Tue 11th December 2001
Had breakfast, found a cheap laundry (my socks really needed it), and an internet place to write this. Going to wander around Lima a bit today and see what there is to see before we start our tour. We're both so excited
(This page uses CSS style sheets)
On arrival at Lima, we found that there wasn't someone from the hostel there to meet us (I thought I'd organised for this). So here we were in at midnight, with no money, and not speaking the language. Eventually we got some money changed, and found a taxi driver who seemed trustworthy. He didn't speak English, but let us browse his more recent copy of Lonely Planet than ours to check up on things before we left for the hostel. We got there safe and sound and had a very well appreciated sleep in comfortable beds without noisy German backpackers rolling into a dorm at 5am VERY drunk...
Had breakfast, found a cheap laundry (my socks really needed it), and an internet place to write this. Going to wander around Lima a bit today and see what there is to see before we start our tour. We're both so excited
This morning we moved from our hotel in Miraflores to the one in Downtown Lima from which the tour starts. Both hotels were very nice, but unfortunately I can't say the same for Lima in general. It's horribly polluted, with both Katie and I feeling vaguely nauseous at times, and my eyes were even stinging a little at one stage. I found it humorously fitting that the garbage bins in the main pedestrian mall were sponsored by McDonalds.
We walked to the Plaza de Armas, fortuitously arriving just in time to see the changing of the guards at the Presidential Palace. Military band, swords, spears, and very fancy red and blue uniforms.
A tour of the Cathedral was interesting, but the real highlight of the day was visiting the Fransiscan monastery, and the catacombs beneath it.
Caught the bus to Pisco. It sounds odd coming from an Australian, but I don't really recall seeing a proper desert before. (I know I saw some in the US - I guess I have to see more of my own country at some stage). From Pisco we took a tour around the Paracas reserve, seeing where this desolate landscape meets the sea. It's amazing. No vegetation at all. For lunch I had fresh raw fish marinated in lemon and lime juices. Yummy! On the way back we stopped at a very fancy hotel and had a few Pisco Sours, the local cocktail. Also delicious.
I wasn't sure what to expect from a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands. Birds and sea lions they said. But that's a LOT of birds and sea lions. Maybe when (if) I manage to get some photos uploaded it will give you some idea.
Another bus to Ica then taxis to Huacachina, a beautiful oasis amongst enourmous sand dunes. With some difficulty I managed to follow the others up to the top of one of the dunes and we sandboarded down.
More taxis to Nasca. A short aside here about taxis in Peru. Just about anything with wheels can become a taxi simply by putting a sticker in the window saying TAXI. There's no licensing (well, technically there is in Downtown Lima, but it doesn't work). Daewoo must have done some huge special on Ticos (tiny little micro-hatchbacks), because every second car seems to be one. The exceptions are usually tiny three wheel things that look like someone stuck a roof and a back seat on a motorbike, and huge old gas guzzlers that somehow escaped being destroyed when Dukes of Hazzard was being filmed. Or perhaps they didn't, and have been kludged together from wrecked parts.
Today we will fly over the Nasca lines! If I stop typing and get ready in time.
Well I guess I didn't stop typing in time. I missed the bus and had to catch a taxi to the airport, but I managed to get on the plane and see the lines, which were quite impressive.
Afterwards, we went to an area which had been used as a cemetery by people of the Nasca culture. The bodies are amazingly well preserved, just by the dry air.
This night we spent on an overnight bus to Arequipa.