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Travelling over a mountain ridge that took us to our highest altitude at 4300ms, we arrived in the Colca Canyon region close to sunset. This provided us with a spectacular display of red and orange light dancing across the rugged mountain tops. Early the next morning we travelled through to the Colca canyon to an area called Condo de Cruz. Here we had the opportunity to explore the canyon walls and by chance see a couple of Condor's take flight using the thermal waves created by the canyon. We headed back the way we came visiting a cute town (Chivay) on the way. That evening we arrived in Arequipa known at the white city due to its extensive use of white limestone to create the buildings surrounding its main plaza. We had a birthday to celebrate that evening so after setting up camp we wandered down to the plaza to enjoy sundowners at a bar balcony with a backdrop of a volcanic mountain to complete the picture. The highlight of Arequipa was visiting Juanita the ice princess. She was a sacrifice given to the mountains by the Inca to calm the volcanos. When found by archaeologist Juanita had been frozen in an almost time-capsule so that today even her facial features are almost recognisable.
As we made our way west we stopped overnight to camp on the beach at Porto Inca (the old Inca port) on our way to Nazca. Nazca is famous for its huge lines carved into the earth creating amazing shapes and pictures. No one really know who created them or why. We had the pleasure of viewing a couple from a platform created from scaffolding in true South American styles, I decided not to linger up there too long. On route we stopped off at (somewhat random) burial ground in the desert where graves of a local tribe were found magnificently preserved due to the desert sand. The corpses lay exposed like mummies in their graves for people to visit today making for a surreal cultural experience.
Our final stop off before arriving in Lima was Huncachina (or Huaca-f***n-china as the bar we went to there was named). The little town is formed around an oasis and the gateway to the desert. After a few Pisco sours (local Peruvian cocktail) while lazing around the oasis we were loaded into dune buggys that took us joy riding around the massive sand dunes. In the words of Westy one of the tucan crew "Loz, if I had a dollar for every fist pump you did I would be a rich man". I had such a laugh. We followed up our joy riding by then finding large enough sand dunes to sandboard down. I managed three out of the four dunes of which I reckon was a good enough total. That evening we set up camp in the desert, had a BBQ, danced around the campfire and slept under the stars. One of my favourite South America experience yet.
Arriving the next day in Lima was bitter sweet. Sweet because a hotel shower and bed was well overdue and bitter because here we lost half of our group as their tour ended. Lima is a large city almost like anywhere in the world. The central plaza is pretty and has an elaborate changing of the guards ceremony at noon and the shopping is great. On the downside the city feels dodgy and the men lure at you like your walking naked down the street. I didn't really warm to the place. Our three days there were centred around good food, good company and sadly saying good by to our crew.
From Lima the tour slowed a little spending more that just one night in a place. We traveled north to Hauraz the adventure capital of Peru. In a moment of complete insanity we decided to challenge ourselves to another hike at altitude, a track called Laguna 69. This time the walk started around around 3500ms and climbed up to 4200ms. The end goal was reaching a glacier lake situated on the mountain ridge. Most people in the group felt the altitude ranging from being breathless though to dizzy kind of nausea. I ended up on the dizzy end of the scale with my personal highlight being mistaking a rock for a donkey. The walk however was beautiful and the glacier lake a worthwhile reward at the end. I am however now done with tramping at heights.. For this trip anyway!
We finished up our finally week in Peru by finally reaching the coastline, explaining the coast to coast title of the tour. It was great to see the sea and even better to hit the beach again! Operation bronze goddess began full swing in Huanchaco a small beach town that had a nice local feel too it. We camped one block from the sea line and made full use of the white sands and sun. We did manage to draw ourselves away from our beach towels for an arvo of surfing on a nice little beach break. It felt great to be back in the water. I celebrated my first thanks giving compliments of our truck driver and tour leader Mike and Beth who are American. It basically consisted of eating as much delicious food we could humanly stomach and then toasting marshmallows around the fire... This is a holiday I could grow accustomed to.
Mancora was our finally stop off on our Peruvian leg. We rocked up to this beach town with an infamous reputation of parties and sun lounging to find the towns power was out (not unusual in South America). This however did not deter the hostel Loki where we staying away from its continuous 24/7 partying and after a few hours the power returned along with the DJ. I literally spent my days here sun bathing at the pool with the occasional beach stroll or swim during the day and enjoying a few bevy's with the crew in the evening. In my opinion is was the perfect way to wrap up a fantastic month spent in Peru. I have learnt that the country has an amazing amount of diversity catering to anything and everything a traveler could want or wish for. Next up we head to Ecuador for the final leg of our trip. Time does fly when your having fun! Lxx
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