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The Gringo Trail
Entry 12 of 19 | show all | print this entry |
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The day after our trek in Huaraz we journeyed further south to Peru´s capital, Lima. Amazingly, Peru has a population of approx. 14 million people and over half of these live in Lima. You might say it´s a big city! We had only been given bad reports about the place beforehand, both from other travellers and locals we had met along the way - it´s got a big reputation as a very dangerous city. We figured we´d check it out anyway for a few days and meet up with Gleese and Chunky who were on their way north. And I have to say we had a good time and didn´t encounter any trouble whatsoever- although, admittedly, we didn´t stray too far from Miraflores, which is one of the more upmarket areas and quite safe. The influence of the U.S. was very notable here with Dunkin´ Donuts, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King etc. all having a noticeable presence - which I have to say we greatly appreciated at the time! I think I visited the lot on the first day - just out of interest! We stayed in a place called ´Lex Luthors´ - however not one bit of Superman paraphernalia in sight, much to my disappointment! They did have a cat though which snuggled in next to Chunky on a couple of nights; not what he was thinking of I´m sure!
Next on our hitlist was Huacachina - a real-life oasis in the middle of some huge sand-dunes. People visit here primarily to sand-board on the dunes and we were no different. It was good fun and we took our fair share of tumbles! However, I think we had more craic just driving around the dunes in the buggy; some are not far off being vertical and there were a few hair-raising moments - I think my ears are still ringing from Gretta getting a bit excited here and there! My enjoyment of this place was tempered somewhat by the discovery that our camera had gone missing. Initially, I thought I might have left it behind somewhere and was cursing myself. However, I soon noticed that my wallet had been cleaned out aswell (not too much in it, thankfully). I´m not sure where it happened exactly, either in our hostel or on the bus.
While in Huachachina, we booked ourselves into a Spanish language school in the city of Arequipa, apparently the 2nd largest city in Peru (a title it competes for with Trujillo). The school was based in the Hotel Casa de Avilla with our accommodation on-site. We had classes each day (for 1 week) from 9am-1pm which were fairly intensive and after that were left to our own devices (besides having some homework to do!). Gretta was very competitive re. learning the Spanish but I think I held my own! On two afternoons the school organised salsa classes - I reluctantly gave these a whirl but it wasn´t too bad! We went to a full-on salsa nightclub at the end of the week to try out our moves!! I should mention that the Casa de Avilla also had a cookery school and we lucky enough to sample it´s produce on a couple of occasions; and were very pleased to do so!!
On the weekend following the classes, we visited a really cool old convent in the town and took a tour to the nearby Colca Canyon. The convent, Santa Catarina, is basically a walled-off village right in the middle of Arequipa and has been in existence since the 1600´s. Today, there are only a handful of nuns remaining there - they live in one part of the convent while the rest is opened to tourists. I think we spent 3 hours wandering around in there! The Colca Canyon (we went on a 2 day tour) is supposedly the second largest canyon in the world (the largest is also in Peru) but it didn´t seem that big to me! It was pretty cool though and we got to see loads of Condors (really big birds!) flying pretty nearby at the so-called ´Condor Crossing´. We also got to visit some hot springs - these were good but it was no fun getting out into the cold again! Our bus stopped off at plenty of little villages along the canyon and the locals were doing their best to get some money out of us! They make some fabulous textiles here in Peru, hats, scarves, gloves etc. and there were stalls everywhere. Gretta loved all this of course and did a little bit of shopping. One place was brilliant; a woman granted her a ´free picture´ with herself and a little child after she had bought a few things - see picture above! I couldn´t believe it also when we stopped in a village at 6.45 in the morning to find about 30 children dancing in the main square - put on everyday for the tourists. I laughed but felt a bit sorry for the kids! We were also taken for a Peruvian themed dinner where some more locals sang and danced. And made some of us to get up and dance also! All good fun I guess!
We have now arrived in Cusco after another horror overnight bus journey (more smells, little sleep!). So far I am very impressed and will discuss further in the next entry! So ciao for now!! More thumbnails ...
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