Lima, Huacachina & Islas Ballestas

Sunday saw the start of our Peruvian adventures with a flight from Buenos Aires to Lima. A 5 hour flight which sure beats any bus ride... We arrived in Lima expecting to meet our new travelling partner Gareth (STA Travel buddy) at Arrivals, however, after much searching he was not to be found anywhere. We headed to our hostel where we waited for him with anticipation... still no sign... so we opted for sleep and left instructions with reception for Gareth to knock on our door as soon as he arrived to relieve us of our worry.

5.30am the next morning, the knock on the door finally came with a weary looking Gareth standing there. It turns out he missed his connecting flight from Miami because he was detained by American police who had a ´Gareth Jones´listed on interpole. After 3 hours of bag searching and questioning, Gareth was set free once they were convinced they had got the wrong man, only to have to wait a further 6 hours for another flight. An adventurous start to his holiday, but luckily one that ended well, and will be a great story to tell for many years.

First impressions of Lima is that it is a large city with a heavy American influence - Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger Kings on every corner, there is even a Starbucks! We stayed in Miraflores which is a more wealthier area of the city, filled with shops, bars & restaurants mostly to cater for tourists and the middle class inhabitants. Lima has become a richer city in recent years and has only just developed a middle class where as before there was a great divide between the rich and poor, similar to what we saw in Rio.

We stayed in Lima for the day exploring the City Centre which houses many churches, a Cathedral and the Presidents residence, and then the following day we caught the bus to Huacachina - 4.5 hours away, 4km from Ica. Huachachina is a small village, housing just 12 families and dominated by a backdrop of massive sand dunes, where you will see many people making the huge trek to the top to board it down to the bottom at full pelt. In the middle of the sand dunes, there is an small lagoon which makes the village an idyllic place to spend the afternoon relaxing - we opted for watching the sand boarders this time, and hopefully Nads and I will get the chance to do it in the Atacama Desert, Chile. If it´s anything like the 100 ft sand dunes Sinead and I climbed and boarded down in NZ last year, then it will be well worth the wait.

We overnighted in Huacachina, and then took a bus to Pisco to tour around the Islas Ballestas. The Islas Ballestas are known as the ´poor mans Galapogos Islands´ however, the wildlife here is fantastic. We cruised around the islands, caves & arches watching sealions sprawled on the rocks, Peruvian pelicans & Peruvian Boobies, and my favourite... lots of penguins. After the tour, which last 1/2 a day, we headed straight back to Lima after the tour, and got onto enquiring about a surfing lesson.

Oh my God! What a laugh! Surfing is hilarious... well, it was for me and that was purely because I was laughing at myself! I now realise that I have absolutely no upper body strength whatsoever! Paddling out to sea was pretty tough, let alone trying to stand on the surf board. I managed to catch a wave still laying on my stomach so in my book that´s me surfing!!! So, as you can imagine, I was unsuccessful in trying to get up on the board, but as they say practice makes perfect, so maybe I´ll give it another go in NZ or Australia. I have at least learnt some of the terminology, and have become addicted to watching surfers ´catch their waves´, and in Lima there are a far few surfers as the surf here is excellent (so they say... I´m still trying to work out what makes ´good surf!´.

Tonight, we meet our other Inca Trail trekkers and tomorrow morning we fly to Cuzco where our Inca Trail adventures begin... wish me luck!!