Lima and Leaving SA

My last stop in Peru and South America was Lima. I had read that no visit to Peru is complete without a stop in Lima, but I think it could be visited in a couple days, if at all. I stayed in the Miraflores area, which has a nice boardwalk along the water, and visited central Lima and Barranco.

Mall built into side of cliff on beach

Bridge of Sighs (in Barranco)

Huaca Pucllana - Pre-Incan site in Miraflores area

Chinatown... in downtown Lima

Much of my time in Lima has been spent watching the FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil. Any TV that's on, even in Peru, (and they don't have a team playing) has soccer on during the games. I've also been making sure to eat lots of local food before I leave (ceviche, churros with caramel inside, etc.)

Ceviche - raw fish cured in lemon juice with onions and yam

Today, for my last day, I went down to the boardwalk, near the Park of Love, and went paragliding. It was a fun last day event, though somewhere between para-sailing and sky diving as far as excitement.

Park of Love

Water Park with 13 colourful/musical fountains

I'm looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone, (I fly out tonight at 1:30am) though if I had no flight home and more money I'd love to continue on to Ecuador and Columbia and beyond. Well, I have a 5-year visa for Brazil, so who knows...

Below is a map of my trip. Thanks for reading!

Desert sports in Huacachina; Ballestas Islands and Quadding Paracas

 

After leaving lovely Cusco I headed to Huacachina, a small desert oasis closer to the coast. I didn't stop to see the Nazca lines, because a flight over the varying shapes costs about $100 and only lasts maybe 20 minutes. But Huacachina, though there wasn't much to do in the town, is surrounded by sand dunes.

 

 

My second day there I went on a tour-hour excursion to dune buggy (essentially you fly around in a metal caged vehicle up and down the sand dunes) and sand board down the dunes. After going down increasingly steep hills on the boards we watched the sun set and then headed back to town.

 

I didn't actually drive, don't worry - just for the picture

So much sand everywhere!

 

 

Saturday I took a short bus to the small, coastal town of Paracas. It was great to see the ocean again after about 3 months without it. I had a pretty bad cold so spent quite a few days in bed, (in the Kokopelli hostel I stayed at all the beds have their own separate pods) or just sitting staring at the sea. There are so many different birds here, including large pelicans that soar right above the water and land in groups close to the shore. One day a group of dolphins even swam close to the beach in front of the hostel.

 

 

 

Yesterday I took a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands - kind of a mini, cheaper version of the Galapagos Islands - to see Humboldt penguins, sea lions, and even one blue-footed booby amidst all the other plain boobies.

 

Candelabra (similar to Nazca lines) 

Can you see the face in the rocks?

Blue-footed booby in bottom left corner

Penguins!

 

In the afternoon I went on a quad tour of the Paracas National Reserve. Originally I wasn't planning to go to the reserve at all, but the quads made it worth it. There was some old shells from the Eocene period, interesting rock formations, and a dark red sand beach. Tomorrow I head to Lima for my last five days and then home!

 

 

 

Cusco and Surviving the Inca Trail

Cusco has been so nice that I've spent about 10 days here altogether - on either end of doing the Inca Trail. I have been staying up in the San Blas area, with a view over the city, and enjoying just wandering around and eating at the various restaurants.

Centre of city - Plaza des Armas

 

Famous Inca Rock near centre square

Convernto de Santo Domingo, which houses Qorikancha site

 

Lawn at Qorikancha - outline of Condor, Puma and Serpent, which represent upper world, current world, and underworld

 

Christo Blanco overlooking Cusco city (clearly not as big as in Rio)

 

Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

 

Four days and 45km, which doesn't seem like much, but... Day 2: 8km up to 4215m pass; a girl was on oxygen and had to go back. By the top I was chewing coca leaves and smelling some natural flower liquid that our guide, Frankie the Burro (donkey), gave to help with the altitude. And then another 4km down stairs to the campsite.

 

Site before heading to start the trail

The team: Ronn and Tawnya from Las Vegas; Luis, Alex and Daina from Texas; Paul and Mick from Australia; Frankie in front

Frankie, cooks and porters - amazing guys who carried huge packs and ran up and down the trail like it was nothing. The fastest guy was 63 year old Condor.

Map of the trail

 

 

Path up to Warmiwanuska "Dead Woman's Pass"

 

Day 1 was "training day" and mostly flat; Day 2 "challenge day"; Day 3 "long day" of 16km up and along a mountainside and then down to the final campsite; Day 4 "early day" up at 3am to pack and head to the check-point to enter Machu Picchu, then hiking up monkey steps (because you have to climb with your hands up the steep steps like a monkey) to the Sun Gate, where we first viewed Machu Picchu below.
 

Machu Picchu from Intipunku "Sun Gate" and winding road to Aguas Calientes

Priest's house

Rock is replica of mountain behind

 

We stopped at quite a few stone-structure temples along the way: earth, water, and sun temples, as well as the stone path itself being interesting to walk along. They overfed us at each meal, with lunch having salad, soup, and mains and dinner having soup, mains, and dessert. I also spent the day before the trek with Alex, Luis and Daina from Austin, Texas, at the "Wayki Experience" - you get to spend the night at the village where many of the porter's live, visiting the community school, sharing dinner and dancing.

 

Stop before porter village - area on other side of lake slated for international airport

Sayaqmarka site

Intipata site with terraces

My passport with stamps at entrance to Inca Trail and Machu Picchu

Train from Aguas Calientes (with hot springs) back to Cusco