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Published: February 21st 2008
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The Way Inn
Peaceful retreat A relatively straight forward crossing into Peru, a country five times the size of Britain with the Andes running down the centre, jungle to the east and desert to the west which runs down to meet the Pacific Ocean. We headed through the barren desert to the coast making our first stop at Chiclayo. Peru´s claim to fame is its history of ancient civilisations and recently excavated archaeological sites. Feeling somewhat ignorant in these matters we booked ourselves on a ´cram it in´tour of four sites and museums in one day. Our minibus whizzed from site to site as we learnt about the different civilisations dating back to 10,000 B.C. and how each different civilisation made progress in agriculture, construction and organisation. We visited pyramids with uncanny parallels to the customs and beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians. It is hard to believe that in the 2,000 yrs between these civilisations some direct contact had not been made to pass on the same ideas. The last site visited completed the picture for us. Excavated tombs of war lords and priests discovered only in the last twenty years which could be seen from the top of a small mountain where it is customary
Chiclayo
Passage to the underworld to climb and ask forgiveness for all your sins. The pyramids were constructed over many generations when each tribal leader passed on he was entombed with a few goods to take with him as he passed to the underworld. Then another layer was added to the pyramid and lived on until the next leader died and so on. It was interesting to see how even then each generation became more materialistic. The war lord in the bottom layer passed into the underworld with a few bits of jewellery, best dagger and a sacrificed llama. Eight generations later the war lord has fine robes, dripping in gold, his wife, two girlfriends, a goat, a couple of llamas, four hundred pots each filled with food, a lookout and a guard who incidently by tradition had his feet chopped off to stop him deserting his post in the underworld. At the end of the day as the sun lowered and the tour party and I waited patiently on the bus for June to finish on the top of the mountain it was time for me to reflect. Having up until now been pretty cynical about religion it occurred to me how comforting it
Huanchaco
Ancient canoes must be to be convinced that there must be some sort of life after death and that maybe that these ancient civilisations were right all along. As a result when I get home I shall be applying for planning permission to construct a modest pyramid in Granada Rd, Southsea. Here at the time of my inevitable passage into the underworld I shall be entombed along with a few essential luxuries, my squash racket, ipod, some physio journals, 3 crates of draught guiness and a box set of Coronation Street specials. I am also in the process of short listing a select group of friends and family who I will invite to sacrifice themselves to join myself, Janice Battersby and Geri Haliwell when I pass into the underworld. Don´t worry I won´t be insisting on any feet removal apart from my chosen squash partner. Please don´t be too disappointed if you are not selected as my pyramid has to fit on the patio and space is of a premium. Leaving Chiclayo we found a small fishing resort called Haunchaco where we were able to camp for the first time in a while which we both prefer. The resort was popular with
locals and famous for the canoes used by fishermen which apparently have been used for the past 2,500 yrs as identified by hyroglyphics found in the area (bloody old canoes). We resisted the temptation of an ocean swim as the infrastructure of Peru does not seem to have encompassed rubbish collection or good sanitation. It was still enteratining sitting in the sun watching local children rolling around enjoying themselves in the local populations excrement. It is a bit of a shame that some of the bulit up areas are strewn with litter, I think they could do with a massive womble breeding programme. A detour from the fast and flat Pan American highway took us east over 12,000 ft plus mountains to the inland town of Huarez. After our last white knuckle mountain passage and the promise of never again here we were a week later with four hours of the same thing, bad weather, poor visibility, verbal abuse and roads resembling a farmers dirt track in January. If we had planned this venture from the beginning I think top of our shopping list would have been a decent road map and a 4x4.
After falling out with Nik on
our roller coaster ride we needed a tranquil place to chill and found it at the Way Inn, halfway up a mountainside looking up at snow capped peaks and down on the valley below. The owner was apparently into tantric sex, something I have never heard of in my sheltered life but according to Inga from Yorkshire it lasts for 12 hours and Sting is one of its followers. What´s wrong with the 2 minute 10 second version, I´d like to know. The hiking was the real draw here. Climbing up to a Lagoon at 14,000 ft my heart and lungs practically jumping out of my chest was an awesome experience, which was somewaht dampened in the evening when we came last at srabble and Nik threatening to leave home again just like when he lost at monopoly when he was 8 and was found in the garden shed with his suitcase packed. Back down the wiggly hill and our descent to the warmth of the desert coast. We were heading for a small town called Pisco, famous for its alcholic beverage of the same name and funnily enough same taste. While driving around the town we couldn´t understand why
Pisco
Towering above the rubble there were piles of rubble everywhere and all that was standing of the church was its two towers. It was only when we got to our hostal, which was one of the few buildings in tact, we discovered that there had been a massive earthquake on the 15th August 2007, 8.0 on the reichter scale and killing 800 people in the town. The reason we hadn´t heard about it was because we were in the wilds of Alaska at the time. It seems that our journey is surrounded by natural disasters maybe we should offer T.C. as a sacrice to apease the gods. It was very sad walking around the cemetery the only people doing a roaring trade in town were the flower sellers. Our main reason for stopping there was to go out to Islas Ballestas which were described in the guide book as a poormans Galapagos. We thought it was very different. Huge colonies of seabirds were perched high on the cliffs depositing mountains of Guano (crap) which was harvested every 7 years. It was so precious that security guards were manning the Islands to make sure nobody stole it. I don´t suppose that would look too good
Isla Ballestas
Underneath the arches (sealion silhouettes) on your CV ´faeces protection officer´. The vast number of seal lions were just as impressive all having just given birth and fighting for places on the beach. We walked around the nearby Paracas national park and viewed huge cracks that had appeared and arches fallen into the sea because of the earthquake. Before tempting fate and bringing on further eruptions we moved on to an oasis in the dessert called Huacachina. It was surrounded by palm trees and mountainous sand dunes only to be spoiled by multicoloured pedaloes paddling about in the middle. Our highlight was a dune buggy trip and something I should of worn my brown trousers for. I think we had Mad Max at the wheel as we roared across the desert, up and down the roller coaster dunes. Being a bit of a chicken at fairground rides I mostly had mt eyes shut and mouth open spewing out unmentionables. We stopped at intervals and sand boarded down the dunes which soon shut my mouth as it got stuffed full of sand. I did the belly version ,Nik managed to stand so is part of the in crowd. Should have another 2 weeks in Peru before
venturing south and trying to beat the cold.
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John and Astrid
non-member comment
re Sands of time
Hiya following your blogs with great interest.You seem to have had enough adventure to last a lifetime. Our wings are clipped a bit as Astrid will have her hip op. after easter. Saw some of Toms photos from oz on facebook, he seems to be enjoying himself, good luck to him. Hope rest of your trip goes well. have sent somee emails hope you got them. All the best , John and Astrid.