Carrying on from Lima then I suppose. I woke up fairly early and had a run through Barranco District and used the exercise equipment on the beach, before jumping on a bus and heading to the small town of Paracas for a night.
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| On the roads in Peru...I love being in the middle of nowhere! |
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| Watching the sun set in Paracas |
The following morning I did a boat trip to the Ballestas Islands, which amazingly included several dolphins, and a load (and I really mean a load) of sea lions.....both of which I hadn't ever seen before!
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| This sadly was the best picture I got of a dolphin, not too great I know, but there was a few around there. |
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| Winery tour...with plenty of free samples of Pisco! |
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| Later that same day at Huacachina looking out over Oasis de la Huacachina, an oasis that really is in the middle of the desert. Sadly though I was kinda unimpressed with the area, bit dirty, not as good as I expected, and the small town surrounding the Oasis kinda ruined it really! |
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| Still that same day, on route to Nazca, stopping off to see some of the Nazca Lines from a tall tower just on the side of the road. |
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| Great time off day to be there too, just as the sun was setting! |
Nazca was a pretty nice small town, but sadly with not too much to do. Stayed there for a night and all of a day.
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| Dinner time!..... |
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| ....A traditional Pachamanca meal, which is cooked in the ground. Es muy bien! |
Left Nazca that night via night bus and arrived in Arequipa early the following morning.
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| Loca hula-hoop lady in the middle of the road, and that other guy was just stood there bent over like that for a while!....Ahhhhhh Peru! |
After buying my first Spanish comic books, "
Condorito de Oro" (from Chile), later that night I headed out into the town of Arequipa. Claudia and I hanging out with the locals, until the sun came out...I really dunno how that happened this time...I really don't! The following day I got woken up after about an hour's sleep before getting the bus to Chivay, a very small and quaint town in the surrounded by hills! And with a newly fixed camera, good times!
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| Bloody tourists! |
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| I was still pretty drunk when I saw this....really! |
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| Our bus broke down about an hour and a half from Arequipa for over 2 hours. Best bit of the trip, gave me a chance to go bouldering. |
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| Chivay |
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| Thermal pools |
The following day we got up at 6:30 which I will never really understand, to do Colca Canyon. Not gonna lie, amazing scenery, kinda pointless walk that we did! Stop Start Stop! But amazing views ( I will put that twice so that the positives outweigh the negatives). It was meant to be training for the Inca Trail....hmmmmm...yeah really! A one-hour stroll at high altitudes doesn't really count!
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| The view from my bedroom as the sun was rising |
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| Them bloody tourists are everywhere.... |
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| Colca Canyon, there was also eagles and Condors flying/gliding around, very impressive I didn't even really try to get pictures of them...but that's why I'm travelling and you're not! |
Later that afternoon/evening we took a walk around Chivay
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| Female and Male dancers |
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| Peruvian flute band, actually really good, in the restaurant we ate at that night... |
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| ...with Peruvian dancers! |
The following day we headed back to Arequipa for the day before getting on another night bus, this time to Cuzco.
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| Dunno if you read/remember my comment about a huge billboard in Guatemala that just said "Fanny"..well I finally found out what 'Fanny' is....tuna! Oh how happy this made me! |
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| Cusco Plaza |
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| Saqsayhuaman |
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| I still find this funny/weird,all over the world all these people that live in these type of houses still manage to afford digital TV...and we never had Sky! |
There's definitely something about Cusco that I really like. I couldn't tell you exactly what it is, but it's a pretty big city, with character and a lot going on, and amazing scenery around the city! Was out again last night, another fun night in the local bars. I was told I only got 2 hours sleep last night (I love not wearing a watch) before waking up late, and heading to a bike hire shop with Claudia and Melissa. We had plans to do one trip, but we randomly just decided to get off the bus at a small town called Lamay because I/we were sooooo hungry, we stayed around the town for an hour or so, we did stick out a bit, no travellers here. We then took a massive D-Tour up a massive mountain towards Huchuy Qosqo at 3.6km, it was teller than we all realised, but amazing views! So worth carrying our bikes up there. And once we got to the top we crused all the way down to Calca before getting the bus back to Cusco this evening....way later than we planned to get home, but it was amazing...and real training for the Inca Trail.
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| We were gonna get food as soon as we got off of the bus, but there was a huge slide, in a huge empty park! |
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| Just a few new scars! It's always on the left arm....?!? |
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| I found this amazing, this is the equivalent to where I did my apprenticeship at SETA in Southampton! It's a completely different world! |
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| Really where is the top...I've learnt Peruvians aren't really all that great at giving directions and times-to-detestation......I love travelling! |
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| Lamay |
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| At the top |
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| Archeologists working at the top...again, very helpful! |
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| On route down to Calca...all down hill from here....sweet as bro! Good times. More amazing views. |
And that was today! Leaving Cusco tomorrow afternoon, heading for Ollantaytambo before starting the Inca Trail on Friday, arriving at Machu Picchu on Monday, and then heading back to Cusco later that day.
Have a good weekend folks!
