón 28 hour sucessión of busrides from the south of Ecuador, we arrived, surprisingly fresh, in the bizarre backpacker haven of Huacachina in the south of Peru. Surrounded by palm trees and hostels, this strange little lagoon is set amongst enormous sand-dunes as far as the eye can see.

The only passtimes in this strange little town are sitting in a hammock, dune-buggy riding and sandboarding… we were more than happy to oblige with all of the above. Skilled snowboarders that we are we thought that we'd show the locals a thing or two... alas we did not allow for the fact that the boards are basically painted planks of wood with canvas straps nailed on. Down on our tummies we went, so much fun!!

The afternoon dune buggy ride was sensational. The golden afternoon sun cast long shadows across the desert making for stunning scenery as we raced up and down hills like a banshee - fabulous, noisy, dirty fun. Met several people since who were quite badly injured in these escapades so we're very relieved that we came out unscathed.

One can only handle so much hammock time so from Ica we moved onto our first taste of the Andean culture with the bizarre Nazca lines. These lines dating back several centuries depict either animals, andean gods or geometrical patterns all over the desert. The only way to see the lines is by a rollercoaster light aircraft ride of 30 mins, two of our fellow passengers were very green around the gills when we finally landed.

The lines being complete and this being the only item of interest in this part of the world we quickly moved on with our whirlwind tour of Peru by jumping on another night bus to lovely Arequipa. In the shadow of a still active snow-capped 6000m volcano, Arequipa is a lovely town, best known as the adventure capital of Peru. We, being slightly adventurous sorts, booked ourselves on a 3 day hike in Colca Canyon, the worlds deepest canyon at 3200m!

Day one was a horrible 6 hour busride followed by a steep descent to spend our first night in the bottom of the canyon, brrr! The second day of our canyon tour was a beautiful walk through the centre of the canyon, past villages were the native language Quechua is still spoken and they only received electricity last year and they choose not to use it - oh, except for the few who can afford a televisión of course! The villagers still farm using traditional methods and life is very little changed in several centuries. All food and building materials (and crates of beer) are brough in by mule over the same route that we were travelling, at least a 3 hour walk in either direction, and there are old women that do it daily!

The other side of the canyon has a glorious natural spring with 25C water in a beautiful sunny setting. We settled there for a lovely lunch cooked by our fabulous guides, Elias and Jose. With full tummies we set off for our ridiculous 1200m ascent which we completed in around 2.5 hours in 29C heat - a very galant effort!

Slept stupendously well after a well deserved hot shower and delicious dinner of alpaca steaks and boozy hot chocolates and rose early to visit Cruz del Condor, domain of the world´s second largest bird, the Condor. The local women were well prepared for us with mountains of handmade beanies, scarves, gloves and crafts, all of which is carted around on their backs each day and must weigh at least 40kgs.

All of the gringos amass and right on cue the conders began soaring arond the cliffs for the Kodak moments, a lovely sight to see.

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Photos

Muy Tranquillo
Cazz esta muy tranquillo.

Jasmine
Jasmine´s english mum and Amazonian father run a cute little cafe that serves delicious porridge.

Canyon Living
Outdoor bathroom and all.

Oasis
Relaxing before the 1200m ascent.

Dinner
This is Jessie the alpaca.

Alpaca Steak
Tastes just like veal.

Local buses
This is the kind of bus rides we´re dealing with!

Comments

[Nicky]

Great to hear from you both, been wondering where you got to! Hope you keep having fun on your travels, love hearing from yous. If you get the chance check out the amazon basin from Bolivia as you head south - is fishing for pirranhas included on your adventure sports list ?? miss you Racho. byeeeee x x x