Hi everyone,
late as usual but once again it´s been a jam packed week. Plus by the time I arrived at my hostel last night it was a little late to be writing.
So, this is likely to be pretty long but hopefully it´ll be worth the read.
After writing my last post I pretty much spent my time making sure I had everything together, getting some food and saying a few goodbyes to my new friends. I had to get to the Peruhop office for around 8pm. For those of you who haven´t yet heard of Peruhop despite all my mentions they´re a great hop-on-hop-off bus company that goes between some of the most important places within Peru - it´s great value and the guides are awesome.
I got on the bus with a small group of other backpackers and we all settled down for about a 9 hour overnight bus journey.
The bus arrived in Puno very early on Monday morning but after only a short breakfast we were off again. We were all booked onto the Floating islands tour, where we got a boat out on to Lake Titicaca and explored these really cool islands made out of reeds. We spent the whole day out there checking out a number of the islands before returning to Puno. It was actually timed really well because as soon as we made it off the boat it started raining and didn´t stop of at least a couple of hours.
We met back up with our guide after dinner then it was back on the bus.
By this point I´d gotten talking to a couple of Canadian travellers -mother and son- and decided to book into the same hostel as them.
One more night bus later and we all arrived in Arequipa - the 2nd biggest city in Peru. The three of us staying at Marlon´s house were dropped off and after a bit of sitting around headed out for breakfast while we waited for our rooms to be ready - it was still early after all. Considering we´d just done two night buses we spent a good part of the morning chilling out and catching up on some sleep before joining up with a free walking tour on the afternoon, The tour was great, the guide was funny, and we got to see quite a large part of the city. However we did find out that to visit the well known convent there would cost us each 40 soles, and decided to pass.
The tour went on quite a bit longer than expected so aferwards we just headed back to our hostel for food and an early night.
Wednesday got off to a fairly slow start since we all still needed to catch up on some rest. Once we got going though we wandered around away from the centre of the city and found some lovely parks. We also discovered a little convent tucked away where you normally wouldn´t find it. This one might have been smaller but only cost 5 soles so in we went. It also contained a pretty cool collection of Amazonian artifacts and an amazing library full of books from the 16-18th century!
After finishing up there we found a cheap local place to eat before heading up to the market to find something to cook for dinner. There´s a great market in Arequipa where everything is clean and organised and people are much less likely to beckon you over to their stall by shouting about their wares until you agree to buy something.
On our way back from the market we decided to stop and look into one of the small local museums (not much to see) and grab some coffee then look around the cathedral which was pretty impressive. They had a collection of some of the jewellery worn by the priest back in the day, including a crown covered in diamonds and emeralds weighing around 5kg! We had a guide who was great at explaining all the finer details within the cathedral but I couldn´t help but laugh at the fact she addressed the group as ´misters´, as in; "if you walk this way misters"...pretty funny at the time anyway.
By the time we got back all we had the energy for was food then bed,
3am on Thursday and it was time to go. Still half alseep we stumbled into a small bus and set off for the Colca Canyon. At around 6am we stopped for breakfast before pressing on again. By the time 8am arrived we were finally awake and just in time for us to make our big stop. We were there to see the Andean Condor leaving it´s nest to find food for the day, Their are very specific times when you can see them hence the really early start but it was so worth it! These beautiful birds have a wingspan of about 3m and look magestic gliding around on the air currents.
Eventually they left and so did we, them to find food - us to drive further along the canyon. We drove to the village at the end of the road to pick up some people who´d been hiking in the canyon before turning round to go back to Arequipa.
On the way we made a few stops and view points, little road side stores and towards the end some hot springs. They were a little artificial (they´d basically built a swimming pool around the spring) but it was still nice to sit and chill in there for a little while before getting back on the bus.
One more food stop then it was back to the city to reflect on what an awesome day we´d had.
After another long day we had a bit of a slow morning, wandering round some of the craft markets and enjoying some really good ice cream. In the afternoon Josh and I went to do a bit more exploring while his mam chilled at the hostel. After as great stir fry we went back out but this time to get a few drinks. It was a fun night outand I got try try a few cocktail style drinks I otherwise probably wouldn´t have looked at so pretty good in all.
The late night was probably a bad choice since we had an early bus to get on saturday morning but I slept well on the bus so I didn´t really notice. We got all the way to Ica where we dropped off some people who wanted to get a flight over the lines. The rest of us stayed on the bus and went to a viewing tower to see a couple of the lines for free from there. They were pretty cool, we got to see the tree and a pair of hands. There´s a lot of uncertain history with the lines but either way they´re still super impressive. A couple of hours later we arrived in Huacachina - the only desert oasis in South America. It´s an interesting place environmentally but there was only a couple of streets and not much to do except relax or party - as was demonstrated at the hostel I stayed at - the party was still going some time after 5am the morning after.
On Sunday morning I sat and ate what food I had left (having assumed food in the oasis would be expensive) but it was fine - nothing wrong with avacado sandwiches for breakfast. I spent some time reading and having a little look around before settling down by the hostel pool for a little while.
At around midday, once the group was back together, we all went off for a free Pisco tour, where it was explained how they make Pisco, and what different types there are. They had 3 mains types - wine, spirit, and creams.
After that tour it was back to the hostel to get organised for sandbuggies and sandboarding! A group of 8 of us jumped into the buggy and were taken up into the sanddunes by a crazy driver who seemed determined to make us fly. Fortunately that was all part of the fun and the vehicle was kitted out with belts, rollcage, etc. The sandboarding was equally awesome. You could lie down or sand on the board going down the dunes; I stuck to lying down but it was still awesome! We stayed around until almost sunset before heading back down into the oasis and getting back on the bus.
It only took us about two hours to drive to Paracas - our next destination.
Upon arrival we quickly got settled into our hostel then went out with the group for some great pizza. Unfortunately I probably didn´t get to enjoy it fully but that´s just because I was so tired I was half sleeping at the table.
So today - almost finished - we had a farily early start as we were going on a boat tour at 8am. We all met up before hand and made our way to the boat. Our trip took us out to the Ballestas Islands - a diverse group of islands sometimes referred to as a Poor Man´s Galápagos. On the way we saw dolphins and at the islands we got to see sealions, penguins, pelicans and some other amazing bird life! The tour only lasted 2 hours but we saw so many awesome things.
We got back to the hostel and hung out for a little while before going on to our next little excursion - a trip into the national reserve where we got to see some amazing views across the desert like terrain and see where it meets the ocean.
Well since the tour I´ve been spending my time trying to write this - not easy when the computer doesn´t want to cooperate. Now I think I´m going to go hang out by the pool.
Speak to you all again soon though!
late as usual but once again it´s been a jam packed week. Plus by the time I arrived at my hostel last night it was a little late to be writing.
So, this is likely to be pretty long but hopefully it´ll be worth the read.
After writing my last post I pretty much spent my time making sure I had everything together, getting some food and saying a few goodbyes to my new friends. I had to get to the Peruhop office for around 8pm. For those of you who haven´t yet heard of Peruhop despite all my mentions they´re a great hop-on-hop-off bus company that goes between some of the most important places within Peru - it´s great value and the guides are awesome.
I got on the bus with a small group of other backpackers and we all settled down for about a 9 hour overnight bus journey.
The bus arrived in Puno very early on Monday morning but after only a short breakfast we were off again. We were all booked onto the Floating islands tour, where we got a boat out on to Lake Titicaca and explored these really cool islands made out of reeds. We spent the whole day out there checking out a number of the islands before returning to Puno. It was actually timed really well because as soon as we made it off the boat it started raining and didn´t stop of at least a couple of hours.
We met back up with our guide after dinner then it was back on the bus.
By this point I´d gotten talking to a couple of Canadian travellers -mother and son- and decided to book into the same hostel as them.
 |
| floating islands in Puno |
The tour went on quite a bit longer than expected so aferwards we just headed back to our hostel for food and an early night.
Wednesday got off to a fairly slow start since we all still needed to catch up on some rest. Once we got going though we wandered around away from the centre of the city and found some lovely parks. We also discovered a little convent tucked away where you normally wouldn´t find it. This one might have been smaller but only cost 5 soles so in we went. It also contained a pretty cool collection of Amazonian artifacts and an amazing library full of books from the 16-18th century!
After finishing up there we found a cheap local place to eat before heading up to the market to find something to cook for dinner. There´s a great market in Arequipa where everything is clean and organised and people are much less likely to beckon you over to their stall by shouting about their wares until you agree to buy something.
On our way back from the market we decided to stop and look into one of the small local museums (not much to see) and grab some coffee then look around the cathedral which was pretty impressive. They had a collection of some of the jewellery worn by the priest back in the day, including a crown covered in diamonds and emeralds weighing around 5kg! We had a guide who was great at explaining all the finer details within the cathedral but I couldn´t help but laugh at the fact she addressed the group as ´misters´, as in; "if you walk this way misters"...pretty funny at the time anyway.
By the time we got back all we had the energy for was food then bed,
3am on Thursday and it was time to go. Still half alseep we stumbled into a small bus and set off for the Colca Canyon. At around 6am we stopped for breakfast before pressing on again. By the time 8am arrived we were finally awake and just in time for us to make our big stop. We were there to see the Andean Condor leaving it´s nest to find food for the day, Their are very specific times when you can see them hence the really early start but it was so worth it! These beautiful birds have a wingspan of about 3m and look magestic gliding around on the air currents.
Eventually they left and so did we, them to find food - us to drive further along the canyon. We drove to the village at the end of the road to pick up some people who´d been hiking in the canyon before turning round to go back to Arequipa.
On the way we made a few stops and view points, little road side stores and towards the end some hot springs. They were a little artificial (they´d basically built a swimming pool around the spring) but it was still nice to sit and chill in there for a little while before getting back on the bus.
One more food stop then it was back to the city to reflect on what an awesome day we´d had.
 |
| Andean Condor in Colca Canyon |
After another long day we had a bit of a slow morning, wandering round some of the craft markets and enjoying some really good ice cream. In the afternoon Josh and I went to do a bit more exploring while his mam chilled at the hostel. After as great stir fry we went back out but this time to get a few drinks. It was a fun night outand I got try try a few cocktail style drinks I otherwise probably wouldn´t have looked at so pretty good in all.
The late night was probably a bad choice since we had an early bus to get on saturday morning but I slept well on the bus so I didn´t really notice. We got all the way to Ica where we dropped off some people who wanted to get a flight over the lines. The rest of us stayed on the bus and went to a viewing tower to see a couple of the lines for free from there. They were pretty cool, we got to see the tree and a pair of hands. There´s a lot of uncertain history with the lines but either way they´re still super impressive. A couple of hours later we arrived in Huacachina - the only desert oasis in South America. It´s an interesting place environmentally but there was only a couple of streets and not much to do except relax or party - as was demonstrated at the hostel I stayed at - the party was still going some time after 5am the morning after.
 |
| Nazcar lines |
At around midday, once the group was back together, we all went off for a free Pisco tour, where it was explained how they make Pisco, and what different types there are. They had 3 mains types - wine, spirit, and creams.
After that tour it was back to the hostel to get organised for sandbuggies and sandboarding! A group of 8 of us jumped into the buggy and were taken up into the sanddunes by a crazy driver who seemed determined to make us fly. Fortunately that was all part of the fun and the vehicle was kitted out with belts, rollcage, etc. The sandboarding was equally awesome. You could lie down or sand on the board going down the dunes; I stuck to lying down but it was still awesome! We stayed around until almost sunset before heading back down into the oasis and getting back on the bus.
It only took us about two hours to drive to Paracas - our next destination.
Upon arrival we quickly got settled into our hostel then went out with the group for some great pizza. Unfortunately I probably didn´t get to enjoy it fully but that´s just because I was so tired I was half sleeping at the table.
 |
| Sand buggy in Huacachina |
We got back to the hostel and hung out for a little while before going on to our next little excursion - a trip into the national reserve where we got to see some amazing views across the desert like terrain and see where it meets the ocean.
 |
| Sealions in Paracas |
Speak to you all again soon though!
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