Mummies, guinea pigs and boy bands
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2003
1
2
Trip End
Dec 2004
Lima, Pisco, Ica and Arequipa, Peru
Monday, October 27, 2003
How are you all doing? I hope you're all okay and work's not too awful. Just a quickie to let you know we are safe and alive - although only just! The people in Peru are crazy, especially the drivers!
We arrived in Lima, our first port of call, two weeks ago and made it to our hostel by the skin of our teeth. From the airport every car I saw was on the verge of breaking down and after a few seconds I could see why: nobody, and I mean nobody, takes any notice of road markings, pedestrians, bikes or other cars...it's each man for himself out there. There's constant tooting and people yelling at each other (like being on Streatham High Road again!) and I have not seen one set of traffic lights since I've been here. Bizarrely I have not seen any accidents either although judging by the state of the cars they must happen all the time.
Lima is okay - a sprawling metropolis with rough suburbs and opulent areas (Miraflores in particular) just like any other city. It wasn't't as dangerous as we thought but we may have been lucky. The people in our hostel told us that bag snatchers lurk on every street corner but I'm happy to report that nothing happened to us and the locals we met were absolutely lovely and helpful. We stayed for two days, went to a couple of museums showing mummies and ceramics (the Peruvians love mummies, every museum has them) and then moved on to a small town south of the capital called Pisco. Upon arrival a peasant spat on Karen's back, which set the tone of the place nicely I thought as it really is a dingy town. But our reason for going was to see the sea lions in the nearby Ballestas Islands, fondly called "The Mini Galapagos", which we did and it was fantastic... hundreds of them swimming next to our boat and sunbathing on rocks.
After leaving Pisco (swiftly) we moved on to a wine region called Ica. From there we went to an oasis in the desert, rowed in a lagoon and sand boarded on the dunes surrounding it. I've never done any kind of "xtreme" sport before (or any sport for that matter) but I loved every minute of it. Karen provided entertainment to the watching locals by hurtling down the slope full pelt, ricocheting off a rock and somersaulting over and over to the bottom...they laughed for hours after that!
On Monday we moved on to Nazca and hired a private plane to fly over the Nazca Lines (huge geometric patterns, animal figures and thousands of perfectly straight lines etched into the desert by the Nazca Indians). Nobody knows why they were created although a runway for aliens to land is one of the fanciful theories on their purpose. From ground level the geoglyphs seem like a confused mass of lines but when viewed from the air the pictures are perfect. It's not known how the Indians made such large drawings so precise (one of the lines is 65 kilometres long!) or the methods they used to make them especially as they were created two thousand years ago. The day was interesting and our pilot was a lot of fun and even let Lauren have a go at the controls of the plane (was he mad??!) but it was expensive (the flight was §50) which is a lot for us while we're on a budget.
Now we are in Arequipa, a city with the most beautiful plaza, breathtaking views and the best weather in Peru. From the roof of our hotel we can see the mountains and canyons, including the Colca Canyon, which surround the white city. Arequipa also boasts an amazing selection of guinea pigs on the menus. Yes!! Our sweet fluffy pets are considered a culinary delight in this country and are presented on a plate burnt and crisp (teeth in tact and petrified look in their eyes), which is not recommended for the faint hearted. It's cut in quarters and you pick up your part by its paw. I couldn't actually bring myself to eat one but apparently it tastes like chicken.
The owner of our hotel told us that there's not much nightlife in Arequipa, which we were surprised about given that itīs the second largest city in the country. After almost two weeks of none we were determined to sniff some out and we were successful. On our first night we went to a club where a Peruvian boy band happened to be performing bedecked in black tight PVC jump suits - well funny (think Take That ten years ago). They came and chatted to us at the bar afterwards and we ended up going back to their house for a party. I`m not sure how but we somehow managed to persuade them to get back into their PVC outfits and dance for us, which they did (Why? Why??!!) We looked on in a mixture of mirth and disbelief as they bumped and gyrated in front of us in their bedroom. I just wish I had my camera with me! We strolled into our hotel at nine in the morning a little worse the wear and vowed we would have a quiet night that night. But that was not to be. The second night we went to another bar and met the goalkeeper and striker of the Arequipa football team accompanied by a sports journalist called Penfold. The striker looked suspiciously like Andy Bell from Erasure and was well annoying. When I least expected it he grabbed my face and gave me a massive kiss on the lips in front of everyone. I managed to struggle free and gave him the one finger sign (immature I know but my Spanish is not up to scratch and he doesn'tīt speak English so I thought heīd get the message that way). But oh no, he kept coming back for more and asked Karen to translate that he wanted to take me out to dinner. Fun conversation we would have!
I declined.
The goalkeeper fancied Lauren and gave her his football shirt to remember him by but the journalist got a bit jealous and snatched it away from her. A play fight ensued in which Lauren succeeded in breaking the journalistīs glasses as he tried to wrestle the shirt away from her. We left shortly after that.
Tomorrow we have a 12-hour coach journey to Cusco, where we will be staying for about five days to acclimatize before going on a four-day trek to Machu Picchu. After that I'm not sure where we're headed. I've just found out that there have been riots in Bolivia, the next country we're supposed to be travelling to so we may have to change our route. Students and locals have been rioting over natural gas exports to the US and 40 people were killed yesterday, 78 in total. The authorities are not letting in any international flights so the alternative would be to go down to Chile and then on to Argentina. We'll keep an eye on the situation but hopefully the President will resign and things will get better for the locals.
And that's about it. I like Peru a lot! There are parts that are so beautiful and there's always something to do and see although we haven't experienced the nightlife that much (apart from our stint in Arequipa). Bring on Cusco!! I'll leave it here but take care all of you and drop me a line when you can. I hope all is well at home.
Kirsten x
