Deserts and mountains
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2008
1
21
68
Trip End
Jun 15, 2009
Arequipa,
Peru
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Huacachinero is an awesome place, green in the middle of golden sand. The dunes that rise around every side of it are huge, like at least a hundred meters tall. Only about 2 hundred people live there and basically I think they all work in the tourism business. The main reason we were here was to go sand bugging and sand boarding, not that Kumuka could apparently encourage that you do it. Some one was killed a few years ago so now it is considered to be dangerous. We spent the morning lying around the pool and reading. There were some tame parrots at the hotel and they would just walk down the hammocks and stand on you. We camped in the back of the hotel on a grassy little spot, and it was good fun.
The dune buggy and sand boarding was so much fun, probably the best thing we have done so far. The buggies were massive things with huge engines and big roll bars, they were very crazy looking. Basically they would drive us really fast about the dunes scaring us half to death and then landing us safely at the top of a huge sand dune for us to lie down on a plank of wood and hurtle down at speeds I wouldn't like to guess. It was great! You can get strapped into them like a snow board, but you don't really have any control over direction as your feet aren't really secure. I tried it on one, but it was a bit useless and more fun to lye flat. We watched the sun set over the dunes to cap off a great afternoon.
Next on the list was a long drive to Nacka to see the lines. Well that was the plan, until we broke down. It was like being in Clive all over again! Our driver got it going again after a good tinkering, but we were stopped again within the hr, and then again just before Nasca where the part that was faulty fell out and got its self lost! We got taxis the last few Km's and the truck caught us up a few hrs later. We weren't planning on staying in Nasca that night, but we didn't have a choice as the new part was going to be shipped over to us and hopefully fixed that night.
The Nasca lines are lines that were made into the desert sands thousands of years ago, no one really knows how or why, but they are there. The only way to see them properly is by aeroplane, but as it coasts $70 US, we weren't going to go. We did get to see a couple of them by looking off a viewing platform, so we figure we got a bit of an experience. Turns out the planes were very bumpy and everyone who went got sick, so it wasn't the worst thing to miss! We spent the night camping in Nasca and our part turned up nice and early in the morning. We were going aging by 9am.
Unfortunately for me I had gotten a bit of a stomach bug again, so I spent the day asleep. We were camping that night on the beach having a big BBQ and drinks etc, but I ended up getting a hotel room and sleeping for hrs. Dave tells me they had a game of soccer against some locals which they got beat 5-4, but apparently they should have won. The place we were staying at was called Puerto Ica and was the biggest Inca port. It is meant to be a straight line from there all the way to Machu Picchu and they had people stationed every ten Kms all the way. Apparently they would catch a fish and then the people would run as fast as they could for 10kms then give it to the next and the next, so that the king could have fresh fish within 20hrs!
We have now after a 10hr drive, arrived in Arequipa the third largest city in Peru. We had finished our camping until the Inca trail, and are staying in a nice hotel. Arequipa is back up in the mountains so it is a bit colder and finally a bit greener. It is a really pretty town, sometimes referred to as the white city because a lot of the buildings are made out of a white volcanic stone. The main square, yet again named the plaza de Armas is where the cathedral is and it is again just beautiful. It was Brad's birthday last night so we all went out for tea to celebrate, we all brought a guinea pig to share, a local delicacy, and I think it will stay just that, local. It was gross. Dave and I were both feeling a bit unwell so we went home early to let everyone else party into the night.
Today we checked out Juanita the ice mummy museum which was very interesting, and then we went on a reality tour. The reality tour took us into the slums of Arequipa and we got to see how the majority of Peruvians live. Some it was shocking, especially the stories about young children being raped because they have been left at home alone while their parents go to work to earn about 4 soles a day, about $2 dollars. The money we payed to do went back into the community, so it was well worth it, and helped with things like child care and food programs. The tour ended with a local market tour and we got to see things like live frog smoothies (you put the live frog into a blender and drink it, good for calcium...) and dried frogs. Also we saw cow testicals and penises which make a good soup, or so I am told. Our guide seemed quiet taken with these and kept asking if we wanted to touch them, I declined politely. Tomorrow we go to Colca Canyon to see the condors.
