WEATHER: Hot and 31C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting my first Peruvian Bernstar jump
BUMMER OF THE DAY: My sunnies getting blown off my head from the truck
BUYS OF THE DAY: FREE and FAST Wi-Fi at our Nazca Hotel
WORD OF THE DAY: Good times, Good times
We had a more civil departure this morning at 8am. It seems a lot of our meals aren’t included on the trip, but the food seems cheap here with eggs, rolls, juice and tea only costing us 3AUD it is hardly worth losing sleep over.
Leaving Pisco I don’t think I realized just how dry Peru is. It is so dusty, literally there are whirly winds blowing the fine dust over everything. I wonder how the locals keep things clean. It reminds me a little of Africa. Even though it is dusty, you can see things are swept and clean in a dusty way, if that makes sense. There is rubbish around, but it looks like it is stacked in piles, so there must be workers helping to keep the city tidy as well.
Peru covers 1,285,216 km2. It borders Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the southeast, Chile to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Andes Mountains run parallel to the Pacific Ocean; they define the three regions traditionally used to describe the country geographically. The costa (coast), to the west, is a narrow plain, largely arid except for valleys created by seasonal rivers. The sierra (highlands) is the region of the Andes; it includes the Altiplano plateau as well as the highest peak of the country, the 6,768 m Huascarán The third region is the selva (jungle), a wide expanse of flat terrain covered by the Amazon rainforest that extends east. Almost 60% of the country's area is located within this region.
We had a supermarket stop at 9.30am. We are in a hotel tonight, but the next 2 nights after that we are camping on a beach in the middle of nowhere, so this was a stop to stock up on supplies. I remember doing this in Africa and I generally didn’t use my supplies at all, but if I don’t do it, I’ll want something. The good thing is it’s not like I’ll be in a hurry to use the stuff, I have 5 months right! It was a great supermarket, clean, fresh and looked new. They had a clothing department, shoes etc….. and a lot of Christmas stuff on the shelves and music playing. I have to say that it really doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. The first decorations I saw were in Quito and I thought it weird that they were out so early; not thinking it was late November. If I was back home now, I would have had ¾ of my shopping done, my Christmas cards would have been in the post 2 weeks ago and I would now be checking my list, who and what was left and making new lists each time I went to the shops. I am one of those organized Christmas shoppers where I would be nearly finished it all and Shelly would be lucky to have started yet. We have competitions each year on who can get the perfect gift for each other and we generally draw each year as we think along the same lines generally. I’m going to miss seeing the Elkins this year, but we will be in Bolivia for Christmas day, so I will be able to call them and say hello. I had a thought to but some Christmas cards here and then send them home as a surprise, but after cutting 3 laps of the supermarket they had every other Christmas paraphernalia you could think of except cards which is a shame as that would have been a really nice touch to have sent them from Peru.
On the way out I used the ATM machine to draw out cash. A lot of the ATM’s in Peru have the option of pulling out Soles or USD which is great. So I withdrew a little of both as I need to get my USD stash back up to a respectable amount. They are a little heavy handed on the bank fees. The machine in Pisco charged a fee of $4AUD and didn’t tell me about it till after the transaction, where this one told me before I finished the transaction there would be a $3 fee. Sure, what else am I going to do? I have been lucky and not had a lot of ATM fees on my whole trip, so it will be something I need to suck up while in Peru. The supermarket was so cheap. I got a 1.5L bottle of coke, 750ml bottle of vodka, 2 packets of chips, some stickers, 2 bottles of water and chocolate covered peanuts for $11AUD!!!! Crazy right. The bottle of vodka was $4. Thank goodness I don’t live here with vodka that cheap.
Our next stop was only 10 minutes down the road to an Oasis called Huachachina. Huacachina has a population of 115 (1999) and the oasis features on the back of the 50 Nuevo Sol note. Huacachina is built around a small natural lake in the desert. Called the "Oasis of America," it serves as a resort for local families from the nearby city of Ica, and increasingly as an attraction for tourists drawn by the sports of sand boarding and taking dune buggy rides on sand dunes that stretch several hundred feet high.
Legend holds that the lagoon was created when a beautiful native princess was apprehended at her bath by a young hunter. She fled; leaving the pool of water she had been bathing in to become the lagoon. The folds of her mantle, streaming behind her as she ran, became the surrounding sand dunes. And the woman herself is rumored to still live in the oasis as a mermaid.
Currently, private landowners near the oasis have installed wells, in order to access the groundwater. This has had the effect of drastically reducing the level of water in the oasis. To compensate for this water loss, and preserve the oasis as an aesthetically pleasing destination for tourists, the city began a process of artificially pumping water into the oasis.
The area is popular for both dune buggying and sand boarding and this is where the guys paid 20USD to go duning in a dune buggy and then did some sand boarding. I have done sand boarding in Dubai and I passed on it in Namibia, it really isn’t my cup of tea, but it would have been cool to have gone in the buggy. It looked like an awesome machine. If I was to try it again, this would have been the place to do it, as they drove you to the top of the dunes, you would board down and then they run you back to the top. Now that is my type of boarding. Anyway I didn’t do it and instead I stayed at the hotel where the tours leave from, that had a great pool, a bar and music to listen to while I caught up on my blog. The guys were gone for just overran hour, so I took a walk around the oasis and it was really quite cool as it is surrounded by MASSIVE sand dunes and made the buildings dwarfed in comparison. They had canoes and water bikes you could hire, but the water looked a little green for my liking, not that I would have done either of those activities anyway.
Graham was preparing lunch while the guys were out, so it was all ready when they got back. Salads, meat and rolls made an awesome lunch and a nice change from the plates of food I have been consuming on the cruise ships. As we didn’t have much further to travel today, we got some more time at the hotel for people to have a swim and chillax after lunch. I am liking the pace of this tour. It is so different from Africa, but the distances were certainly a lot longer than what we have to cover each day. If I was doing this tour on an Africa pace, I would struggle for 5 months. Even if this is just at the start it is a nice way to break me back into over landing again.
We were back on the road at 2pm. Only after an hour we got pulled over by the police to let us know what there a road block just outside of Nazca was and just wanted to warn us. There were miners protesting over a mine opening in the north of the country and what they do is close roads so nothing gets in and out during the protest. So Mark and Graham said they would take the chance and see how we go, as there was still traffic coming from the other direction. Worse case we would drive back the 2 hours and stay at Huachachina. I must say I have missed my therapeutic waving and it seems the Peruvian people seem to enjoy waving as well. I have been waiting for the wave before me waving back, but they all seem really friendly and it is a friendly wave, where some of the waves in Africa were ‘taking the piss’ waves. I have said this before but something has to be said for the power of the wave and a friendly smile. It makes you feel good and hopefully someone else feel good as well. I am right next to a window that opens and I sometimes think I may have a little bit if dog quality in me, as I LOVE to stick my head out the window as we are driving along. The downside is I stuck my head out as Gray was hooting alomg nearly at top speed and my $60 sunnies I bought in Ushuaia were blown from my head, and as I saw them bounce on the road behind us I figured there was no point in stopping the truck as I am sure they would no longer be in wearing condition. Bugger it. Thankfully I am on the passenger side of the truck, so I don’t have to worry about oncoming traffic and having the wind back in my hair is great. I am also on the ‘sun’ side of the truck, which I also don’t mind as I can work on the tan-age while on the move. There are curtains there if it gets too much for people, but I didn’t use them in Africa and I know I won’t be using them here either. Speaking of tan, in 3 days of being in Peru I have colored up quite nicely (maybe still a little red) but I love to think after 5 months on this massive continent how brown I will be. I will need to ask my Greek Posse “how brown to I look”. Miss you guys by the way xx
We made the blockade and joined the long queue of trucks that had stopped and had their engines off. That couldn’t be good news right!? So without truck also getting switched off we were prepared to sit there for a while and see what happens. After about 20 minutes Mark and Graham went to the start of the picket line to see the state of the nation. Apparently they just went up to the police barrier and asked if we could pass as they had a truck of tourists back there and was told straight up sure. No worries. They didn’t even bat an eye lid. See what happens when you ask some times! In the meantime there were some ice-cream sellers riding their bikes with their little freezers on the front making the most of the money making moment. Very smart and he sold 6 ice-creams to us in the time, so very smart business strategy. Once we were passed through the police and the miner’s blockade and what looked like their families there as well we had one more stop before reaching the outskirts of Nazca and our hotel for the night.
It was at Torre Metallica De San Jose which was basically a tower in the middle of nowhere along the Pan America Highway that overlooked 2 Nazca lines. It wasn’t the best view of the lines when you were at the top but made for amazing panoramic views of the Nazca Valley and surrounds and also a great photo of the Pan American Highway that ran straight as a die through the valley. At the bottom some more smart business locals selling stones with the Nazca pictures etched on them, books and cards. Of course I had to get a stone and chose the one with the monkey to remind me of my god-daughters. The little monkeys……. Malar and I are the only 2 that have out our names down for the scenic flight over the lines tomorrow. You can’t come all this way and not do it is my theory and the flight is only 120AUD, a bargain I say. After seeing what we did from the tower, which wasn’t much, it made the decision even easier.
We arrived to our hotel just after 5pm. We are staying just out of Nazca and after turning off the main highway and driving along a very dusty road that looked like it led to no-where, we turned into a gated driveway and there was this amazing hacienda looking hotel. It was a 3 story u shaped building and the BEST thing besides the massive rooms, the hot showers and the purple bathroom was the FREE Wi-Fi!!!! It was funny the second we had all got our bags to our rooms we were all outside our rooms booting up IPod’s, IPhones, notebooks and laptops. What a bunch of nerds, but luckily there wasn’t anything else to do there, except some people went for a swim in the pool. At one point the internet went down and we all were yelling I’m off, who’s on, nup I’m off, the internets down and there were a lot of sighs from all over the hotel. What a bunch of nerds. I did get my last 3 posts up on my blog though, so I was a happy camper.
I had a low key evening, back to the room. I’m still trying to upload Antarctica photos and having a hard time still. Damn Facebook. I have installed the latest version of Adobe Flash and crossed my fingers and toes that that would have helped but it still freezes and load photos as black boxes. I have some additional time in Cuzco, as I am not walking the Inca Trail, so maybe I will be able to find some super-fast Wi-Fi or an internet café and load some pictures. They are starting to get a little out of control.
I caught up on some emails, internet banking and birthday wishes. Happy Birthday to my boss Cheify. I miss your advice and talks so much and hope that you had a great day.
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