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South America

October 2015 - February 2016
A 127-day adventure by Vera Read more
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  • Vera and TomSouth America
    1
    111
    Day 81

    Huanchaco

    January 1, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Got to Peru after a long bus ride! Spend the last 4 days in Huanchaco by the beach mostly with chilling. The hostel is super cool, a real bamboo house with two annoying, loud parrots. Tried some new local food, including ceviche (raw fish) obviously just for Tom. On New Years eve two Russian volunteers cooked a whole turkey and some Peruvian other local deliciousness. We were all sitting around the table, celebrating together, it was a nice bunch of people. After this late dinner we all went out to the street by the beach to watch the fireworks and dancing. We were planning to leave yesterday but Tom got food poisoning so we stayed an extra night but at least we could get some more tan on the beach today.Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    Day 83

    Huaraz

    January 3, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 2 °C

    After almost 2 weeks on the beach, time for something different. Heading south and east into the mountains of Peru we arrived in Huaraz, a smallish town made famous and popular by the national park nearby.
    Sruggling a bit with the altitude, we decided to take it easy on our first day and walked up to a place called El Pinar. We didn't have much idea what to expect when we got there but we found a really nice restaurant with lots of local families having their Sunday lunch and a great view over the town.
    The town itself had lots of people in funny hats, incredibly expensive cigarettes and several billion dogs.    Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    Day 84

    Glaciar Pastoruri

    January 4, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 2 °C

    There are loads of treks, hikes and other exhausting adventures available around Huaraz, we chose one which we'd been reliably informed was the easiest. Glad we didn't try the 'challenging' ones.
    We jumped on a minibus with about a dozen others in the morning and started the journey to the Pastoruri glacier. Our guide stopped us at a little restaurant for some coca tea, which was surprisingly nice, in preparation for our ascent to 5200 metres.
    Once inside the national park we stopped off a few times. First we saw a mysterious little pond, amazingly blue and very deep, called The Puma's Footprint. Then a funny shaped cactus and a huge rock overhanging the road with old paintings on. Vera befriended a baby alpaca and then it was time to start the last part of the journey on foot up to the glacier.
    The change in temperature was massive as we got closer, as was the difficulty in breathing as the air got thinner. We couldn't even light a fag because our lighter didn't work with so little oxygen! The glacier was definitely worth it though. It wasn't something we'd expected to see on this trip but it was a great thing to do. The place is really eerie and this huge white mass of ice makes for a very weird feeling.    Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    Day 86

    Lima

    January 6, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We heard lots of rather negative comments about Lima from other backpackers so when we finally got there we were pleasantly suprised. Even if we preferred smaller towns so far we liked Lima's style of a big city. Crazy but modern. We stayed in a really nice area called Miraflores close to the beach. A bit posh, clean and nice neighbourhood. The beach looked amazing with big rocks above it with big skyscrapers on. On our second day we did some souvenir shopping and checked out the old town for some churches, government buildings an old train station and also tried some pisco (Peruvian palinka). Close to our hostel is a pre-Inca pyramid, from between 200 and 700 AD, where we had a tour in English. (The tours are mostly in Spanish here, so we were happy for it). It used to be a sacred place, called a 'huaca' in Quechua, which was built by community work. Clever way of building, there are gaps between the bricks so when it's earthquake time it doesn't collapse.
    Oh and we met the first Hungarian :)    Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    Day 89

    Las Islas Ballestas

    January 9, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We found penguins! On the Ballestas Islands, a boat ride from the town of Paracas, where we were staying.
    On the way out to the islands we also saw a strange candelabra symbol on the side of the hill next to the bay, apparently made in 200BC for reasons unknown.
    The islands were beautiful, a group of craggy rocks with lots of arches and tunnels and millions of birds. Lounging around on the beaches and bird shit were hundreds of sea lions. They are huge, fat and very lazy, really funny to watch.
    The highlight was of course the penguins, just little ones but well worth the trip. We were also escorted away at the end of the trip by some dolphins. :)    Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    111
    Day 89

    Paracas National Reserve

    January 9, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We took a guided tour from the town of Paracas into the National Reserve. It's a really interesting place, a dry, empty desert meets the ocean with some fantastic beaches, cliffs and dunes.
    After visiting some of the best parts, including one of the only red sand beaches in the world, we stopped of at a tiny fishing port for some lunch and to play with the massive flocks of birds around the bays.Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    1
    Day 90

    Huacachina

    January 10, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Huacachina is an oasis in the middle of the desert, really weird place! Not a lot to do but we came to this 'sandy gringo playground' for a reason to try out dune buggying and sand boarding. The activity started 1,5 hours before sunset. Got on the buggy thinking to go up and down on some smaller dunes. Well, it was rather scary!! The dunes were massive, the driver was crazy we were really jumping up and down in the buggy while everybody was screaming when we got a new really high and steep dune. Stopped twice for sand boarding. Wasn't exactly what we expected, had to lay on our tummy when we slid down, it was great!Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    Day 92

    Arequipa

    January 12, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Just a short stop in Arequipa but definitely worth it. They call it The White City after the local stone which all of the old buildings are built from. It looks fantastic in the sunshine and we were lucky enough to have lots of it.
    The main square, Plaza de Armas, is a great place to hang around and people watch.
    Also looked through our money situation and decided to book the flight back home. Need to get to Santiago, Chile by the 13th Feb as our first flight leaves from there to São Paolo and 16th back to London from there via Morocco. Bit sad to have a date of return but still a month left :)    Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    Day 94

    Cusco

    January 14, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We stayed in an area of Cusco called San Blas, up on a hill. Apart from the steep climb to go anywhere it was a good choice. The tiny narrow streets are full of restaurants, souvenir shops and lots of old ladies and little girls in traditional dress with traditional llamas.
    The are references to the Incas everywhere, Inka Kola, Inka Farmacia, Inka KFC, but also Catholic churches on every corner. Some of the big colonial buildings still have the older Inca stonework at street level. These walls are surprisingly interesting as the incas didn't have mortar so every stone is cut perfectly to fit those around it
    Here we also had our first tastes of Pisco Sour (cocktail of the Peruvian pálinka with lemon and egg white) and Alpaca meat, not bad, if a bit chewy.    Read more

  • Vera and TomSouth America
    Day 96

    Machupicchu

    January 16, 2016 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    It was a 2 day trip from Cusco. On the first morning we had to wake up early to catch the mini van for a 7 hour ride to Hidroelectrica, chosen over the extremely expensive train option. It was a horrendous journey with numerous near-death, squeaky bum moments. Afterwards a 2.5 hours walk by the train tracks in the jungle to get to Machupicchu town called Aguas Calientes. Found our hostel and went to bed as we had to wake up 4:30 the next day.
    The guided tour started at 6:30 so we went up by bus to make sure we didn't miss it. (Also didn't fancy walking up a million steps at 4 o'clock in the morning in the rain.)
    Luckily the rain had stopped by the time we reached the top. The view was fascinating but really foggy at first, that actually made it quite exciting to see the different parts bit by bit as we got close enough to see through the fog. Unfortunately the tour was very dull and felt more like a school trip than an adventure, so we soon ditched the guide and went off exploring on our own.
    The sun came out and the fog cleared in time for us to get the best views and some photos over the whole site before it was time to start the journey back.    Read more

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