Arequipa, Peru

Puerto Inka was our next stop, just a couple of hours from Nazca. We camped at a beach side campsite and had the afternoon free to enjoy. Some people went to see the nearby ruins of the Inca port which in its time was said to be able to get fish to Cusco (a long way away) in just 24 hours. Myself and Antony took advantage of the sea kayak hire and braved the rather cold and choppy water to see if we could find the sealion that had been seen off shore. The thing was very sneaky though and didn't want to be found. All good fun all the same though.

We had a spectacular scenic drive along the coast and then inland to Arequipa, the white city named after a locally found white volcanic rock called Sillar that a lot of the colonial buildings are made from. The city was very chaotic as we tried to get the truck down the narrow streets. It wasn't happening and after driving around the block many times and reversing down one way streets we just couldn't get parked outside the hotel so we all piled into taxis (always an experience) to get to the hotel. It was the best taxi ride of the trip so far as it turns out that the driver can play the pan pipes and whipped them out from under his seat to give us a rendition of “let it be” in time with his CD playing. Brilliant!

Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru and is beautifully set in the shadow of the huge volcano El Misti at 5825m high. The must do in the city is a visit to Santa Catalina Monastry which we took a guided tour around. It was built in 1579 with rich Spanish families sending their second daughter there to live as a nun. Each nun had many servants and their families built a home for their daughter. There are 80 houses, many containing more than one nun which were spread over 4 streets. Eventually the monastery turned into a museum which was fantastic to walk down the cobbled alleys, through the arched courtyard, into the nun's houses and to see the clay pot laundry. I surprised myself by enjoying the tour which was definitely worth while doing

From Arequipa we had over 500km to cover to get to Cusco. Finding the road to Cusco proved pretty difficult as the one we thought was the highway turned into a dirt road an hour out of the city. 2 hours after leaving the hotel we were back in the city and had to put Mikkel and Francois in a taxi so that we could follow it to the correct road. We eventually found it as we were treated to some amazing scenery of snow topped mountains and flat grassy plains, exactly what I thought Peru would look like. We found a great bush camp in a small quarry which sheltered us from any wind. It was the first time that it's been properly cold since southern Argentina and it was a shock to the system. I also learnt a valuable lesson - don't put flip flops outside your tent when overnight temperatures are below zero! From a cool morning we headed for another 5 or so hours until hitting Cusco, a big marking point in our journey as we stop for 6 nights for a chance to see what the Incas built.

Nazca, Peru

Another 2 hours down the road and you hit the town of Nazca. The reason we have stopped here is for the chance to take a plane over the Nazca lines. The lines are thought to date from 900AD and are of various images that can be seen from above. It's believed that they were formed after a particular dry spell and the locals want to send messages to the god for rain.

If you had asked me a year ago would I be flying over the Nazca lines I would have said a very confident 'yes'. Now we have arrived the appeal has gone. The area where the lines are is in in fact a rocky plain and not very interesting and the thought of paying over $100 to have a quick flight over them put me off. There is a 12m viewing platform on the edge of the Pan Americano highway where you can have a glimpse at the hands and a tree. It's wasn't massively impressive and I can't understand how after 3000 years the lines haven't been eroded or filled in by sediment making me wonder if they actually upkeep the lines. What I saw was great to see but just not worth spending the money on the flight.

We also visited Neocropolis Chauchilla which was really cool. Archaeologists had found a stack of mummies buried from about 1000 years ago. Instead of putting them in a aircon museum they created pits to display them in outside. I don't know anything about them, whether they were male, female, or important in society but they were well preserved and appeared to have very long dreadlocks. Definitely worth the visit!

Huacachina, Peru

Our next stop was the desert oasis of Huacachina. Not quite as romantic as it sounds as it's located just outside of the city of Ica. The oasis is a lovely green coloured pool surrounded by hostels and restaurants which serve the backpackers that come here for one reason only, to go sandboarding in the huge sand dunes. Most of the group took the opportunity to go for a spin in dune buggies, sand board, watch sunset, have a BBQ and then spend the night under the stars. I declined the offer as I'd done sandboarding before and I wasn't so keen on the buggies so instead spent the night in a passable hostel. It was actually quite nice to have a chilled out evening and I have found a local dish which is actually really tasty – Lomo saltado which is basically stir fried beef with onions and tomatoes with a few chips thrown in and served with rice. Yum! When I met up with the group the next morning they had had a great time but I glad that I stayed in the hostel as there were reports of no real sunset, cold chicken and chips for tea which had been brought up from town and having to walk miles for a bush wee!

Paracas National Park and the Ballestas Islands, Peru

From Lima we had a quite a short drive to Paracas National Park. The park doesn't look like a national park as it's just lots of rocky dunes but apparently it's full of flora and fauna that need protecting, but we didn't exactly see much in the barren landscape. We had a bit of a drive around the park checking out the views from the cliffs before setting up a bush camp on the beach. With the wind coming in straight from the see it was rather chilly but a lovely spot.

The following morning we went out on a boat to visit the Ballestas Islands which are protected due to the huge amount of birds living there. There were what looked like millions sitting on the cliffs. We saw cormarants, 2 types of booby, pelicans, terns and penguins plus some sealions on the rocks. The islands were used from the mid 19th century for collecting guano (bird poo) which was used as a fertiliser. In 1890 after war with Chile, money made from this industry was used to cancel foreign debt. Since the islands have been recognised as an area to be protected the guano collection has been limited to certain times of year for conservation purposes only. Another thing that we saw from the boat was a geoglyph of a candelabra on the cliff side of the Paracas pennisula. The image has been carved 50cm down, much thicker than the 3cm of the Nazca lines to come.

Lima, Peru

We arrived in the capital of Peru, Lima in good time after an 8 hour drive back down to sea level from Huaraz. We have stayed in a very central hotel only 2 blocks away from the main shopping street and also Plaza de Armas which is the main square. The plaza is a UNESCO site and is very beautiful during the day and also at dusk. It's home to the government palace, cathedral and city hall and lots restuarants. The day was spent having a mooch in the streets off the square, a spot of shopping (I bought another bag!) and we also managed to catch the changing of the guard outside the palace which was pretty musical! Lima has been a great stop but it's time for a couple of bush camps as we head further south along the coast.

Huaraz, Peru

Yesterday after a very scenic drive and heights of 4200m we arrived in the snowy mountain surrounded town of Huaraz. There is plenty to do here- trekking, mountain biking, horse riding, ice climbing and rock climbing. This is the 1st opportunity we have had to go climbing so myself, Lisa and Antony spent a couple of hours going up and down the 20m high wall. It wasn't hugely difficult but it was great fun and the view was amazing. Tomorrow we head back down to sea level and Peru's capitol, Lima.

Huanchaco, Peru

Chan Chan

Temple of the Moon

We left Punta Sal and headed South on the Pan Americano Highway through a very dry and barren landscape. It was a long day and we arrived in the coastal town of Huanchaco in time to go out for tea which was an experience as it's low season so not much is open resulting in a very long wait (1.5 hours) for our food.

The next morning we awoke to sea views and suprisingly cool temperature as we headed out with the truck and a guide to visit the pre Inca ruins of Chan Chan and the Temple of the Moon. The Chan Chan complex was built by the Chimu as an Imperial city in and is the largest Adobe (type of clay brick) city in the world. There are 10 palaces and we had a look around one of them. It was huge! The palace has 12m high surrounding walls and each new king had a new palace. When a king died he was buried in his palace next to all his women who were sacrificed and his treasure. The décor inside the palace was linked to the fishing trade with reliefs of fish, pelicans and nets. The Incas attacked and the Chimu's surrended around 1471 after all their irrigation canals were cut off. The city was left deserted after the Inca's didn't fancy it. It was nice to have a wander around, but the city has been heavily conserved with the reliefs actually being completely covered by a modern replica which made the place look like a cheaply made film set. I couldn't see the point in conserving the place if you couldn't see what you were conserving.

After lunch we went to have a look at a much older site, the pyramid shaped, Temple of the Moon. The temple was build in 300AD by the Moche people who were keen on ceramics. The temple had 7 levels and the preservation of the reliefs was amazing as the temple had been buried in sands since its abandonment. The original colours were still visible on the reliefs which showed, priests, prisoners, fisherman and animals. The temple built up into layers as after a priest died he was buried and then a new level added for the next priest.

The day was very interesting an a great introduction to Peruvian ruins. Next we head up into the Andes to Huaraz at 3700m.

Beach time, Peru

From Banos we headed further South to Cuenca. This town is famous for being the place where the Panama hat originates from. To be honest I haven't got much to say about Cuenca which didn't seem to hold much apart from museums and the weather wasn't great. We had a whole hostel to ourselves so I did a spot if relaxing, internetting, got my laundry washed, and ate lots! It was a necerssary stop enroute to the border though.

Getting into Peru from Ecuador should have been easy as it's a well used route for overland trucks and we had a brand new immigration office block where we could get stamped out of Ecuador and enter Peru at desks just next door to each other. Sadly it wasn't so easy for 6 of us, including me! When we entered Ecuador some of us were given a traditional rubber stamp and some a fancy electronic stamp. It turns out that some of the rubber stamped passports entry wasn't recorded into the system properly (seems to be a common problem that we are having with Ecuador) with the border post on the computer not matching what the stamp says. We were told that we would have to go back to the border we entered in from, which wasn't going to happen! A couple of hours later the immigration people realised that we did all come through the same border together and someone higher up the rank managed to get code to overwrite what had been typed into the computer. Who would have thought that getting out the country would have been so difficult!!

As soon as we headed into Peru you noticed a change from Ecuador moving from green and wet to brown and dry. The sun was shining as we headed to Punta Sal, meaning Salt Point about 30km from the town of Mancora. We arrived in time for sunset pitching our tents on the beach with sea views. We had 2 full days of beach fun. The first day some of us headed into Mancora by a combination of tuk tuk and flagged down minivan to change some money and also to learn to surf. Myself, Lisa, Vanessa, Francois and Antony braved the waves for an hour with an instructor guiding the surf board from behind into the waves and giving us a little extra power before yelling for us to stand up. It was great fun. The first wave we attempted I managed to stand for a couple of seconds before falling but the waves after that I surfed them into shore. It would be interesting to see how easy it is without a chap behind you yelling instructions. I'm really glad I did it as a surf lesson is something I never got around to in Australia.

After an afternoon of relaxation we started one of many 'farewell Pete' parties. This one included a huge BBQ, a photo slide show and Rogan hosted a couple of games of Limbo and pick up the cardboard box. Great night had by all. The next day (today) has been a day of sleeping, swimming and book reading. No complaints so far!

Banos, Ecuador

The town of Banos is a relatively short hop south from Quito. The mountain roads were beautiful and we stopped for lunch in a layby which gave us the chance to go on a cable car across the valley to see a waterfall. It was the best $1.50 I've ever spent as it hurtled us pretty quickly down a cable that looked like it was in the process of being replaced. Very good fun!

We stayed in a lovely campsite 17km outside Banos in the cloud forest which meant that we have had rain since we arrived. One day we caught the bus into town which is at the bottom of an active volcano (last eruption 2009) but sadly low cloud spoilt our views. It's not the prettiest of towns but it has served needs of a post office and ATM and was nice to have a wander. The cathedral had some unusual paintings inside all relating to the volcano erupting and alarmingly one showed the cable car cable across the valley snapping and a man falling to his death.

The second day some people went walking, others for a massage but myself, Lisa, Geoff, Francois, Terry and Lesley went white water rafting on the Rio Negro. After all the rain recently it was touch and go whether the river would actually be raftable. We were given the go and donned wetsuits, buoyancy aids and helmets and braved the rain and cold water to have a great day out. Most of the rapids were class 4 or 5 making fantastic rafting and we actually had to walk the river bank for two sections of class 6 as they can't be commercially rafted. It was a great 2.5hours of all go and I was very glad I did it.

Galapogos part 2

Continued- apparently no more space for photos on part 1

Giant Tortioses- We saw in the Charles Dawin Research Centre on Santa Cruz island. The tortoises are bred here and released back to the wild, microchipped when they are 5 years old. It was great to see the size of the tortoises as some had shells well over a meter long.

Turtles

White tipped reef sharks

Various rays

So many fish

We only visited the Southern islands on our cruise but I was pleased how much we did see. I think there will be a few returnees in years to come for further exploration! We flew back to Quito for one night before heading further South to Banos with one extra person on board. Rogan has joined us a crew as sadly Pete has to leave us in Lima, Peru to prepare and crew another upcoming trip. Rogan has driven for Odyssey many times before and seems like a nice guy so I'm sure we will still be in safe hands with him and Kirsten for the final sector of the trip back to Buenos Aires.