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Hiya all sorry it´s been a while have been relaxing in the desert oasis of huacachina for the past few days just enjoying the 35 degree sun.
Left Lima on the 2/01/07 for the little town of Pisco which lends it´s name to the local alcohol, which when mixed with lemon, ice, sugar and egg white makes the peruvian cocktail Pisco Sourz. It´s ok kinda strong when u have it solo mind.... u feel the burn a little like desi in India..
Pisco is a bit of a dump only thing it´s famous for is the alcohol, and the nature tours which we went on. We went to the Islas Ballestas (commonly referred to as the poor mans Galapogas) where we saw thousands of birds including thre rare Peruvian Penguin (tiny penguins - now endangered thanks to the el nino effect) we saw 2 types of pelicans and many other birds that are only found on these tiny islands. There were also thousands of sea lions who always seem to pose for photo´s maybe they are used to seeing us gringo´s everyday. After the island tour we went to see the Paracas national park which was mostly desert but had some amazing rock formations thanks to the strong winds and the soft rocks. Thereafter we had lunch at a beautiful restaurant on the beach where I tried my first Peruvian dish which is called Ceviche - this can be found all over Peru but best tried where you know the fish is fresh as it is raw and only marinated for a few minutes in lemon juice, served with sweet potatoes and salad, I never thought I´d like it but it was pukka..propa things if I do say so myself. Even got Asha to order a fish dish which is quite an achievement as she´s never tried the stuff. She loves it now aeverywhere we go she´s ordering fish..
After the national park tour headed down the south caost to a town called Ica (another dump) as this wasn´t quite as nice as we expected we caught a cab with a couple of taiwanese girls (Yu-Chi & Yulin) to the desert oasis of Huacacachina.
Huacachina is great, huge sand dunes and an oasis surrounded by great reataurants and many hostels and our posh hotel where we met some great peeps from Sau Paolo - Brazil and Buenos Aires - Argentina (can´t wait to hit Buenos Aires - Bloop Bloop). As the place was so relaxed before we knew it we had spent 5 days there but we did manage to squeeze in some sand boarding & dune buggy excursions as well as paying a visit to the local wineries and museum.
The wineries were quite good fun actually tasting many different wines, PIsco´s etc and also the traditional winery also made great fruity jams including mango, fig and guanabara...very nice.
The museam wasn´t great compared to what we have at home but they had some interesting exhibits which included mummified macaws and humans.. Tom I don´t know how you are losing your hair so fast as I seen some dude who been mummified for 2000 years with propa dreadlocks I was gonna try and bring em home for ya. PIccies to follow but these locks must have been at least like 5 feet long and they even had wigs from 2000 years ago.
Then we went to the desert to try and find some 12 million year old fossilsed sharks teeth I know I can be a bit sad sometimes but hey it´s the scientist in me. It was a great day out but unfortunately no shark teeth to be found but cannily enough the guide who took us out had hundreds of them in his house all for ale of course to the highest bidding gringo... Damn the locals know how to take travellers for everything they have!!! But as I´d come this far I had to take some home so I bought a few. So although a little dissappointed I didn´t find my opwn shark tooth we stumbled upon some inca ruins on the way back from the desert - what a find as there were endless amounts of inca pottry all strewn across the sand and we had a field day collecting 2000 year old pottery - now all we ned to do is get it out of the country!!!
We are now in Cuzco getting ready to do the Inca trail to Machu Picchu but are finding it hard to get used to the altitude as it´s over 3500 metres above seas level, man getting to our room in the hotel is a struggle up 4 flights of stairs, but will ave to be ready as we start at 6 am tomorrow.
Ok well time to go I promise I will upload some pictures as soon as I get to a computer with a cd drive. Ancient computers here..
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