So to the end of last week which feels like an eternity ago. We left the Amazon and had our first night on our own in Iquitos. The hotel was great but the thought of hitting the streets for the evening was somewhat daunting after all the warnings of safety in general in South America. So to help us on our way we stuffed our money down our bras, had a wee red wine in the hotel then hit the streets trying to look like we were laid back seasoned travellers. What the world was actually confronted with was two women walking aimlessly round the square clearly not knowing where to go but trying not to get killed by the oncoming horn honking manic traffic . I think it was both of us walking with our hands in our pockets that gave the game away we were anything other than cool.
And so into the breach. As it turned out Iquitos was a lovely town with lots of family oriented entertainment going on and a real buzz about it. Decision made - safety first but not over the top nor with a presumption of badness in the world.
And so to Saturday - another day, another early start and another flight. This time to Lima where we headed to Miraflores to our hotel and to meet up with our group for the next twenty one days. Lima is huge - 9m population and unfortunately we didn't have time to explore as we only had 4 hours between arrival and meeting up. So Miraflores it was. An up and coming upmarket area which reminded me a bit of Port Melbourne (relatively speaking). It was the hyper active sporty people running, walkingn, surfing etc that drew the comparison.
And so to our group. There are thirteen of us in total and our G Adventures CEO - that's Chief Experience Officer!! He had left a note for all of us on arrival to advise of a get together / initial meeting that eve and signed it off "Raul". Of course I had to show my cousin the Irn Bru Raul adverts so that she couldn't look in my direction when he introduced himself that night - remind me what age I am!! Basically the poor guy ferries us around the country, sorts everything we need and translates for us. Not an easy job and also rest assured it's not an easy ride for all of us either. It's definitely an adventure / trip and not a holiday. The days are packed including lots to do but also long journeys on public transport (whatever happened to my gold card). It is pretty full on and no real chance for a break just to chill out (or if you do you miss things as you've invariably only got one day in each place). The group are great. A real mixed bunch from early twenties to seventy. Claire and I are slap bang in the middle but veering towards the oldies - in fact on the first night it was the oldies who stayed out and the youngies who went to bed (and when I say that it wasn't wild - the oldies were back at the hotel for 10pm). The quality of the accomodation is probably lower than I would normally go on but at the same time very comfortable and quirky. In the main G Adventures set out to use local companies rather than chains etc. Given Peru is a developing country the state of building leaves a lot to be desired. In fact properties are left unfinished to avoid tax. I'm now hot onto collecting the views from our windows of our hotels...
So having met up for a meeting and dinner on Saturday we then had Sunday am to get organised before we headed into Lima (5km away but almost an hour to get through traffic) to get the public bus down to Paracus 4 hours away.
The journey was an interesting one. Not what I expected. It was like a desert and wherever there were small townships the houses were completely unfinished and the town reminded me somewhat of the shanty towns we'd seen in South Africa but much smaller. We turned up in Pisco to transfer to Paracus and I was worried. It was like one of those Mexican towns you see in searing heat in a Quentin Tarrantino movie - who knew what we were in for.
Well as it turns out Paracus is a developing tourist town and our accomodation was fine. As I say not my my usual standard but better than the accomodation of the Amazon (as you would expect). Paracus bases its tourism around the Islas Ballestras which is also known as The Poor Mans Gallapagos. On Monday most of us took the two hour trip out there the next day to see many forms of local birds, sea lions and penguins in the main. It was great with a chance to get up really close. En route we saw The Candelabra which is a giant figure etched into the sandy hills and can be seen from up to 10km away.
After the tour it was straight into a private bus this time for a number of stops throughout the day on the way to Nasca. First stop was a winery which was really interesting. They make ther wine (which is really Pisco) using very traditional methods with an old fashioned wooden press and clay pots for fermentation. Amazing to see and the Pisco products were great which is more than can be said for some of the local wine. I was actually pretty surprised they were making wine here as it's such a hot place and falls out of the latitude parameters for wine making as its only 12 degrees from the equator (wine regions of the world are between 30 and 50 degrees from the equator either North or South). As I suspected when we had a bottle in Tuesday night they should stick to making Pisco. The wine was 11.5% abc and as such really quite sweet - not a great accompaniment to dinner. Pics below are of the press and clay pots used instead of barrels.
After the winery we stopped at Huacachina which is an oasis surrounded by massive sand dunes. It was really quite bizarre in that it looked like a lovely lake with accomodation and restaurants and greenery all around it but in the middle of nowhere.
The last stop for the day was at the two Nasca Lines you can see from the ground. The Nasca Lines are spread across 500sq km of arid, rock strewn plain and form a striking network of more than 800 lines and figures and animals which you can see from the sky. They became the life of Maria Reiche who wrote a multitude of books about them and the Nasca people and what they could all possibly relate to. From the ground we could see the hand and the tree.
Next day (Tuesday) we took an optional small plane tour to see the lines from the sky. Not the day to have decided not to eat breakfast as you can imagine how the plane may toss you around-especially when they decide to swing you from left to right so both sides of the plane can get a view. Exhilarating we'll call it. It was amazing to see all twelve of the animals and figures from up there.
After the Nasca Lines we actually had a couple of hours to ourselves which I must admit to using for a snooze to get over the squeamishness I was experiencing from the flight with no breakfast. Then it was off to a Nasca cemetery which totally took me by surprise. The Nasca people lived here over a thousand years ago but what is apparent from a tour around Nasca itself is that they had ingenuity beyond their lifetime. Nasca only gets rain twice a year and to this day their survival is dependent on the water being captured in the underground aqueducts built by the Nasca people over a thousand years ago. You can see throughout the whole region where they run as these are the little oases of green scattered throughout. The cemetery was fascinating. Their people were buried bound in cloth and cotton in the faetal position with offerings to the gods around them - things to smooth their transition to the next and better lives. The cemetery was found only in recent years and archeologists have discovered a number of graves where the skeletons remain in a pretty intact form. Truly fascinating to see (the site is now protected as grave robbers even to this day are operating to pull up these sites and get their hands on the gold etc that was buried with the people).
After a visit to see how Nasca people made pottery and to watch traditional gold extraction it was back to the hotel and dinner before the overnight public bus to Arequipa to start our altitude acclimatisation. Why are we doing that? Well at first I thought it was because the whole trip was too focused on the four days (of twenty one) which are our trek of the Inca Trail and wasn't too happy about that. However, in fairness, the rest of the twenty one days is spent at altitude so it was important to start that process.
Prior to making our ascent we...
...HUNGOUT AT....see above...
...WINED ON...Peruvian reds which are in general ok and not anything amazing to write home about. Also enjoyed a soft, yes soft, drink called Chichi which is a bit like non alcoholic mulled wine made by boiling purple corn (check out my traveller look - really not the best)...
...DINED ON...the local delicacy of ceviche in Paracas which was beautiful as well as some local meat dishes - nothing too exciting yet.
Part II to follow.
G
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