First stop was Lima, the capital of Peru.
I arrived at midnight to my hotel and after a 25hr flight I was exhausted- but I didn't get any sleep, probably due to the combination of a 15hr time difference and the continuous car horns beeping.
My roomate for the tour - Suzy from Canada arrived 1st thing in the morning. We met our tour group which was a good mix of nationalities including Australia, UK, Canada, Cyprus, Japan and Belgium - all of which are really great people.
Lima is a great little colonial city with a very glamorous main square.
I have come to the conclusion that Peruvians don't have road rules and use the car horn to: warn other drivers that they are approaching, indicate, approach an intersection, reverse, tell pedestrians to get out of the way.Next stop was the Ballestas Islands - also known as the poor mans Gallapagos. The islands were massive and smelt like bird poo. There are an amazing number of birds that co-inhabit the islands, all of them were either lining the islands or flying above us. There were also sealions lazing around and we were lucky enough to see dolphins circling our boat aswell!
My trip continued to Tacama - a wine region famous for making Peru's national liquor Pisco. It tasted like Nonno's Grappa! Locals drink it with lime and call it a Pisco Sour.The winery is very different to what I know from back home - they still use people's feet to crush the grapes! A picture of the grape crusher...
My favourite part of the tour so far was visiting the Ica desert. Driving through sanddunes and out pops an oasis - Huacachina. It is amazing.
The best part was sandbuggying and sandboarding down the steep sanddunes. My life flashing before my eyes between bouts of shrieking with laughter. Im still finding sand in the pockets of my shorts!
Camping in the desert was also an amazing experience. At night the locals cooked us a great BBQ and we all sat around a campfire singing songs with a guitar. Bedtime and no tents... lucky I bought a good sleepingbag! When I woke up there was mist disguising the sanddunes and people in their sleepingbags scattered around the dead fire. Man was I dying for a shower...Taking a 6 seater plane to see the Nazca lines is something that I wasn't too keen on and now even after the experience I am still unsure whether it actually was a good experience or not!
It was pretty amazing to see the magnitude of these rock carvings and to make my own mind up as to whether they were etched by native Nazca people or aliens and whether they are used as some form of astrological farming tool - BUT i know for one thing.. my stomach DID NOT like it! The pilot kept pointing out the lines and maneuvering the plane so we could see them, by the end I couldn't look down! Managed to hold down my breakfast.. just.Our next stop was Arequipa.. another beautiful colonial city also known as the White City because of the white Spaniards that conquered the city and also for the white buildings that they erected. Local delicacy = Guinea pig.. dont think that would have settled very well in my stomach if I ate it so I decided to go for Alpaca steak instead - tastes like veal!
We then went on a 2 day tour to the Colca Valley - famous for its Condors. The Colca valley is the highest altitude that I have been at so far in the trip - 4200m. Walking up a slight incline made me feel extremely breathless - like I had just run a 100m sprint! The air definatly feels thinner.
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