Lima to Cusco

Ben writes -


We spent a few days in Miraflores after getting in from Mancora. Miraflores is a the poshest bit of Lima which really isn't saying a great deal. It was fine and a lot safer than central Lima which is rather scary. We had to drive through it at night to pick up Marc and Nic from the airport. We met them with no problems - it was very nice to have some visitors! They are in Peru for three weeks before flying home to normality. There isn't really much to say about Lima - we were only there to meet them off the plane. I was able to buy a replacement for my 18 year old rucksack. I said goodbye to it at a left luggage office in our hostel. Marc and Nicky will take it home for us when they come back this way. Sad to say goodbye but like an old worn sock it's usefulness was at an end.

Our plan was to get the bus from Lima to the wildlife sanctuary of Pisco south on the coast but unfortunately we could not get tickets there. We decided to head for Ica instead - it was in the same general direction next to the peruvian 'desert strip' along the coast. En route we decided to stay at the nearby oasis of Huacachina which turned out to be a truly amazing place. The wern´t joking when they discribed it as an oasis. It is like something out of Laurance of Arabia. We were in the middle of an oasis with huge sand dunes on either side. It felt like the whole place could be swallowed by sand at any minute. In the middle was a small lake with some restaurants and they had pedalos. So of course we had a go. Unfortunately I put our camera out of action as I dropped it in the water filled bottom of our pedalo. Marc's was still working at least.

As well as this they also had dune buggies!!! Our dune buggy held 8 people and was one mean machine. Our driver looked about fifteen but he was excellent. We liked it especially when he went very fast down near vertical inclines. Loads better than any rollercoaster. After about half an hour of this we stopped to go sandboarding - basically snowboarding without the snow.

The sand boarding was great. You could either stand on it on go down on your belly. And you start at the top of these enormous dunes and slide down very quickly. Tig seemed to have the knack and went like a cork out of a bottle down the dunes.

It was great fun but you do get sand in some very strange places and she managed to eat half the desert. I also ate quite a lot of it.

Unfortunately Marc's camera then got clogged up with sand as a result of this activity - so we had put both of our cameras out of action on the same day.

It was extremely strange being in a very hot climate over Christmas. In the evening we had ´christmas dinner´ or something that was meant to be christmas dinner. It was boiled meat of some kind with rice and pineapple and some really dodgy veggies. Marc poured chocolate sauce on his by mistake thinking it was gravy but apparently it didn´t make that much difference to the taste. We also had champagne which I am sure was Diamond White in a different bottle. The wine had a definite sherry taste to it. But at least we got to sit down together and pretend it was a roaster.

On Christmas Day we left really early for the town of Nazca home of the famous 'lines'. We went on a very old bus with every local in town and arrived in the early morning. Because of our camera problems we had to use the camera on the phone - when we can get the pictures off there we will put them on the blog. Anyway, we took an early morning flight on Christmas Day in a tiny Cesna plane over the lines as they are only visible from the air. It looks like ET has flown down and drawn all these shapes everywhere. The Nazca people actually drew them as an appeal to the Gods for water. When the water did not arrive they drew bigger and more intricate designs. There is a monkey, spider, whale, hummingbird, condor and an astronaught plus lots of trapazoidal shapes. Nic didn't like the flying bit. I started to get ill (again) at this point which was not ideal.

After that we went on to have breakfast and then the others walked around Nazca for a few hours. I stayed in the hostel with a streaming nose and lot of tissues for the afternoon. In the evening we caught a really swish bus to Arequipa which is a lovely city in the south of Peru. It was an 11 hr journey but we had these bus beds which meant we all had a good kip. Arequipa was great, very nice little cafes everywhere. Lots of colonial buildings anda volcano called ´Misty´ overlooking the town, which was a very appropriate name as we didn´t get a glimpse of it the whole time we were there. Luckily our camera was ok by this point as it had time to dry out fully. Sadly Marc's was not OK and would need to be repaired in the UK .

The next day we travelled to Puno which is on Lake Titicaca. The lake is a truly fantastic sight and is the highest navigable lake in the world. The terrain really changed over the 5 hour journey from Arequipa. It is 3820m above sea level and you really feel the difference when you arrive. The air is really clean, but even walking up a flight of stairs makes you totally out of breath. So the first day there we took it easy and just pottered around the town. Nic din't feel well due to the altitude so she and Marc left the next morning at 5am to catch a bus to Cusco which is 600m lower so she would feel better.

We stayed to go to the floating islands on Uros but Tigs didn´t feel great the next morning either so we slept in and by the time we arrived to go out across the lake there were no boats left, so our sightseeing was a bit of a washout. I was feeling better by then - luckily I don't seem to have a problem with altitude despite catching every bug on offer. We decided to follow Marc and Nic to Cusco the next day - my birthday.

The bus ride from Puno was a complete experience. We got shunted on and off buses and some guy got his rucksack stolen from the baggage hold which made me feel a little uncomfortable. We saw him sprint past us and away across the tarmac at some small town bus station after some peruvian. The road was very bumpy and there were many delays. The funniest bit of the trip was when an old andean lady got on the bus and opened her cloth bundle to reveal a cooked laama which she then proceeded to hack into pieces with a meat clever and sell to the bus passengers. Tigs found this hysterical. We also had three police shakedowns as we approached Cusco and although they did not touch us, each time they threw locals' belongings out of the bus and into the gutter and then made them pay to be allowed back on the bus. We arrived after 8 hours, and as this was the 29th December I was ready for a 31st birthday beer. Thank God Marc and Nic had been stars and gone out to get me a cake and a present. They even decorated our room at the hostel. This stopped my 31st from being my worst ever birthday experiance. It was all quiet emotional. I can assure you my birthday beer tasted very good.

We spent the next couple of days relaxing after our rather traumatic bus ride. Since arriving in Cusco we have had a great time. It is a absolutely beautiful place. We have really enjoyed our time here. It was founded by the first Inca as 'the naval of the world' and was the capital of the Inca empire which stretched north into Equador, East into Brazil and Bolivia and south into Chile.

New Year's Eve was absolutely nuts. In latin countries everyone wears yellow for luck. There was yellow everywhere so we decided it was only right to participate.


There were loads of urchins running around in the square chucking bangers at everyone. Everybody seemed to bring their own fireworks down to the main square and set them all off in all directions. Many of them went off in the middle of crowds of people. Health and Safety did not feature highly. It was manic and great fun. Organised displays at home will always lack something after this.

At midnight everyone ran around the square for good luck. We joined thousands of people in this stampede. Really very memorable. After lots of beers we went on to a club and danced our legs off until the early hours. We spent 1st Jan doing nothing on account of our sore heads and then packed for the IncaTrail which started on 2nd.