What a bloody flight!

Well I don't quite no where to start this one, but here goes.

Alcatraz - Nazca

Not long into our flight from Mexico City, just after we had been fed, Liz thought she would try and get a few hours kip. So out came her Quantas Eye Mask/Blindfold, her seat reclined and hoping she would drop off. After about 5 minutes, a restless and bored Richie decided to touch the end of Liz's nose with the plastic coffee stirer just to check she was still awake. It was confirmed in the affirmative when Liz asked if it was me that did that. Initially I lied and said "No" but within 2 mins honesty got the better of me and I owned up. 2 minutes later I did it again but this time the plastic stirer was just inside her nostril and this time Liz really flinched, so much so that she brought her head down quickly and the stirer went right up her nose. To see this was quite shocking as it went so far up you would not believe it, but not quite as shocking as the massive nose bleed that ensued. For the next 5 mins with tissues galore held over her nose we were both intermittently in fits of laughter at how fucking stupid I can be at times. However, this changed slightly as the bleeding would not stop. So we both sat in silence Liz with tissues over her face trying to concentrate on stopping the bleeding. But the damn thing would not stop and then it started coming out of both nostrils and I started to get worried that I might have done something a bit more serious, you see I saw how far up that bit of plastic went! As all sorts of daft things went through my mind - I might of pierced her Sinusses, it could have gone into her brain, all sorts of daft things. It was at this point that I had a panic attack, my first ever one and it was awful. I broke out in a cold sweat, felt sick, the air pressure in the plane seemed to be changing all the time, rapid breathing. I wanted to get up and go for a walk but I was in the window seat and Liz was next to me still bleeding profusely. After about 5 mins I somehow managed to come round and not long after Liz's nose stopped bleeding so everything was going to be alright. God knows though what the stewardesses and other folks sitting near us thought had gone on. After that, the flight was pretty uneventful and when we got to Lima, Ali was waiting for us with a taxi that took us to a rather cute Hostal in Miraflores.

Astronaut - Nazca

We had 2 days in Miraflores to sort our bus tickets out and mooch about, whiling away the hours. We tried some typical Peruvian cuisine and had a great meal out on our last night. we had a lie in the next morning before taking in the Spurs - Arsenal game then heading off to Huacachina.

Huacachina is an oasis in the middle of the desert surrounded by these massive sand dunes. As we arrived at night we could not really appreciate it but when we woke up the next day to be surrounded by these huge dunes was pretty awesome. That afternoon we went Dune Buggying and Sandboarding. I have never snowboarded or anything like it before so was pretty useless and first go I somehow managed to stand up and remain standing up for quite some time picking up speed all the time before coming to an almighty arse over tit experience, knackering up my neck in the process. The dunes there really are massive so the dune buggying was pretty exciting at times and they also provided some pretty spectacular views of the surrounding desert and the Andean foothills.

Courtyard of Hotel in Miraflores

As Ali is only here for 3 weeks we are on a pretty tight schedule so we got up the next morning a 4.45am for our early bus to Nasca. There we took a tiny little prop plane to give us overhead views of the famous lines. Before we got on the plane they showed us a video all about the lines, and pretty interesting stuff it is too, but for all 3 of us it took some of the wow factor away from when we actually flew over them and they also seemed a lot smaller than we were expecting. Also as we were on the way back to the airport a massive ringing alarm went off in the plane and for more than a few seconds we were unsure of what was happening and it was Liz's turn to break out in a cold sweat. By the very fact I am here writing this you know the outcome was all fine and dandy but we were worried for a moment or 2.

Desert near Huacachina

Later tonight we are catching the overnight bus to Arequipa and then on to Cuzco to get acclimatised before heading out on the Inca Trail.

Huacachina

Monkey - Nazca

Oasis in the desert

One of the dunes we sandboarded down

Our Sand Buggies

Rich after sandboarding

Rich, Liz and Ali in the desert