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Wow got alot to catch up on! Been a while scince the last blog update. We are currently in Cuzco, as we have been for a while, but hoping to leave to Arequipa tonight!
But from where we left off. We speant only a few hours in Lima as we said, something much to say about it, probably wernt there long enough to do it justice. We then got a bus (about 4 hours) to Pisco, a rather sad looking town, as it got flattened by a earthquake about a year ago and is only slowly being rebuilt, it also has a dangerous reputation for theft! We speant a night there and went to the Poor mans Galapagos in the morning. It was a very touristy activity were lots of boats filled with people in orange life jackets. The boats circle islands called the Islas Baelletras (cant quite remember how its spelt) and everyone is running aroundthe small boat with their cameras. It was quite cool though, we saw dolphines, loads of sea lions, penguins, and millions of different birds. Was a good oppotunity to sea wildlife although the grey skys i imagine are no comparison to the blue sky and water of the actual Galapogas.
Afterwards we went up to the high way and jumped on a bus to Nazca, keeping a eye on our belongings seeing as the Pisco bus has a reputation for having stuff stolen on, all went ok though. We arrived in Ica, then got a taxi to near by town of Huacachina. Its a tiny town of population 200, and is built around a small laguna and surrounded by the most amazing sand dunes ive ever seen!! It seems so long ago cant really rememer the details but it included hanging around by the pool and we ended up staying about 3 or 4 nights! The highlight was definatly the dune buggy tour. Which was more like a rollarcoaster. Driving crazily over humongous dunes, which must have been 50m tall (not sure but they were big) the driver would drive of 90 degree dune edges.. was lots and lots of fun. The dune buggy would also drive you to the top of a dune then you would sand board down it and they would pick you up at the bottom. Sandboarding was morelike a plank of wood strapped to your feet with velcrow, everyone soon gave up and went down on their tummys, much more fun and much more speed, even though Simon ended up getting a horrible face full of sand, not very nice ! We did a 4pm tour so wre up on the dunes for sunset which was really nice (although the camera had run out of battery!) In Huacachina we had met a group of people who we had met in Ecuador and kept bumping into which was fun!
So far we are up to the first of June which is when we left Huacachina and headed to Nazca, The rest of our group went to do the poor mans galpagos in the morning and when they got back we all got on a bus to Nazca, We arrived there about 4pm, got a taxi straight to the airport, Nazca didnt look like a town worth hanging around in, we refused to pay the more expensive touts on the street. Managed to get a flight for $50 (which is quite good) with minutes to spare, the airport was closing up as we arrived. We got in a 6 man plane, which i actaully found more exciting than the lines, although they were really facinating and slightly strange, the plane would tip around so everyone could see them making your stomach feel rather unsettled. That night we were on a very windy bus to Cuzco watching very bad films! A very efficient day i feel!
We have been in Cusco 2 weeks now,if you include the Inka Jungle trail. While in Cusco most of our days have been speant either mooching around the hostal watching films,looking around the nice city, going shopping and having fun going out to the many bars then feeling a bit worse for wear the next day. Back to the Inka trail though. We chose the inka jungle trek (although its not through real jungle more like lots of trees, mosquitos and intresting plants) Its one of the cheaper options being only $165 and is more varied. We went with our group from Huacachina. The first day was down hill biking which was lots of fun, decending 3000m in a couple of hours, down a windy road. You can pick up some good speed especially on the paved road. The last bit was on a dirt track which resulted in alot of punctures but only one minor accident! With this trek you stay in hostals, which is a bit of a luxery, i would have liked to of camped but we went along with the group decition and really enjoyed ourselves. The second day was 8 hours of treking (no porters or mules on this trek so we had to pack light and carry it ourselves, luckily we didnt need warm clothes as the jungle trek goes around the bottom of the mountains instead of over the top.) The first half of the day was hard work, as itwas all uphill and it was very hot, especially in the sun, we then walked along a inka trail up, down and along lots of steps which hugged the side of the mountain. We stopped for lunch for a couple of hours during the mid day sun and set off again, the afternoon was alot easier as it was just following the river with little change in elevation, and we got a treat at the end! Hot Springs, really nice clear water at the perfect temperature, we stayed there until our fingers turned wrinkly then went to the town to have dinner (i had Alpaca meat which was rather tasty) and then get a good nights sleep. The next day we took `option 2' which was to drive past the boring first half of the walk along a road then get out the car walk along 4 hours of train tracks to Machu Picchu town Aguas Caliente and ther have lunch. After Lunch we had the option of walking up Puccusci mountain which over looks Machu Picchu from across the valley. It was a very very hard walk and was completly steeply uphill. 35mins of up ladders then another hour of uphill steps. The view from the top was completly worth it although exhausting and we had fun taking photos of us jumping infront of Machu Picchu. The next day was a 4am start and a hour plus of steps to get up to the entrance to Machu Picchu which wasnt the nicest thing at that time in the morning. We got there just before the gates opened, and there was already a que. Machu Picchu was amazing and looked exactly like the post cards we speant nearly 10 hours there just exploring. We watched the sunrise had our guided tour then climbed up Waynapicchu, which was again lots of uphill but after the day before was nothing in comparison. From there we had amazing views and had lots of fun taking photos (although my camera ran out of battery! i should have bought my charger..) Overall we had a really really nice day, and felt really glad we had done the trip! and walked back down to Aguas Caliente to get a bite to eat (as a slice of pizza in Machu Picchu is about 6 pounds, crazy price for peru). We got on our train back to Ollantaytambo at 6pm, there was meant to be a car there to meet us but the tour company had mucked it up and we stuck at the train station for 2 and a half hours cold, tired and hungry untily 10.30 pm when we got angry and jumped in a expensive taxi and claimed our money back the next day. A big downer on a amazing day!
Scince arriving back in Cuzco we have been doing what i said to start with. We have been trying to leave for abut 4 days but there are big political issues in Peru. The President is trying to sell parts of the Amazon to companies like shell for oil, of course the locals are uprising and therefore causing major road blocks, which has been preventing us from heading south as the only road open is to Lima. Yesterday i got so bored to hangin around i decided to do a day raftingtrip by myself as i couldnt persuade anyone to go with me. No worries i had lots of fun with only 5 including the guide in the raft boat. THe rapids wernt crazy but i had a good day out. I also got to experience a road block as on the way to the top of the rapids in the van we got stuck we tried to turn around but in that couple of minutes the locals had blocked the road with roacks . Our guide and driver had to pleade for us to be let through, luckily it was ok and they let us through, but we had to start further downthe river. We have managed to get a bus to Arequipà today. They have opened some back roads and we have got a small bus leaving at 5.30pm it should take us 12hours instead of 8. Unfortionatly all the rest of our group managed to get a bus this morn but i had left my camera in the hostal so had to go back and by that time the tickets were sold out. Fingers crossed the journey goes ok!!!
Hope everyone is ok!!!
Until Later
xx
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