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quiggsy on tour
First of all thanks for everyone's emails, much appreciated. I have actually been chuckling out loud in random internet cafes over here!
We left Lima and headed down to Paracas National Park, where we camped for 2 nights. So being a national park we were all expecting lush vegetation and all that..... not so! It was a huge desert expanse of nothing. Which was absolutely amazing, although when we first arrived at our campsite (the edge of the desert by the sea) and it was cloudy and the truck got stuck in the sand noone was loving the idea of staying there for 2 nights. But the next day the sun shone and everyone was happy!
We sunbathed, swam and generally had a relaxing time. Although many of us have beach game related injuries due to rather vicious games of 'death chair' (an adapted card game crossed with musical chairs, sort of) and ultimate Frisbee. I also managed to get supremely sunburnt. Which seems to be showing no signs of disappearing any time soon. Nice. I even have hand prints.
While at Paracas we visited the Ballestas Islands and saw sea lions, penguins (so cute!), and dolphins (at a distance). We also got pooed on by lots of birds. There are so many birds there that the islands are covered in bird poo (v smelly) which the locals collect and sell to make fertilizer!
So what else....
Ah yes, on the way down to Nazca we stopped at an oasis in the desert where we went sandboarding! It was so much fun! They took us into the dunes (which were really amazing) on these dune buggy things which were the best bit almost. It was like being on a rollercoaster, they went up and down almost vertical dunes! As one of the resident snowboarders I was expected to be able to sandboard quite easily..... Hmmmm. Its much stickier than snow and the boards were literally old planks of wood with Velcro straps! So not so easy. But by the third attempt I managed to go straight down the dune without getting stuck - we discovered that attempting to try to carve was not a good plan. Anyway, muchos fun. We finished off by having a dip in the oasis which kind of resembled a large garden pond, complete with slime on the bottom and tadpoles but it was so nice on my sunburn!
Nazca, where we are now, is famous for the Nazca lines - large shapes 'drawn' on the ground but only visible from the air. So we flew over them today in tiny little planes! I went in a 6 seater but some of them were even smaller. It was really cool flying in such a small aircraft - you can feel everything! And as we were flying over the lines the pilot dipped to the left and then the right so we could all see but this had the side effect of being rather detrimental to our stomachs. Kate, sitting next to me, got out her sick bag at one point and was distinctly ashen faced but managed to hold it down! The lines themselves were amazing just because people still don't know why they were created.
Anyway that's all for now. We have convinced Geoff the driver to let us stay here until 9.30 tomorrow morning (he planned to leave about 8!) so that we can watch England! Can't wait!
PS photos to follow shortly, its a bit primitive here.
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