After a short stint in BA and a free flight compliments of travel insurance I was off to Lima, the second largest desert city in the world. (still haven't discovered the largest) As you would expect of a desert city, it isn't the most attractive or interesting place in the world - but it had a Govinda's and a obscenely cheap Chinese restaurant so Dave and I were kept content for the 2 days spent there. For anyone traveling to Lima, the centre is nice...for a day. Monasterio de San Francisco provided some Catacombs - consequently causing me to ponder the amount of skulls I´ve seen this trip ( a weird thought I know, but combining the Parisian Catacombs, Pol Pot´s Killing Fields and these Catacombs it adds up.)
A visit to a pre-Inca ruin smack-bang in the centre of an expensive neighbourhood was a bit surreal. Our guide was running his first tour in English and was visibly nervous. Consequently Dave and I expanded our Spanish vocabulary and helped the young Peruvian guy with his English. While on the topic of rain, I posed the question "When did it last rain in Lima?"
"The 1970´s"
"Wait...what?"
"The 1970´s"
A bus ride and day later we arrived in possibly the shittiest town in the world (well in my travels anyway). Nasca. I can say with a fair bit of conviction that I will never return to Nasca again in my life. And that fact does not disappoint me at all. My sole purpose for paying a visit to this Desert Hell was to witness the phenomenon of the Nasca Lines (which was admittedly phenomenal) Of course, in typical Nasca fashion, the vast majority of light planes used to view the Nasca lines were being inspected (owing to accidents resulting in deaths - so we couldn´t complain too much) which consequently drove the price up. Instead of $50US I paid $150 US. I gave myself a justification - this is the only reason I came to Nasca, I never want to come here again, so I will pay it and get out of this godforsaken place. Despite the exorbitant prices, Dave and I both enjoyed the flight - seeing formations in the sand such as a whale, a hummingbird, tree, condor...the list goes on. Scientists are still unaware as to the origin of these lines but I came to understand that the most widely held belief was that the Nasca people had something to do with it.
After a short stint in Nasca we headed south to canyon country to the second largest city in Peru - Arequipa. Also a desert town, it seemed to have more allure and appeal than its larger cousin Lima. Our hostel was basically a mansion transformed into a hostel complete with 65 inch movie screen, PS3, Ping-pong table, Pool table and more. Dave and I both decided after a day of playstation and movies that it was time to get more active.
"Let´s go rafting"
"Yeah. Why not?"
To be honest, for $20 I wasn´t expecting too much. Turns out your money goes a lot further in Peru. After a hilarious and slighty strange photo with a local Peruvian family (Dave and I were dressed up with wetsuits, lifejackets and helmets) we headed off down the Chili river (it was pretty cold.) The rafting soon got interesting as we began to take on a more than usual amount of water. Turns out the raft had a hole. After a quick pit stop it we were back in the white water and spent the next 90 minutes dodging rocks and getting soaked.
The following day I paid a visit to the deepest canyon in the world, Cajon del Colca. This meant awaking from my precious slumber at 2:30am. By 5:30am we had reached the highest point of my travels: 4910m above sea level. Apparently shorts (and thongs on Dave´s part) aren´t the most suitable atire this early in the morning and at that altitude. Here is a shot of what 4910m above sea level in the Andes looks like, somewhat like the moon...
The cajon was understandably phenomenal. Dave soon discovered how effective high altitude training as he ran the best part of 2km to pose for a photo that would convey the scale of the canyon, only for it not to turn out. He ended up running all the way back as our bus was about to leave and looked as though he was about to faint.
Here's a few photos from Cajon del Colca, although they don't really convey the size, they do give an idea of the landscape and also show how funny I look in an adventure hat.
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