Lima - 25th to 29th February 2016
After making the rash decision to go to Lima in the first place, we were immediately overwhelmed by the lack of Spanish we had and the necessity to speak and understand Spanish well, especially in South America. We found an Air BnB as we weren't really sure a good area/suburb to be based in, thankfully we found an incredible host with David & Eugenia and their dog, Nuna. They were awesome hosts, taking us everywhere they were going, David took the dog out for a night walk after picking us up from the airport and he showed us around his suburb of Miraflores. They took us to a party, then off to the beach with them and their friends for the day.
Craft Peruvian Beers with David on our first night in Lima and Peru.
We were very surprised by how high the city is from the water, it would have been a good 100 meter drop off to the sea.
Eak enjoying watching the surfers from the Love Garden at Miraflores.
The bridge was getting some work done on it, so it wasn't as pretty as it usually is but it was a nice area down at the waterfront of Miraflores.
The following day was a scorching hot day and a Saturday so David invited us to join him, Eugenia and their friends to go to one of the southern beaches. We were a bit dubious to be third wheels and be annoying for them but they insisted we were more than welcome so we happily took up the opportunity to go. We drove about two hours south of Lima, as traffic was a bit crazy, arrived to a nice area, Santa María del Mar. The Pacific Ocean, true to its usual form was very cold but it was refreshing to swim in (also we can say that that we have swam on both sides of the Pacific Ocean now!
Even though overcast, it was very hot weather and we enjoyed the swim.
Shahn with David & Eugenia (our incredible Air BnB hosts) and their friends with kids about to head out for dinner after a lovely swim.
Went for dinner with David and Eugenia, along with their friends and had a delicious ceviche (raw white fish "cooked" in lemon juice with red onion and white corn) - delicious!
Lima coastline on our bike ride.
Michael in typical restaurant fashion, over excited and over ordering for lunch with David. Also very good food.
Olive tree garden (very old about 100 years).
Michael by the huge doors of a church, quite a busy street with pedestrians cordoned off from traffic so it was quite nice to wander around without fear of being hit by a taxi.
Plaza de Armas of Lima in Historic Center.
Cathedral of Lima
Government Palace
Plaza San Martin - Monument (on right) of José de San Martin whom essentially fought for the independence of Peru and their ultimate freedom (1821), he is considered a liberator throughout South America and there are many monuments to him.
* Paracas (1st & 2nd March 2016) *
We left the David's Air BnB at 5am and caught a taxi from Miraflores to the CIVA bus terminal which was only five minutes away due to the none existent traffic. Bus left at 6am and drove south three hours in a very comfortable 160 degree recliner, we paid US$12pp (20 Soles). Once we arrived at the bus drop off in Paracas we were surprised by how many people "greet" you as you get off the bus trying to sell you tours, hostels, restaurants, taxis, general information and everything else imaginable! We were soon to learn that this was normal for Peru and Bolivia.
We stayed at Willy's Backpackers in the centre of Paracas and found it to be very dusty and very much a shanty village.
Though a quick wander up the road to our accommodation and found out bunk beds for the night. We did a bit of a Google and was searching the price of tours, decided to go for a wander and some lunch - next thing we know they are shuffling us onto a bus for a bus tour around the Paracas National Reserve, we were keen to see the reserve and were again surprised by the desert on the ocean!
Desert, desert everywhere! Shahn standing on the old road across the desert. The pavement is made of salt and it very hard.
Michael finding some thick salt crust beneath the desert sands in the reserve.
The Paracas National Reserve is 335,000 hectares and has been protected since 1975. 65% is designated marine reserve and the remainder 35% is costal desert. We found the tour quite rushed and only did a small section of the NP, though saw first the Cathedral Viewpoint in which has collapsed after an earthquake in 2007.
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| Desert, desert everywhere! Shahn standing on the old road across the desert. The pavement is made of salt and it very hard. |
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| Michael finding some thick salt crust beneath the desert sands in the reserve. |
Playa Roja (red sand beach) which was exactly as it sounds, quite different from the classic white or black sand beaches we are used to.
After this we had some lunch at Lagunillas and climbed the sand dune to take some pictures while watching some local kids fishing. On the way back to Paracas township, we stopped at the Julio C. Tello Museum/Information Center very briefly. Michael and I like to take our time through museums not just breeze in and breeze out so we found we couldn't read as much as well would have liked to.
Had an enjoyable day, probably not enough water intake though as it was hot again and we were sweaty! About to find ourselves a cervesa (beer) and some snacks and plan our next day which will be heading to Nasca. We went to a hostel and bar that had two 630ml beers for NZ$6, so a little bit tipsy we then went to a local place called Miski, which was owned by a kiwi girl from Rotorua and her Peruvian boyfriend. Had pizza for dinner and some Pisco sours.
Shahn with the NZ Flag. Michael and our beverages from Miski Restaurant.
We decided last minute that we would do a boat tour that left Paracas pier at 8am the following morning and was for two hours. We also went to the Marine Reserve of Isla Ballestas (Ballestas Islands) which had huge variety of migratory birds, penguins and seals and sea lions. The reserve is relatively recent and has been approximately 200 million tourists (two boat loads of tourists, approximately 30 per boat jammed in), the reserve is made up of 22 islands and there is some mining of guano (ancient bird poo) used for fertilisers. The skipper did a very good job manoeuvring around very shallow rocks near the island so we could get some good pictures, on our way back to the mainland we could tell the skipper was a bit stressed, we thought it was engine trouble but apparently we were low on fuel, so another boat dropped off fuel and we were away laughing.
It went to the Western point of Paracas which has the Candelabra in the sand, they assume the Native Paracas Indians did the extensive drawing which faces the Pacific Ocean, possibly used as a navigation point for boats as it's seen very well from the sea.
On the boat tour, we went to the Ballestas Islands which had huge variety of migratory birds and seals/sea lions.
South American Sea Lion (Otaria byronia) and Seals (Otaria flavescens) with their pups.
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| It went to the Western point of Paracas which has the Candelabra in the sand, they assume the Native Paracas Indians did the extensive drawing which faces the Pacific Ocean, possibly used as a navigation point for boats as it's seen very well from the sea. |
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| On the boat tour, we went to the Ballestas Islands which had huge variety of migratory birds and seals/sea lions. |
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| South American Sea Lion (Otaria byronia) and Seals (Otaria flavescens) with their pups. |
We used Olstura Bus company to take the four hour bus from Paracas to Nasca and it was pretty comfortable, S/30 pp and a meal was a pretty good deal. It was an hour late to arrive so that was funny but we were in no rush really, instead chatted to an American couple that have travelled extensively so that was interesting.
* Nasca - 2nd to 3rd March 2016 *
Arrived to Nazca at 4pm and was again hounded by the touts at the bus stop, fortunately we booked accommodation prior and just needed to get there. Accommodation was better than Paracas and much cleaner for the same price US$17/night.
We walked around the town after visiting the tourist information centre, the small town is planned around the Plaza de Armes, as most towns in South America are. We went to Rico Pollo for dinner and it was pretty cheap, we ate some barbecued heart, chicken kebabs and what we thought was testicles but turned out to be gizzards - but all in all a good day.
After staying overnight at the Brabant Hostel, we left at 8am without breakfast as they had forgotten we had requested it therefore we got a discount. We headed to the bus terminal and found the best overnight sleeper bus we would find, unfortunately there were no 180degree seat recliners left so we had to opt for the 160degree ones for S/200 with the CIVA bus company at 12.30am which meant we had quite a few hours to kill!
Afterward we went for breakfast at a touristy place that had a set menu and good wifi so we Camus with the day's plan. Local museum first, was incredibly interesting. We learnt about the people and the history in the Nazca area. They used a lot of rituals, magic and ceremonys. Burials seemed to be a huge thing to them, they prided themselves on sending their loved ones onward to their next life pretty well set up - clothing and pottery with spiritual meanings were offered up, often with sacrifices too. There were some deformed skulls there, some had skin still well preserved and others had a some pretty severe deformities from a bacterial infection, malnutrition and iron deficiencies.
We took a taxi with a dude named Carlos, he didn't seem that stoked to begin with to have to drive us around but by the end he seemed happy. We showed him on the map where we wanted to visit, he wouldn't take us everywhere so we negotiated S/30 for him to take us to Los Acueductos de Cantalloc (Aqueducts - built 2,000yrs ago by the Nazca people) and the Los Paredones (temples built by the Inca people over 1,000 years ago). Both of those places were very good and well worth the visit and we spent about three hours in total moseying around the southern section of Nasca. The last temple we visited was quite amazing as there was Inca pottery just lying on the sand, Michael picked up a bit near the edge of the trail to show the taxi driver in amazement, Carlos just shrugs and walked away not phased by thousands of years old pottery, it's just history for him.
Arrived to Nazca at 4pm and was again hounded by the touts at the bus stop, fortunately we booked accommodation prior and just needed to get there. Accommodation was better than Paracas and much cleaner for the same price US$17/night.
We walked around the town after visiting the tourist information centre, the small town is planned around the Plaza de Armes, as most towns in South America are. We went to Rico Pollo for dinner and it was pretty cheap, we ate some barbecued heart, chicken kebabs and what we thought was testicles but turned out to be gizzards - but all in all a good day.
After staying overnight at the Brabant Hostel, we left at 8am without breakfast as they had forgotten we had requested it therefore we got a discount. We headed to the bus terminal and found the best overnight sleeper bus we would find, unfortunately there were no 180degree seat recliners left so we had to opt for the 160degree ones for S/200 with the CIVA bus company at 12.30am which meant we had quite a few hours to kill!
Afterward we went for breakfast at a touristy place that had a set menu and good wifi so we Camus with the day's plan. Local museum first, was incredibly interesting. We learnt about the people and the history in the Nazca area. They used a lot of rituals, magic and ceremonys. Burials seemed to be a huge thing to them, they prided themselves on sending their loved ones onward to their next life pretty well set up - clothing and pottery with spiritual meanings were offered up, often with sacrifices too. There were some deformed skulls there, some had skin still well preserved and others had a some pretty severe deformities from a bacterial infection, malnutrition and iron deficiencies.
We took a taxi with a dude named Carlos, he didn't seem that stoked to begin with to have to drive us around but by the end he seemed happy. We showed him on the map where we wanted to visit, he wouldn't take us everywhere so we negotiated S/30 for him to take us to Los Acueductos de Cantalloc (Aqueducts - built 2,000yrs ago by the Nazca people) and the Los Paredones (temples built by the Inca people over 1,000 years ago). Both of those places were very good and well worth the visit and we spent about three hours in total moseying around the southern section of Nasca. The last temple we visited was quite amazing as there was Inca pottery just lying on the sand, Michael picked up a bit near the edge of the trail to show the taxi driver in amazement, Carlos just shrugs and walked away not phased by thousands of years old pottery, it's just history for him.
Michael discussing (using diagrams in the dirt) with Carlos in broken Spanish.
Michael discussing (using diagrams in the dirt) with Carlos in broken Spanish.
Two Nasca geoglyphs, (left is the Manos, or Hands and right is the Arbol, or tree)
We had been looking at TripAdvisor and generally the flight reviews were wildly differing so we decided that we would not bother to take the flight over the Nasca Lines largely because it was US$80pp and we decided that Machu Picchu was a greater event to spend the money on. However we caught a local bus along the Panamerican Highway for S/3pp each way to the viewing tower over two Nasca geoglyphs - the hand and the tree as it is on the main highway road. That topped off the day quite nicely, we found some dinner and had a couple beers at a local Pisco Bar while we killed time before our bus at midnight, arrived to take the 9hr bus to Arequipa.
* Arequipa - (4th to 8th March 2016) *
Arriving to Arequipa was full on, there was bus company workers yelling out their destinations for leaving buses to sell tickets, hostels trying to get you to stay at their place and taxi drivers trying to take you somewhere. We managed to fend them off and work out where we were and what we needed to do, after some aggressive "NO! No, Gracias!".
We had a couple of hostels in mind with prices to bargain for and asked a taxi to take us to the address provided. We thought we were at another hostel but actually ended up at somewhere completely random, not on Booking.com or Trip Advisor. After some negotiations through the taxi window, we struggled into Misti Inn Hostel on Calle Jerusalem. It turned out to be a massive and beautiful colonial house that has only been open as a hostel for a few months and they were desperate for paying tourists.
We found that the hostel was far enough away from the centre that it was quite charming and a nice all into city centre, close by our hostel was some very flash hotels so we knew we had chosen a good area. We found Arequipa clean, tidy, well organised, safe and genuinely an awesome place to visit. The square with Plaza de Armes is very very similar to both Lima and Cusco Plazas, so aesthetically they are similar but Arequipa had a different vibe happening.
Michael in the street in Arequipa, we began our ascent towards the higher altitudes of the Andes. Arequipa has a 2,330m altitude and Michael found he had had a headache for about a week beginning here, though we didn't rest at all keeping busy looking around the city.
We decided to take the tour of the Arequipa Cathedral on the Northern border of Plaza de Armas. The guide we had was a beautiful girl who spoke perfect English and had studied history, she gave us an excellent tour showing us the extensive riches of the church, beautiful architecture and very good history lessons.
Stunning stone carvings on the Cathedral walls, incredibly intricate work.
The main bell is made of bronze and gold. It's huge and after a recent (2007) earthquake wrecked part of the building its' supports had to be restrengthened.
Arequipa has a church on every corner, in every direction, two blocks from Plaza de Armes making it the most number of churches/holy sites, per square kilometre in the world.
We ate at a few local places for pretty cheap, which had some interesting stories of ex-pats setting up businesses as the Peru economy is changing for the better they felt so can make a comfortable life in Arequipa. We had walked almost every street in the city centre in search of tours to do the Colca Canyon, there were many that were not open as it was still low season so we managed to weed out some based on price. We ended up going with Peru Andes (PAPA) Treks, which was a great choice - read on further for more information in Colca Canyon two day hike.
A youth group that popped up by the cathedral and did a beautiful job of singing and guitar, we enjoyed their music.
Michael in the street in Arequipa, we began our ascent towards the higher altitudes of the Andes. Arequipa has a 2,330m altitude and Michael found he had had a headache for about a week beginning here, though we didn't rest at all keeping busy looking around the city.
We decided to take the tour of the Arequipa Cathedral on the Northern border of Plaza de Armas. The guide we had was a beautiful girl who spoke perfect English and had studied history, she gave us an excellent tour showing us the extensive riches of the church, beautiful architecture and very good history lessons.
The following morning we set off to do the tour of the Santa Catalina Monastery. It was very impressive and expensive tour but it was a few hours of wandering around. The convent was built in 1579 and takes up an entire city block (over 20,000 square meters) and has its own streets within the convent walls and it is one of the oldest, still functioning, convents in the world.
View of El Misti Mountain (Right) and mountain ranges from Convent Roof.
Essential for nuns in the past to practice complete silence, also unable to speak to anyone in the street ways during their confinement period.
The nuns washing machines, a very novel ideal using halved pottery with a water diversion by hand and a drainage source at the base of the pot.
Michael demonstrating how to divert the water into the pots, using a small stone.
Community kitchen.
A grinding stone in the community kitchen.
Water purifier - it uses volcanic rock to filter the impurities and filters below to the smaller bucket on the ground. Genius!!
Later that day after a nice set menu lunch at a new place called, Ratatouille we visited the Museum of Andean Sanctuaries, we couldn't take any photos and they store your bags. The Inca & Nasca people have a very specific belief in looking after Mother Earth (Pacha Mama) and had some ideas about the mountains being protectors and gods so would often offer sacrifices in the way of young virgins to please the gods so that no earthquakes, bad weather or poor farming seasons would occur. They would have a "pure" child, chosen from birth usually from a high classed or blue blood family to be sacrificed, they would walk along the "Inca Trail" in precession and recently due to reclamation of ice in the a very high mountain, Mount Ampato (6,288m) they found the burial site and remains of a well preserved Incan girl called Juanita.
(Left) Beers and Brownies at Chaqchao Organic Chocolate Cafe, a superb blend of beer and chocolate. (Right) The figurine is a symbol of fertility and are found in many Incan carvings but this one was eye catching for obvious reasons! Haha!
The hostel we stayed in, Misti Inn, had absolutely no online presence whatsoever and they had asked us to write a review. I said that we would but couldn't find them anywhere, I asked what site they would like me to use and it turned into a full five hour saga using translating apps explaining how to build their business online for gringo tourists, making them a Trip Advisor and Bookings.com page. Such lovely people with a beautiful building, we enjoyed our stay very much but unsure if they understood exactly what is required to run a hostel, we hope that it has every success.
Map of our trip in Peru over a 20 day period - all overland travel.
As previously mentioned, we enjoyed Arequipa very much and I think that we would both agree that it was our favourite city in Peru that we visited. Would recommend to anyone, it is worth the stop even if its out of the way, though don't get me wrong - all of Peru is amazing!
Map of our trip in Peru over a 20 day period - all overland travel.
