We drove from Chivay to Cusco today but took a mountain pass that Rhys and Vanessa hadn’t taken in the past. This turned out to be an inspired idea; the day was beautiful and our early start meant we drove through the plains and mountains with beautiful light over the breathtaking vistas. Mostly the road […]
Day 88 : Chivay and the Colca Canyon
Once again we had the company of Miguel as our tour leader, this time for an excursion out to the Colca Canyon. The main attraction of the canyon is the possibility of seeing condors in flight and we were lucky enough to arrive after an hour and a half along a bumpy dirt road to […]
Day 87 : Arequipa to Chivay
We had a different activity this morning, a reality tour of the poorer areas of Arequipa. With our guide Miguel we were driven to a number of different places to be shown what life is like for those without much money. Normally I would expect a tour like this to involve being shown around people’s […]
Day 86 : Arequipa
The Monasterio de Santa Catalina was our first call today. The Monastery was started more than four hundred years ago and was set up as a self contained city within a city for the resident nuns. For hundreds of years the nuns lived a life separate from the outside world, communicating only with family through […]
Day 85 : Puerto Inka to Arequipa
It was another driving day today. We travelled from Puerto Inka inland to Arequipa, a lovely colonial city. The drive itself was mostly through desert, nothing we hadn’t seen before, and I don’t remember much about it. We left Puerto Inka around 9am and arrived in the late afternoon in Arequipa. A quiet breakfast on […]
Day 84 : Nazca to Puerto Inka
For the first time ever on a travel day we were actually leaving in the late morning so we had as much of a sleep in as the temperature would allow. We didn’t do much in the early morning other than returning the empty beer bottles and taking down our tent. We did have a […]
Day 83 : Huacachina to Nazca
The drive today was short, a mere three hours inland to Nazca. The landscape was desert all the way though the large sand dunes slowly disappeared to give us a more arid and flat landscape of white sands and dust. There was the odd area of green, irrigation providing farming opportunities. Before reaching Nazca we […]
Day 82 : Lima to Paracas and Huacachina
Driving out of Lima we headed south following the coast and arrived at the town of Paracas around 10am. At a small jetty we were loaded into an already crowded boat for a trip out to the Ballestas Islands. I was sitting with Gavin, one of the new guys, near the front of the boat […]
Part 7: Day 81 : Lima
One last day in Lima and we spent most of it in the Miraflores area by the coast. We spent the morning arranging washing and getting our remaining travellers cheques from Tranquilo. This involved helping Vanessa with the shopping for the next few day’s meals and then taxiing out to the truck park where Rhys […]
Day 80 : Lima
The day was free of organised activities and most people took the opportunity to wander around the city. Keryn and I wanted to catch the changing of the guards at the Presidential Palace at 11:45am and joined others in heading towards the San Francisco Church, specifically to check out the catacombs. We had to pass […]
Day 79 : Huaraz to Lima
We set off much too early heading towards Lima. We drove back down the same valley road we had come up on, heading out to the coast before turning north. The weather was much more pleasant this time around with sun and good visibility. Stopping at road works we took photos of local children who […]
Day 78 : Huaraz
I was up early with a group of others for a day trip out to Lake 69. We were to climb up the lower slopes of Chacraraju in the Cordillera Blanca, the local name for this area of the Andes. There were six of us; Danny, Albert, Angie, Michelle, Janet and myself. There was a […]