Welcome to the 2nd half of the trip! This is going to be a short entry because both of us are feeling a little run down. We have been in Peru for the last week or so, which has been pretty amazing really. From the border of Ecuador we jumped on an overnight bus to Lima. The drive into the city wasn´t all that impressive, and for the most part nothern Peru smelled and looked like garbage. In all fairness though we were only there for a few hours.
I have to disagree. The bus we took was a double decker and we were served supper and breakfast by a hostess! I awoke in the morning to the sun rising over the sand dunes of the desert on the right, and the Pacific on the left. Gorgeous.
Lima is halfway ¨down¨ the country on the coast. We stayed in an area called Miraflores, which is kinda like the Beverly Hills of Lima. Tons of money, surfing, and it was spotless. Probably the cleanest city I´ve ever been in. We were there to meet up with some friends from the Great White North before they returned home. Lima was a lot of eating, relaxing, drinking, and paragliding.
We basically tossed our budget out the window and indulged in some of the comforts of home...ie Starbucks.
Yeah Lima was full of the stuff that makes North America great! Starbucks, Tony Romas, Pizza Hut, and even a Hooters which was located in a beautiful open air mall, perched on some cliffs overlooking the Pacific. I must say, it was also nice to use bathrooms that had been cleaned that week! Other Lima highlights included a visit to a monastery, and the cities first catacombs where you are allowed the pleasure of viewing pieces of 25 000 skeletons. The truth is that we needed a bit of a break after Ecuador had been so demoralizing.
PICTURES OF LIMA
Pisco
Our next stop was the quaint town of Pisco. Famous for a national park in the area, a group of islands sometimes refered to as the poor man´s Galapagos, and a massive earthquake that destroyed most of the buildings, and killed 500 of 58 000 7 months ago. Our Lonely Planet travel guide was written a year ago, and most of the attractions described in it were destroyed so we only spent 2 nights and visited the off shore delights of the ¨Galapagos.¨ We of course didn´t hear about the earthquake in Canada because Britney was having a custody battle with K-fed. Theres only so much time in the news day I guess.
Pisco is also known for the alcoholic drink which shares its name and is a type of white grape brandy. We were invited to try it one night by 3 local brothers and it was pretty good. Very strong on its own but quite nice when mixed into a cocktail called pisco sour. That night we were also fortunate enough to sample some random cow parts. Heart and intestine were heavily featured. Yum...
Pisco was fun, and a little shocking. The people were really friendly, and were desperate for us to spread the word to other tourists that they were still in business and wanted our tourist dollars. We managed to get some good photos of the damage and the governmental housing projects...... that reminds me of a ridiculous predicament..... So the goverment of Peru pledged to support the earthquake survivors by donating 6000 Soles (2000 bucks) to each family that had their house destroyed. Unfortunately they needed to print more money to do so, and asked the families to pay for the money to be printed. Most families couldn´t even afford to have the money printed, and got nothing at all! I thought those kind of things only happened in Canadian type beauracracies....
For anyone that is interested in doing some volunteer work, or just interetsted in Pisco´s reconstruction, the organization Burners Without Borders is in Pisco helping rebuild the city. Check out the link below or on the sidebar.
I´M THE LINK MENTIONED ABOVE!
PICTURES OF PISCO
Huacachina
Huacachina is literally a desert oasis. Its surrounded by a vast desert, and the pastime is dune-buggying and sand boarding. Our hostel offered a deal that allowed us to do both at the same time. We buggied out into the dunes (some of them massive) with our fearless driver. We must have hit speeds upwards of 60km/h and the sand blowing in our faces felt like someone was just rubbing them with sandpaper. I also didn`t have any goggles of any type. Oh and it rained on us which is amazing being in the middle of a desert and all. The sandboarding was very similar to snowboarding. By the end of the day we were all pretty decent, but we were fortunate enough to see some pros on a huge dune, and they were carving it up the exact same way you would expect a snowboarder to do. Awesome. Bring sunscreen!
The second night we were there we climbed to the top of one of the dunes to watch the sunset. Going up I wasn´t sure it would be worth it because it was sooo hard. Every step you took, you would slide back down. Very slow going but as Chris and I tell each other every time we`re climbing, its training for Machu Picchu. It was really nice and we got some good pictures. And of course coming down was a lot easier.
Huacachina is literally a desert oasis. Its surrounded by a vast desert, and the pastime is dune-buggying and sand boarding. Our hostel offered a deal that allowed us to do both at the same time. We buggied out into the dunes (some of them massive) with our fearless driver. We must have hit speeds upwards of 60km/h and the sand blowing in our faces felt like someone was just rubbing them with sandpaper. I also didn`t have any goggles of any type. Oh and it rained on us which is amazing being in the middle of a desert and all. The sandboarding was very similar to snowboarding. By the end of the day we were all pretty decent, but we were fortunate enough to see some pros on a huge dune, and they were carving it up the exact same way you would expect a snowboarder to do. Awesome. Bring sunscreen!
The second night we were there we climbed to the top of one of the dunes to watch the sunset. Going up I wasn´t sure it would be worth it because it was sooo hard. Every step you took, you would slide back down. Very slow going but as Chris and I tell each other every time we`re climbing, its training for Machu Picchu. It was really nice and we got some good pictures. And of course coming down was a lot easier.
PICTURES OF HUACACHINA
Nazca
Today we trekked to Nazca to see the mystifying Nazca lines. We hired a small plane (1 pilot, 5 gringos) to tour us over the lines which are too massive to be seen from ground level. We spent about 30 minutes in the air for 50 bucks each, which I was pretty bitter about, but now am very happy we did it. We all got air sick, but I´m the only one that emptied their stomach into a small bag. Waste of good Jugo de Piña (fresh pineapple juice) I would explain the Nazca lines but instead heres a nifty link to click on.
CLICK ME!
PICTURES OF NAZCA
Tonight we are heading to Arequipa, the home of Earth`s 2 deepest canyons, where we plan to do some hiking!
Until next time
c and m
Happy Birthday Luc Robitaille!
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