Rio - Lima - Pisco - Huacacina - Nazca - Arequipa (it´s been a busy week!)

OK so I have lots to tell you all about and not enough time to go into enough detail about it all!

RIO

Last time I blogged I was complaining about the lack of clear weather to visit Christ Redeemer.  Well, the day after I woke up nice and early and saw bright blue skies!  Result, or so I thought... By the time I had got lost, taken an expensive taxi to redeem my error and finally got up the mountain you couldn´t even see him standing 10 meters away!  I did however manage to get some good shots of the city from a lower point on the mountain, and some great shots of some baby monkeys.  This time the monkeys were feeding from our hands and quite a few of them gathered round (it turns out they like bread!).

So not the most successful trip, especially when my tour guide dropped me off on the edge of a favela and I was practically chased by some dude trying to sell me a number plate that I didn´t want!  Actually, this experience on the edge of a favela inspired me to take a Favela tour the following day, which was quite an eye-opening experience.  After being driven to the edge of the biggest favela in South America (population 200,000), we took a local motorbike ride up the near virtical streets to the top of the shanty town.  Here we had a guided tour around the place, and I was extremely surprised to see how happy, normal and unthreatening the people were.  Of course we didn´t go and see how the 3 main drugs groups reacted to tourists visiting their town (and I do mean THEIR town - they run the place, even the police  have no control!), but I was still impressed with what I saw.

So my time in Rio came to an end, of course with just enough time for one more heavy night in a local samba club!  It seemed a good idea until I had to be up early the next day to pack for Peru...

Note - unfortunately from this point onwards, the memory card in my camera has been playing up so a lot of the photos I have taken apparently no longer exist!  Pretty annoying.

LIMA

After a 14 hour journey, in which I tried my hardest to get on a flight to Panama instead (it´s a good job they check the tickets before you board the plane!), I arrived in Lima.  I stayed for a couple of nights in a very quiet, basic hostel, which gave me time to chill out and see some of the sights before I joined up with my tour group.  Ever since I joined the tour group my trip has been going 100mph!

We met up in a nice hotel in the centre of Lima, which was made even better by the fact that I could watch 3 Premier League games in my room (shame they were all 0-0!).  In the evening we had a  meeting to meet up with the rest of the tour group (there are 22 of us, 8 blokes, 14 girls - not a bad ratio!) and meet our tour leader, Mark, who is an ex pro rugby player and knows a hell of a lot about South America, which comes in handy...  After the meeting we went out for a meal and some beers to get to know each other.  Fortunately I didn´t go overboard with the beers, seeing as we were leaving at 6am the next morning to head to Pisco (where the Pisco Sour cocktail originates from unsurprisingly!).

PISCO

In Pisco we took a speedboat out to the Balestas Islands to see one of the most bird-populated set of islands in the world.  There were hundreds of boobies on show (not that kind, unfortunately) along with tens of other species of birds only seen in South America.  There were also some penguins, which I thought was bizarre seeing as the average temperature on the islands is about 18 degrees, and literally thousands of sea lions.  Unfortunately all of my 60-odd pictures of this have been wiped, but believe me, that place was really cool, with the strangest landscape I have seen.  It also absolutely wreaked of bird shit.

HUACACINA

My most memorable day, evening and night (not for that reason, again unfortunately) of my whole trip was in Huacacina, were we partook in some desert sports!  We went on a dune buggy for the most incredible ride across the sand dunes, getting some serious air on some of the dunes and making the girls (and I admit me a little bit) scream as we went up and down near vertical hills.  During the ride we stopped regularly to take photos (vanished) of the fabulous scenery and also to go dune boarding.  This was sooo much fun!  You stand at the top of a massive sand dune and ride down on your front on a board.  It turns out that I am actually a bit of a pro and managed to slide the furthest nearly every time!  After this we went to see the sunset over the desert and went to a camp  where the tour guides had prepared  copious amounts of pisco sours and a barby.  There was music, dancing, a lot of drinking and it ended by everyone sleeping beneath the stars in the desert (pretty damn cold!).

Nazca

After a well needed shower the next morning we set off for Nazca, home of the world famous Nazca Lines.  There was an opportunity to get a light aircraft flight over the lines, but I decided against it since it was fairly pricey and didn´t really look worth it.  I did manage to get a couple of shots of some of the lines from a viewing point off the main road, but yet again these have been mysteriusly deleted.  Instead we all had a bit of a group bonding session around the camp site drinking and getting to know each other a bit better.  There was also a dance off (think Zoolander) between two of the Ozzy blokes on the tour which was pretty hilarious!

Arequipa

After a short stop off in Puerto Inca for a barbecue on the beach and a footy match with the locals (7-6 to the England, which mildly entertained the 3 strong crowd!) we headed off to Arequipa - just a short 7 hour drive.  Or rather it was meant to be a7 hours... until our driver decides to drive over a concrete bollard and burst a tire that is!  That meant we hade an hour to kill in the desert, but we did eventually get to Arequipa.  En route we stopped off at a burial site where the dry conditions had preserved the bodies to the extent that there was still hair on the skeletons!  Most of them looked like Amy Winehouse, but one looked like Bob Marley!

Arequipa is the 2nd largest city in Peru, and is surrounded by 2 volcanoes and a mountian, all standing at around 6000 meters.  Once we had finally arrived, unpacked, set up tents, eaten and stocked up for breakfast it was time for an early night - because we had to be up at 2am the next morning to get to Colca Canyon.

Colca Canyon is nartrowly the 2nd largest canyon in the world, more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.  It is also the home to many condors, who like to rise up the canyon on the thermals created by the sun heating the sides of the mountain.  This usually happens between 8 and 9am, and with the place 6 hours away by bus it meant a very early start!  Of course the day we get there, the condors were being shy, and it wasn't until around 11am, after some very patient waiting, until we saw one glide aove our heads.  With a wing span of 3 meters, this was quite some sight, but also a sight I failed to capture with my camera!

The rest of the day was spent sleeping, and today has been a much more relaxed day.  I went to see the convent - more accurately a city within the city - where around 40 nuns are still practicing.  The architecture and gardens were beautiful, and the guided tour was well worth the entrance fee.  I then went for a 2 course meal including a drink for about 65 pence, before visiting Juanita, the Ice Princess.

Juanita was a gift from the Incas to the gods of volcanoes - the idea being that the sacrifice of the purest of girls (Juanita was only 12) would prevent more volcanic erruptions.  Of course it didn't work, and the 160 mile trek Juanita did was in vain.  She was killed after the trek, from Cuzco to Arequipa non stop, with a blow to the head, and burried at the top of one of the volcanoes.  The cold conditions kept her frozen, and in pretty good nick, especially as she is now over 500 years old!  Unfortunately you werent allowed to take photos, so have a look on Google if you want to see her.

That brings you bang up to date.  I am heading to Cuzco tomorrow (10 hour drive - ouch!) and I will be doing the Inca trail starting Tuesday - I don't expect to be doning anything strenuous until then!

I hope you are all OK and getting into the festive spirit (it's so strange seeing xmas decorations when it is 25 degrees!).

James x

ps - Sorry for the lack of photos, this computer is taking forever to upload so check out facebook instead!