Catch Up

Day 16

We arrived in Pisco, home of the alcoholic drink of the same name, a drink which I have come to love, and have had at least one Pisco Sour every day; a cocktail which I will make for people when I get home. The town of Pisco was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1997, but they managed to rebuilt it within 9 months, so is relatively modern, yet still a bit of a dump. We were only here for one night, as a stopover on our way to Nazca.

Day 17

We set off early from Pisco to go to Nazca, but on the way we stopped at a Huacachina Oasis, which is a beautiful oasis town built in the middle of the desert. Surrounded by sand dunes, you can't see for more than a mile out of the town. We stayed in a hotel just for the day, where some of us stayed and lounged around by the pool, and myself, Amy and Yeti went Dune buggying. This was great fun, and it felt and looked like we were in the middle of the Sahara. When the Dune Buggy stopped at the top of a Dune - and i'm talking very big dunes - we were handed a board to go down on. I decided to show off and go down standing up, which didn't really work out how I imagined. The bigger sand dunes I thought I'd play it safe and go down on my stomach, still was great fun.
This day we also went to a national reserve park (read: desert) to look at sand, cliffs, a bit more sand and then some flamingos. I was mighty bored and people couldn't understand why I wasn't fascinated by the flamingos like everyone else was, until I told them I've seen them many times before at Flamingo Land.
We later went to an old Pisco factory, to learn how Pisco was made, where we tried about 10 different types of Pisco, some having great strength. We all slept well after that on our way to Nazca.

Day 18

Nazca is a town built because of the Nazca lines, as well as the mining opportunities around it. The Nazca lines are pictures which have been etched into the desert floor hundreds of years ago. Little is known why they exist, or even how old they are. There was an optional activity to go flying over the lines, but we were warned that its quite unsafe and a few planes crashed last year killing everyone on board. Even our governments warned us about going on them, which meant we would not be covered by our insurance. Knowing all these facts, I decided to go on the flight anyway. And i'm so glad i did, it was brilliant. It was a tiny little 4 seater plane, which went along like a rollercoaster, showing us the lines from above. A Danish guy infront of me very nearly brought up his breakfast. Only myself, Leonie and Yeti went on. I loved every second of it and have some great photos, it was well worth the $100.
That afternoon we went to see some Pre-Inca graves, with the bodies still intact, mostly mummified, some gruesome photos there. There were 12 graves, every one exactly the same as the next. We then went to a pottery guy, where we had another run in with 'the others' and I got pissed off because one of the women was asking everybody except the person she needed to ask whether she could use flash or not. She even asked me. What bothers me the most about this was it was broad daylight so there was absolutely no need for a flash. Grrrr
That night we got a little bit pissed because we had our first overnight bus ahead of us. Most people slept all the way through, with the aid of some pills. I, however, hardly slept at all, and felt awful when we finally arrived in Arequipa at 7 in the morning.

Day 19

Arequipa is Fernando's home city, so he gave us a short tour around. We went to a local market to buy all the ingredients needed to make Pisco Sour. From there we went to Mummy Fernando's house, to make the cocktails. Mum, as we called her, was lovely, even though she didn't speak a word of English, but it was great fun, and we all enjoyed being there. Our sours were the best I've had yet.
We also went to a museum right outside our hotel, which contained a frozen Inca girl who had been sacrificed at the top of the mountain and found only 15 years ago. This was very macabre in a way, because she was almost perfectly preserved by the sub-zero temperatures for hundreds of years. She was only 14 years old.

Day 20

Today was the start of a 2 day tour round the Colco Valley and Canyon. The Colca Canyon is more than twice as deep than the Grand Canyon, and gave for some spectacular vistas. We had a short trek at high altitude (13,000 feet at one point) which was great practice for Machu Picchu. The altitude really doesn't affect me that much, which is a great relief to me as it was my biggest worry. To help with the altitude, we all tried the Coca leaves, which is an ancient remedy for the sickness. One word: vile.
Later we went to a natural hot spring, which was possibly the most relaxing thing I've ever done. At 39 degrees C, me and Fernando laid in the pool, chatting and drinking Pisco Sours. Yes, I really am addicted. Me and Fern had a great bonding session then, talking about anything and everything.
We stayed in the middle of the Valley, in a town called Chivay that night.

Day 21

Today we went on the Condor trek, to try and get a glimpse of the condors. Apparently you usually only see 4 or 5, but there were well over 20 when we went. They are very elegant birds, and fly right over your head, which made some fantastic pictures. I will try and put one up on here. We set off back to Arequipa that afternoon, where we had a free evening to ourselves. I slept.