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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 144

    Lima, take two

    14 апреля 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    I've come full circle on my Peru stint and I've arrived back in Lima. Tara's sister in law is from Lima and her parents have kindly hosted us for the weekend. My time with Jorge and Raquel (and their dog Feeko) has definitely been a trip highlight. I learned that the Peruvian mammy ways are very similar to that of an Irish mammy. I was pandered to, had my laundry washed, dried and folded and I was completely overfed.
    Our first evening back in Lima we were taken for some typical Peruvian roast chicken. It was absolutely delicious. For some reason though I was still feeling unwell and became quite faint when we were leaving. Naturally, I was mortified to be causing such a fuss.
    Day two, Jorge was our tour guide wearing his favourite Irish hat. We spent the day wandering around Barranco, where I stayed during my initial visit to Lima. It was nice to see it through a locals perspective. We had an amazing lunch at Isolina. We watched the sunset in the area of Miraflores. Tara and I headed out that evening in search of drinks and a dance. We went to an Irish bar and then later couldn't find anything other than reggaeton.
    Day three, my last with Tara! Jorge took us to the main square in the historical centre. When we arrived back to the apartment Raquel had prepared us the most delicious meal. We had a typical Peruvian fish soup and a seafood dish with rice. We drove Tara to the airport for our big goodbyes and I stayed one more night before my flight the next morning.

    Recommendations:
    Go to Isolina in Barranco for food. The best Pisco sour you'll ever have.    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 142

    Paracas

    12 апреля 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Paracas is a little seaside town, 4 hours south of Lima. To get here, it was an easy 2 hour bus journey from Ica.

    Accommodation: Kokopelli. The most popular hostel in the area. It was nice but a little void of atmosphere due to the lack of tourists.

    We spent two nights here in total which I feel was enough. It wasn't a stand out destination and you missed the mass of fellow tourists. Tourism hasn't quite picked back up to what it normally is. We met Hugo and Katie again, and resumed our games of Monopoly Deal. Tara and I hired some scooters for a day and drove around the national park which is a desert by the sea. You can also visit islands off the coast which are known as the "poor mans Galapagos". It's great for spotting wildlife such as sea lions. I had myself booked and paid onto the tour but unfortunately I woke up during the night with a serious case of travellers belly. I wisely gave the trip a miss.    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 140

    Huacachina

    10 апреля 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    We arrived on a night bus from Arequipa. Huacachina is a little desert oasis. The surrounding sand dunes are enormous and it's a popular location for sandboarding. We spent a total of two nights here.

    Accommodation: Rochabus hotel. It was basic and had a pool. I don't know why we didn't stay at Bananas hostel. Book Bananas.

    -Day one: We arrived at the hostel, went out for breakfast and chilled for the afternoon. In the evening we did the sunset sand buggy tour which included sandboarding. We had dinner at Banana hostel where we met Hugo and Katie, who we met on our Colca Canyon tour. We spent the evening playing Monopoly Deal together.
    -Day two: We had a much needed lazy morning by the pool before we went to Tacama vineyard. Tacama is the oldest vineyard in South America and produces Pisco as well as wine. We had a tour of the vineyard which was followed by a tasting and lunch. The setting is beautiful and the main building was once a convent.

    Recommendations:
    Visit Tacama vineyard. It was a 30 minute taxi ride from Huacachina
    Wild Rover for partying
    Banana Hostel has good food and a nice atmosphere
    Sand boarding and buggy tour on the dunes    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 139

    Colca Valley

    9 апреля 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Our Easter Sunday trip to Colca Canyon.

    Colca Valley is located 3 hours outside Arequipa. It is the third deepest valley in the world. The first being in China, second Nepal and The Grand Canyon comes in fourth. The area is a pre-inca settlement and the local people still speak Quechua as their first language. The valley is filled with stepped terraces used for growing crops. The top of the valley is at altitude, prohibiting the growth of many species. Quinoa is the main crop grown at the top, whereas the bottom of the valley is much more fertile.

    We set off on an organised tour at 3am. We opted for the one day tour as opposed to the two (or three) day hiking tour. The first stop was to the town of Chivay where we had breakfast. We were taken to a few viewpoints throughout the day and saw plenty of Alpacas, Lamas and Vincuñas.

    One particular viewpoint is famous for spotting the Andean Condors in the area. The Condor is the second largest bird in the world, has a wing span of 3m and can weigh up to 60kg. They can also live up to the age of 75. The most common area to find Condors is in Patagonia.

    The day trip started early but had us back to Arequipa for 16:30. We had a little while to chill at the hostel before we got onto another night bus to take us to Ica.    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 136

    Arequipa

    6 апреля 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We arrived to Arequipa on an overnight bus from Cusco. It's a beautiful colonial city that is known as the white city. This is due to the white stone of the buildings but the name originally came due to the large number of white Europeans settling and developing the city. It is surrounded by four volcanos. During the Inca time, they saw the volcanos as their god's and made several sacrifices to them. This sadly included children. It generally happened every four years, in the hopes of keeping the Gods happy and stopping the volcanos from erupting.

    Accommodation:
    Arequipay Hostel. Pretty basic but overall nice. Has some nice outdoor areas.
    Selina Arequipa. Very pretty decor. A classic Selina. Booked it because it has a pool but we didn't end up using it.
    -Day 1: Checked into our hostel and went to Eco Brunch for breakfast. In the afternoon we did the free walking tour. It gets very cold here in the evenings so we had to rush back to the hostel for more layers before heading out for dinner.

    -Day 2: We checked out of our hostel and moved to the Selina. Being good Friday we found that most businesses and restaurants were closed. This resulted in a lot of walking. We settled for lunch in Las Gringas where we had a pizza. The base was made of purple corn. In the evening we went to Waya rooftop bar where we could watch the sunset and look out over the square. There was a huge procession through the city, carrying Jesus in a coffin.

    -Day 3: We went to the Mummy museum. It was excellent. We were able to see the mummy of Junaita, an Incan girl sacrificed to the Gods over 500 years ago. She was buried at the top of one of the volcanos. Her body was discovered due to an eruption in the 80s. Since then they have found three more children's bodies in the area. Juanita was only 12 to 14 years old when she was sacrificed. Only the mostly healthy and prestigious children were chosen to be sacrificed. It is thought that women used to scar their children's faces in the hopes they would not be selected. To date 20 bodies have been found on volcanos in south America but they expect there are hundreds still buried.

    Recommendations:
    -Do the free walking tour. I did Free Tour Downtown Arequipa.
    -Ecobrunch for breakfast
    -Kao restaurant for dinner. It's Peruvian Asian fusion.
    -Kaya rooftop bar. Good place to watch the sunset
    -La Nueva Palomino. Typical Peruvian food. It's very good and very popular so expect to wait for a table. It closes at 5pm so it's ideal for lunch/early dinner.
    -Las Gringas. It's a pizzeria and has a chocolate shop. It was really good.
    -Mummy museum    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 134

    Machu Picchu

    4 апреля 2023 г., Перу ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    The long anticipated, Machu Picchu. We opted not to do a trek to get there. Instead we got a bus to get there and the train back.
    The bus took hours and we had to walk the last section. This took around 2.5 hours alongside the railway track.
    Getting there was not without its stresses. Alex the Great, again messed up. He booked our entry tickets for 13:00 and our train back was at 14:30. He promised that the guide would be able to get us in early, but not for sunrise which was the time he had originally promised us. On arrival to the town of Aguas Calientes, we found our guide who told us we could get in for 11am, the following morning. It was all dreadfully organised and took the shine off the situation. In the end we had two hours to explore Machu Picchu. Although we didn't have a huge amount of time, the guide who took us around was really good and made the experience very enjoyable. The weather was on our side and we had gorgeous blue skies. Due to it not being high season, the crowds also weren't too bad.

    On a plus, because Alex had forgotten to book our trip on time, he had to book us onto the first class train carriage for our return journey. It was a lot more enjoyable than the previous bus journey.

    Recommendations:
    Book as much as you can yourself.    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 132

    Rainbow Mountain

    2 апреля 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    A little footprint to mark the highest altitude point of my trip.

    As mentioned under my Cusco footprint, this was to Palccoyo, the lesser known rainbow mountain in the area. The benefits of going to this one is that it's a shorter hiking time and there are far fewer people. Our group more or less has the walking circuit and view points to ourselves.

    Sadly it is due to global warming that we can now see the colours of the mountains. They had always been covered in snow until the year 2012.    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 130

    Cusco

    31 марта 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    I flew from Lima to Cusco where I was able to link up with Tara in the airport. Cusco was once the capital of the Inca Empire. It is 3400m above sea level so the altitude was a bit of a struggle.

    Accommodation: Kokopelli. Great hostel and it was really nice to be in a private room that felt more like a hotel.

    -Day One: We checked into the hostel and then went to a travel agent to book some tours and get ourselves organised for Machu Picchu. We met the self proclaimed "Alex the great", the travel agent. In our case he turned out to be not so great. He was an American Peruvian with a larger than life personality that promised us everything under the sun. To add to the mix, during our time in the agency, I became extremely unwell with altitude sickness. Alex was shouting how once he had it so bad he thought he thought he was going to die. Not the best thing to hear. My head was suddenly pounding, my blood pressure had dropped and I was freezing cold to the point they were worried I was hypothermic. The owner of the agency ran off to the pharmacy to get me some magic pill which thankfully kicked in around 30 minutes later. If it hadn't taken effect when it did, they would have been sending me to the local hospital. It was cocoa tea for the rest of the evening.
    -Day two: Thankfully I felt mostly myself again, with milder effects of altitude sickness. We went on the free walking tour of the area and browsed through the craft markets.
    -Day three: We went on a tour to rainbow mountain. However, Alex the Great forgot to book us onto the tour. It was meant to be a 4am pick up from our hostel. After a long wait and trying to contact the agency, a car eventually came to collect us at 6am and brought us to the closer set of Rainbow mountains called Palccoyo. After a stressful start to the day, we had a great time. We met some little Alpacas that stole the show.
    -Day four: We went to explore the Sacred Valley on a quad bike tour and went to salt mines.

    Recommendations:
    Book as much as you can yourself.
    Try traditional Peruvian chicken.
    Free walking tour    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 128

    Lima

    29 марта 2023 г., Перу ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    No one should look to me for a logical travel route. Literally no one! But the nice thing about being solo is that I can do what I want. I've made the last minute decision to come back to my original travel route so that I can meet my friend Tara. I'm definitely feeling like I need to hop on a holiday buzz and see a familiar face.

    The journey to get here has to have been my longest yet. I left San Pedro at 4am on the 27th. My flight wasn't until 6pm and I arrived at Guatemala City airport shortly after 10am. This was due to political protests happening in the city that day and I was advised to avoid traffic. I did see Mel Gibson in the airport though which was exciting. I had two connecting flights to get to Lima. It was all going fine until I had a 5 hour layover in Bogota. Being as tired as I was, they displayed the flight number next to the gate number, leading me to get confused between the numbers 49 and 47. Unfortunately I missed my flight as I realised a minute too late. To cushion the blow, three other English girls also made the same mistake. Thankfully we didn't have to pay for a new flight, we were put on one 12 hours later. We spent the day in the airport lounge eating and drinking wine. It was the best £22 I've ever spent! I eventually got to my hostel in Lima at 2am on the 29th!

    Accommodation: Kokopelli. It's under the Viajero group and it's pretty nice. It's in an old fancy building and does a great free breakfast.

    -Day one: Tired and laying low. I slept in and missed breakfast. I went to a lovely cafe down the road and got a great coffee and a bowl of overnight oats. Being travelling now for so long it's really nice to get some basic, slightly healthy food. I went to the beach for the afternoon. It was full of seaweed and people trying to sell me stuff. In the evening I got sushi for dinner.
    -Day two. I did the free historical walking tour. The heat was unbearable. It was cloudy and unbelievably humid which made me feel extremely tired and not very well. I got back to the hostel and went for ceviche for a late lunch/early dinner.

    Recommendations:
    Barranco is a lovely area to stay. It's quite artsy and has good food options.
    Pan Sal Aire - great cafe
    Free historical walking tour

    *Use BCP ATM - no fees*    Читать далее

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  • ПутешественникSouth and Central America
    День 119

    Lake Atitlan

    20 марта 2023 г., Гватемала ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Lake Atitlan is a huge crater lake surrounded by volcanos.

    Accommodation:
    -Free Cerveza. It stays true to its name and does give free beer every night for two hours before family dinner.
    -Corazon de San Pedro. Very basic but did the job.

    My first four nights were spent in Free Cerveza which is in Santa Cruz. Unfortunately I was sick the entire time I was here. The volcano hike had me absolutely floored and it took a lot longer to recover than I thought it would. On the plus side, it was a very lovely place to be unwell. I spent my days lying by the lake and swimming when I could. I got to meet Ellie again, who I had met in Semuc Champey. I had dinner in the evenings with the hostel which was always three courses and cost only £7.50. The hostel is a glamping spot and I spent my four nights sleeping in a teepee tent. The only down side to this was that I was unable to sleep during the day as the tents got so hot.

    Unable to extend my stay in the hostel I moved to the area of San Pedro. I booked the only hostel that was available. It was basic but all I needed. I spent the majority of my time here sleeping but finally beginning to feel myself again, one full week after the volcano.

    Recommendations:
    I can't say a lot about here unfortunately
    Book Free Cerveza. It's the most popular hostel on the lake so book well in advance.
    Sababa restaurant in San Pedro. I literally went for breakfast lunch and dinner    Читать далее

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