This time its Dad in Black and Jo in Red. Happy reading! PS Photos will follow in a day or two.
Back tracking to the end of the last post we met up with the group at 6.30pm on Friday evening and got the low down on the trip from our guide Hilda. Hilda has been working for Intrepid for about 12 months and this is the first time she has done this specific tour but many others that pick up on most parts of this route. The group is made up of a couple from Grey Lynn in Auckland, A 30 year old female Lieutenant Commander from the Aussie navy, a girl from Canada, two lads on their gap year from London, a young guy from NSW and a guy from England. I do have to add that I am the oldest by far, Tim from England is a bit older than the rest so that helps the balance a bit. No worries as we all quickly got chatting and everyone is relaxed and keen to make the most of the trip.
Saturday started with a walking tour around down town Lima (the safe part) and a visit to ATMs, Street money changers (that made the transaction look like a drug deal going down) and the supermarket to get lunch for the four hour bus trip to Pisca.
Peru has 29 million population, about 30% live in Lima, The social scene is made up of A, B and C. A are the haves, B is the so called middle haves, and C being the have nots. 91% are C! Hilda says that although the Peru government reports that they are the most progressive South American country it is not true. Local and National government is full of corruption and it is very difficult for the “C’s to move out of the poverty sector, hence the background behind regular strikes and demonstrations. The major one is the farmers blocking resources getting to Lima.
The local 4 hour bus trip was interesting as Peruvians tend to be a little bit shorter than me so they don’t design the buses for long legs. No worries as plenty of changing scenery along the way to amuse as we watched the transition from city to urban and then very dry shanty town country side. Arrived in the Pisca hotel to find the high standing is being maintained.
Sunday started with the first optional excursion, a trip out to the Baleric Islands to see birds and wild life. We joined up with another tour group and took the half an hour bus trip down the coast to the port. Waited in line with all the other tourists whilst fishermen dragged their latest catch up the wharf. The latest being a huge shark. Life jackets were administered and off we went on the boat. The first thing we saw was a pelican flying next to our boat. Then at high speed we went out to the islands and saw the millions of birds and hundreds of sea lions. Pretty amazing stuff! Jo did this and I stayed at the hotel. Back onto a small private bus and off to the desert for an afternoon excursion to the Huacachina Oasis. Dad forgot to mention here that we visited a traditional winery on our way to the Oasis where we had a tour of the different stages of wine making e.g. the grape stamping pit. Which was followed by a wine tasting and a Pisco tasting (they also made pisco here). We spilt the price and bought enough ingredients to make pisco sour cocktails in our hotel the next night.
Time came to leave on the sand boarding trip and most of the crew had dropped out to lie by the pool. The two young boys, Tim, Hilda (our guide) and me set off in the dune buggy with a grunty V8 engine and huge wheels! Our driver was quite a character but a man of few words, grumbling rapidly through the oasis to the beginning of the dunes. I couldn’t believe the size of the desert, it went on forever! We did mad turns up sleep sand dunes and over dunes not knowing was on the other side, it was quite an experience. We finally got to the first sand boarding place, due to this trip being only for 1.5 hours there was no time to learn how to stand up plus the boards bindings were just made of Velcro straps. No worries, lying on them worked a dream and we all went one by one down each of the slopes. Each time we stopped the slope got gradually steeper and more extreme. You held onto the straps and had to keep your elbows in otherwise you would get sand burn. The two youngens just had t-shirts on so received rather nasty scraps. We did about 7 hills in total and this became the highlight of my trip so far! Loved it and would highly recommend it! I so very much deserved my swim in the Oasis afterwards, what a jam packed day.
Time came to leave on the sand boarding trip and most of the crew had dropped out to lie by the pool. The two young boys, Tim, Hilda (our guide) and me set off in the dune buggy with a grunty V8 engine and huge wheels! Our driver was quite a character but a man of few words, grumbling rapidly through the oasis to the beginning of the dunes. I couldn’t believe the size of the desert, it went on forever! We did mad turns up sleep sand dunes and over dunes not knowing was on the other side, it was quite an experience. We finally got to the first sand boarding place, due to this trip being only for 1.5 hours there was no time to learn how to stand up plus the boards bindings were just made of Velcro straps. No worries, lying on them worked a dream and we all went one by one down each of the slopes. Each time we stopped the slope got gradually steeper and more extreme. You held onto the straps and had to keep your elbows in otherwise you would get sand burn. The two youngens just had t-shirts on so received rather nasty scraps. We did about 7 hills in total and this became the highlight of my trip so far! Loved it and would highly recommend it! I so very much deserved my swim in the Oasis afterwards, what a jam packed day.
Back on the bus for a 1.5 hour drive though incredibly barren landscape to a location were the Pan American highway cut right through the famous Nasca Lines (apparently the road was built before the lines were discovered). We took a quick stop for a climb up a steel tower to get a glimpse of a couple of the Nasca Lines markings. Rather windy and we had way more than the ’10 person maximum’ as stated in large letters on the front. Initially this didn’t look like much but after a presentation in the evening in Nasca it is quite incredible. A couple of the team have decided to take the 30 min flight on Monday afternoon to get an overview.
We are now in Nazca and the end of the second real day of the Intrepid tour. Just had an evening meal in a local restaurant, rotisserie roasted chicken, chips and salad washed down with local beer. Afterwards Jo and the rest have decided to go out on the town. Being sensible and recovering from a day or an upset tummy I decided to retire to the hotel and write up the blog. The rest of us found a nice local bar the man spoke English and treated us like royalty. We had a complimentary round of pisco sour. Even though we had tried it at the winery earlier in the day, we followed his instructions of swirling it around in our mouths before swallowing it. We then all choose a different cocktail at 10 soles each. They were funny pisco versions of regular cocktails e.g. instead of ‘sex on the beach’ there was ‘sex on the nazca lines’.
Monday A not so early start today at 9am a guide came to the hotel to pick us up and we ventured to the Chauchilla cemetery (pre-inca graveyard), here we saw Mummies roughly 900 years old. I found this extremely interesting as most archaeological artefacts were just under sun shelters made out of flax and large sticks, no glass boxes in sight! The graveyard had been discovered by bandits who ripped them apart in search for gold and other valuables, either in their teeth or buried with them. Graves had been put back as traditionally as possible but there were a few random bits and bones around. The bodies were mummified in foetal position, so sitting up and rather freaky skulls staring at you. Some had a few extra skulls which had holes in the front of their forehead. Our guide told us this was a trophy when one tribe leader killed an enemy’s tribal leader in battle they beheaded them and wore the head on their belt. The hole in the forehead was to put the string through – gory!
We are now in Nazca and the end of the second real day of the Intrepid tour. Just had an evening meal in a local restaurant, rotisserie roasted chicken, chips and salad washed down with local beer. Afterwards Jo and the rest have decided to go out on the town. Being sensible and recovering from a day or an upset tummy I decided to retire to the hotel and write up the blog. The rest of us found a nice local bar the man spoke English and treated us like royalty. We had a complimentary round of pisco sour. Even though we had tried it at the winery earlier in the day, we followed his instructions of swirling it around in our mouths before swallowing it. We then all choose a different cocktail at 10 soles each. They were funny pisco versions of regular cocktails e.g. instead of ‘sex on the beach’ there was ‘sex on the nazca lines’.
Monday A not so early start today at 9am a guide came to the hotel to pick us up and we ventured to the Chauchilla cemetery (pre-inca graveyard), here we saw Mummies roughly 900 years old. I found this extremely interesting as most archaeological artefacts were just under sun shelters made out of flax and large sticks, no glass boxes in sight! The graveyard had been discovered by bandits who ripped them apart in search for gold and other valuables, either in their teeth or buried with them. Graves had been put back as traditionally as possible but there were a few random bits and bones around. The bodies were mummified in foetal position, so sitting up and rather freaky skulls staring at you. Some had a few extra skulls which had holes in the front of their forehead. Our guide told us this was a trophy when one tribe leader killed an enemy’s tribal leader in battle they beheaded them and wore the head on their belt. The hole in the forehead was to put the string through – gory!
After this we went to a local potter to see how he made pottery in the tradition Peruvian way, he even made the paint from minerals. And then to see a retired miner explain how he found gold, a tough life especially in that heat! It was my turn to have a funny tummy so I opted out of lunch and went back to the hostal to sleep. Felt much better after that!
The afternoon was again chill out time around the pool and after a meal out at 7pm we had to get ready for catching the 10pm overnight bus to Arequipa. This was a 9 hour trip and although I had a foreboding feeling about the prospect of being on the bus for 9 hours, trying to sleep turned out OK. Reclining seats, movies, snack, on board toilet, blanket and pillow made a difference. We must have travelled over some mountain roads as lots of twists and turns. I, on the other hand, don’t think I slept that well. I kept waking up and thinking the bus was about to drive off a cliff, it was so bumpy and jumpy. Although, I can’t complain about the comfort, it was rather like an aeroplane! As dawn broke we were served a breakfast snack of a crunchy roll hot dog and muffin, plus black tea, Yum!! Ewww! I held out until we got to Arequipa for my hot drink! The countryside was now desert of rolling hills, very barren, with the occasional green oasis. Road was excellent quality and full of busses and large trucks. How the people in the shanty settlements we saw along the way managed to live in this environment was hard to comprehend. Sure was!
Tuesday Arrived in Arequipa at 7am and at times like this it’s good to be part of an organised tour as there was a mini bus waiting to collect us and take us to the hotel. At 8am and after a long night on the bus we were faced with waiting for rooms until 11am, so dumped bags and off for a walk to a top notch coffee cafe (you could have been in Newmarket, Auckland) to get a Grande Cafe latte. A walking tour of central Arequipa followed until our rooms were ready. Amazing city square, grade facades made of the local white stone and all and all very clean and we feel safe just wandering around. We sat on the roof of one of the squares and Hilda gave us a bit of a history lesson. We had lots of questions about the human sacrifices we had heard about the previous day at the Chauchilla cemetery and also about the two mummies of female human sacrifices found in the mountains that were kept at the Juanita Museum in Arequipa. The Inca’s were around from about 1200 – 1530 when the Spanish took over the rule of Peru. The Inca’s unified language stemming from many tribes in the area. Nowadays the region is extremely Catholic but before the Spanish took over, these people believed in Mother Earth. The hills had great power and as the guide at the Chauchilla cemetery had told us his family still believed this and would make a offering of a pile of stones to the hills before crossing them. In Inca times, the greatest offering was pure life. So children and females were given as an offering. They were chosen sometimes from birth to be human offerings. Hilda said she had seen the Juanita mummy in Arequipa and it had perfect teeth, hence having a fine diet and showed she was very healthy. I found this all rather interesting. There was the visit of course to the mandatory clothing shop, which according to Hilda sold the finest wool garments in the world – Baby Alpaca. Hang on a minute... doesn’t NZ have the finest wool garments in the world. Oh well I won’t challenge this right now as I am sure the Aussie members of the team would just think we were annoying Kiwis!
I was a zombie at this stage and crashed for a snooze! After a very welcome shower once rooms were available we were squashed into two taxis and of to the city outskirts to a restaurant that was the best for the local region food. Two taxis, four in each, one cost 4 soles and one cost 8 soles. One smart driver and one not so smart. 4 soles = $NZ1.80 for four of us! I was in the 4 sole taxi, woohoo and we actually had 5 people squished into our taxi! The final member of our group joined us, a lovely Irish lady from London. I think dad forgot to mention we had to leave two of our group in Nazca due to an unfortunate bad food incident. They are all ok now though and arriving in Arequipa tonight.
Special dish was stuffed peppers with pork and potato cake. I decided to have a starter of a very nice beef vegetable broth. Silly me, the vegetable broth came in a bucket and had an accompanying plate of noodles and potatoes! Plenty as a meal by itself but I had to eat the stuffed pepper dish as well!! Potatoes and rice and meat feature strongly on all menus. I on the other hand decided to go for a plain meal of what I thought was beef, potato and rice. It turned up and looked like an awful curry. I put my fork in to what I thought was a piece of potato and it turned out to be a huge golf ball sized lump of fat! Anita from the Aussie Navy was tremendously kind and offered me half her extremely large salad so I hardly made a dent in my dreadful choice of lunch.
We walked all the way back and spotted out first Alpaca, much excitement from the girls but as it was tied up and a little frightened of a noisy bunch of tourists (who wouldn’t be), we decided to wait until the next opportunity for the Alpaca photo shoot. Apparently Alpacas don’t speak sheep. I put the English into fits of laughter when tried to use my best sheep ‘Baa’ to speak to the Alpaca. It did look like a deformed sheep really, let’s be honest. Strange but cute!
Anita, the guy from NSW and I decided to check out the Santa Catalina Nunnery on the way back to the hostal. It was almost a city inside a city. An English speaking guide took us around and described the rooms. It had once been home to 400 nuns! This was a unique nunnery as it was common in Peruvian Catholic families for the first child to be prepared for marriage and the second child to the sent to the nunnery. Apparently they thought this was a great blessing and would assist them into getting into heaven. It cost 2000 silver coins to send your daughter to the nunnery, young girls were sent along with servants and a few gifts. Families were only aloud to see their daughters through a barred wall once a month. Nun’s lived there for their whole life and families were not allowed to attend their funeral. The more money the family had the better abode they received in the nunnery, this went on until the 1970’s (I hope I got this date right) when the pope said that all nuns needed to be equal. There was a nun who lived there called Sister Ana who slept on a bed of nails said that bleeding brought her closer to god. She preformed miracles and cured cancer in people she prayed for and was beautified by Pope John Paul II. An fascinating visit, I had never been to a nunnery.
At 6pm we are off to a roof top restaurant for a drink and view session, can’t wait... Just time for a one hour snooze before. The roof top bar was fun. We were slightly late for the sunset, but the view was still stunning! They gave us each a Peruvian poncho to wear, I opted for a water as my tummy was still making strange sounds.
Tomorrow we are off to Colca Canyon for a two day tour. we will experience over 4600 m. Lets see how we cope with the altitude
Tomorrow we are off to Colca Canyon for a two day tour. we will experience over 4600 m. Lets see how we cope with the altitude
Adios, Until next blog...
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