Beginning an Andean Discovery
Following straight on from the Galapagos tour was another G Adventures (aka Gap) tour, the Andean Discovery. Beginning in Lima, Peru and ending in La Paz, Bolivia on the 29th of December. In total 21 days. We had a mission to get from the Galapagos Islands to Lima, it's a long and boring story caused by Gap giving us the wrong details regarding the return flight from the Galapagos. Our transfer to Lima involved: taxi, boat (2hr), 4x4 taxi, ferry, flight to Guayaquil, flight to Quito, flight to Guayaquil (no that is not a typo), overnight stay, flight to Lima, taxi.
We arrived into Lima in the morning and after finding our hotel we went out in search of lunch. We picked a popular restaurant and I ordered carne mixto (mixed meat), this was a big mistake as it turned out to be intestines, stomach and various other bits of offal. Even if I was feeling 100% I doubt I would have eaten it, but I had started to feel under the weather with visits to the baños (toilet) becoming more frequent. We managed to go out for dinner with our new group but no drinks after dinner. Unfortunately we didn't even do a tour of Lima, I was beginning to feel really unwell and just wanted to stay in bed. This pattern was repeated a fair few times at the beginning of our Andean tour.
We took a public bus to the Peruvian coastal town of Paracas. The bus was fine but I had to request a few toilet stops en route. I missed out on dinner and Nilgun and I skipped another tour the following morning. The guys on our tour were lovely, I got given anti cramp tablets, a course of antibiotics and electrolyte solutions. At midday we took a private mini-bus to the the famous Nazca lines. Along the way we stopped at a Pisco winery to do some Pisco tasting. It didn't float my boat but downed the spirit, which is Peru's national drink, hoping it would kill off what was bothering my tummy. A short drive and we arrived at the oasis of Huacachina, where we promptly hopped aboard a 9 seater dune buggy and were driven into the huge sand dunes. The ride itself was great fun but the objective of going into the dunes was for some sand-boarding! Drive to the top of a sand dune, lie down lengthways on what resembles a snowboard and shove off head first down the dune. It was fantastic fun and the guys were competing to see who would go the furthest, but on the last run Nilgun sailed past everyone!
A quick spot of lunch, a dip in the pool (our first since starting our trip last month) and then off to the Nazca lines. We arrived at a lookout point just in time for sunset. It was very cool watching the sun go down over this Andean plateau wondering, as thousands of others have, why on earth these lines are here.
We had a chill out day in Nazca with a ceremonial dinner in the evening before jumping on an overnight bus, for 10 hours, to Arequipa. Arequipa is Peru's second largest city and arguably the most attractive. We had a beautiful hotel, far exceeding our expectations of the level accommodation we would recieve, located 5 blocks from the central plaza. That evening we treated ourselves to a slap-up dinner at a restaurant run by one of Peru's top chefs. It was a lovely dinner and it was so refreshing to get top notch service, so often throughout South America waiters and waitresses have no clue. Unfortunately shortly after meeting up with the rest of our crew at a bar I had to go home unwell. I insisted Nil stayed out as I knew I had a long appointment with the toilet. It was a shame because from the photos they had a fun time, one of the bars had a pole and I believe the whole crew, guys included, tried their hand at pole dancing with mixed results.
