Peru: Huacachina, Paracas, Lima, Punta Hermosa, Huanchaco

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a fab Easter break! Was a little different over here, yes they were selling easter eggs, but we decided to abstain! My fav easter eggs are creme eggs hands down and they don´t sell them over here, so it was either them or nothing!!!

The last 3 weeks have been heaps of fun, and its been great being in sunny weather again!

So after arriving in Lima and staying for a few nights there, we went 4 hours south on the bus for a few days to a place called Huacachina. I know I have said this before, but if you are a kiwi, seriously it is like nothing you have EVER seen!! (except maybe on movies!)

Huacachina, Peru. Incredible view from the top!

I have uploaded a piccie above, so you can see what I mean. It is literally a lagoon in the middle of the desert. An oasis with HUGE sand dunes 360 degrees around. You can´t really tell how big they are by the pic, but we walked up one side and it took us a good half hour to 45 mins to get up the top, and 5 mins to run and jump down!! We stayed at a hostel with a pool and loungers and had a really lovely 2 nights there, except for the fact that I had picked up a cold going from the cold to hot weather, and poor Rod got a mean tummy bug and was in bed for a good day!! This town is near Ica and is famous for sand boarding and dune buggying, all which was part of our plan while we were here, but given our sad state of affairs we didn´t do either!! At the end of day 2 we were both feeling a bit better, so did the walk up the dunes, the scenery was totally worth it!!
We then caught a bus back up north (just one hour) and went to a place called Paracas. This is the base for the Ballestas... the islands dubbed ¨Poor Mans Galapagos¨because there is lots of wildlife, but it is only 40 soles which is probably $26NZD to do a 2 hour boat ride to see the wildlife. You can´t actually go on the islands though. We saw an amazing amount of bird life, a bird watcher would be in heaven! Penguins and pelicans were my highlights, along with the sea lions - we saw thousands of them!! We then hopped on a bus that night as we had some celebrating to do the next day.... it was our 1 year wedding anniversary!!!

April 4th 2009.... we spent the day in Miraflores, Lima. That night we treated ourselves to a yummy dinnner to celebrate one year of blissful marriage at a seaside restaurant in Laromar called Portafino of all names! It was divine eating in fancy restaurant again instead of the cheap eats!

Rodreigo  picked up a surfboard in Miraflores and two days later we headed half an hour south to a seaside town called Punta Hermosa. This place is only briefly mentioned in Lonely Planet, but is a pretty famous surf spot from what I understand on the Peruvian coast. Punta Hermosa is the home of the big wave called Pico Alto, and other surf breaks like Punta Rocas, La Isla. Also the world number one women´s surf champion, Sofia Mulanovich.

We stayed at an awesome surf camp called Bravo Surf Camp, where we met our first Kiwis! But they had been living in London for 14 years, and were on their way home via Sth America. Was cool hanging out with Aaron and Damon and talking about home. Abraham ran the place, he was born and bred Peruvian, but had lived in the US for a while so spoke perfect English. Each day he would load us all up in the VW Combi van and hit the best surf spot for the day. The surf was quite big everywhere though, so poor Rodney got a bit of a hammering on his first few surfs, cos his paddling fitness was rubbish!! (this is self proclaimed so I am not being mean ok!) There were like 8-10 surf spots all within 10 minutes drive, so you can imagine Rodney was a pretty happy man here. Even when he wasn´t surfing we were going for long walks checking out different beaches (more importantly, the surf!). We stayed there 5 days, which was heaps of fun! They also had the best fresh fruit milkshakes which became a daily treat, they were only $2 NZD each! Yummmmm I miss the mango con leche jugo already!! (Mango with milk).




The kiwi crew in Punta Hermosa. Cruising in the VW searching for the perfect wave!


Moving on.... we then missioned it up to Huanchaco, which was a 9 hour bus. Nice and short. Our perception of long and short bus rides has totally changed!!! This was on easter Saturday, and we went on an overnight bus so arrived Sunday morning. Huanchaco is a little surf town near Peru´s 3rd largest city, Trujillo (1.2 mill ppl apparently).

We stayed at one of the best hostels we have so far, called Naylamp. They had everything you could want... beautiful sunsoaked courtyards with seaviews, chess, book exchange, cafe, help yourself kitchen, nice rooms, right by the beach.... I loved it there. Stayed there 5 nights again, enjoying the sun and surf and good mexican restaurant and happy hour mojitos! Daile had a go at surfing and was a miserable failure.... my arms need some serious strength to help with the paddling! Will get a bigger board and try again in warmer water up north... We met a couple called Guy (Pom) and Sarah (Scot) who are live in Bristol in the UK and they have told us to come and stay so they can show us around! They are engaged and getting married next June in a castle in Scotland! Had a fun time hanging out with them, and they both surfed so I couldn´t stop Rodney talking about surfing and waves. I think I could easily talk the lingo now, I can easily get by in a convo about surfing now!

From Huanchaco, we have come 2 hours north to where we are now to a town called Pacasmayo. Rodreigo's friend Pete recommended the hostel we are staying at (Los Faroles) cos he stayed here about 2 years ago when he backpacked around Sth America! Unfortunately the surf isn´t happening yet, we have been here for 3 days now, and all the boys are getting depressed!!! The wave here is famous for being 1km long, so you can an awesome long ride (if you can stay on the board!) and then you walk back up the beach and paddle out again. We are hanging out with 3 Aussie boys, and 2 guys from the US. Fortunately one of the guys is travelling with his girlfriend too so I have some female company. Perfect! We have all been hanging out in a big group and going out to dinner etc together. Tonight we are going to do a big bbq, Steph and I went on an early morning mission today to buy the fish from the local market while Rod has gone to Trujillo to buy a cheap wetsuit (he is over hiring them) and the other boys are searching for waves in a nearby town (where there aren´t any, they are just getting desperate, and cabin fever!!) But this hostel is great and really social so we are really enjoying it!
We are also going to do a day trip to Chicama, which is known for its 2km long wave... but apparently it only works when the waves are huge everywhere, so they have to wait till the surf picks up until we go there.
We will prob stay here until Thursday/Fri, and from here, we are stopping at 2 more beaches in Peru, called Lobitos and Mancora, and then will then mission it to Guayaquil in Ecuador and fly to Galapagos Islands early May!!!!!! So exciting!!! We were wondering if we should flag it cos how how expensive it is, but we are tracking ok with the deniros. We won´t be doing any fancy week long boat trips, will fly over and do the islands independantly with day trips on boats and lots of walking. We are going to stay on San Cristobal Island which also quite convienently has a really good surf spot!!! I´m looking forward to the snorkelling, we have seen videos from other tourists and there is SO much to see!!!

Can´t believe we are half way through our trip already!!! I had 2 recruitment companies email yesterday from the UK, so obviously it is time to start thinking about the next phase and getting a job... but I won´t think too much!!!
Also a special congratulations to Mrs and Mrs Warren and Michelle Day (Kingi), who got married on Easter Friday! I spent all day thinking about you two!!

Love you all, take care, and send us emails telling me the latest!
Chau!
Dahlia xx

When in Peru, do as the Incas do: Machu Picchu

I am a little outta date on this thing.... been too busy spending time outside when we can, but I will endevour to do a quick catch up!!

The Inca Trail was AWESOME!!! Had 3 Aussie chicks, Tori, Min and Sara, 4 people from the US, 1 Sth African, 1 English, 2 Norweigans and 1 Peruvian in our group, so a real mixed group which made life fun! The Aussie girls get there names mentioned cos we spent quite a bit of time with them afterward the trail...!

Day one was supposed to be flat all the way apparently! Whatever!! The last third was rather uphill but nothing we couldnt handle after our mountain climbing expedition a week before. Towards the end there were scales where we could weigh our bags.... we chose not to hire porters as they are really expensive and we figured we could handle carrying our own bags if we travelled light. Rodney carried 14kg the whole way which is pretty impressive to be honest considering most of the way he was at the front. I carried 8kg (thanks to Rodney who carried my sleeping bag, my bag wasnt too heavy!). But we also found out that Rodney has already lost about 6 ot 7kg!! We were noticing how loose his clothes were getting, but if he is losing weight at that pace, what is he going to weigh when we get to Londontown???? I have lost a kg or two from all the walking, but nothing to write home to grandma about!!

The 2nd day of the trail is the hardest, where you walk what they say is 4 hours uphill to the place called dead womans pass. It would be a pretty hard uphill walk if you werent fit, and it was challenging even for the fit with all the stuff we were carrying.

Day three was easy peasy with only 4 or so hours of walking, and we had our first shower that night (every other day we had a little mini sponge bath), along with a fun night of eating, drinking and card playing with our group! Over the course of the trip we had a great time with our gang, team USA, Team South Pacific, Team Norway, Team GB, Team Sth America and Team Peru!

Day 4 we woke up at 4am to be the first group at the gate to enter Machu Picchu. Then it is a 2 hour walk to Machu Picchu, but it is like a race, because there is an additional mountain you can climb called Waynu Picchu, that only 400 people are allowed to climb per day. But you need to get your tickets in advance, so everyone was literally running! We managed to get these tickets, but then didnt end up climbing it because it was real cloudy. But then it cleared about an hour before we were going to leave so we got to enjoy walking around Machu Picchu and saw the whole thing from the view point that all the classic photos are taken from.

Machu Picchu is an amazing sight. It is incredible to think that they could put together such a structure with so little tools and lifted them with their own strength (no cranes back then!). I was blown away the whole time we were there and couldnt stop staring and took about a million photos (which will be loaded onto facebook!). If you get a chance to do it, then do it!!! You dont have to do the Inca Trail to get there, you can catch a train to the closest town and go on the bus up there for the day. But I figure if you are there why not do the Inca Trail!! (unless you are a bit older and not really into hiking, in which case I would suggest the day trip!)

After we checked out Machu Picchu we had our final team lunch and said goodbye (until the following night in Cusco where we were meeting up again). Rodney and I spent the night in Aguas Caliente which is the small town closest to Machu Picchu, famous for their hot pools. So we had a soak in them with Team USA that arvo.

We cruised back to Cusco the next day where we had a wicked night with half of our team incl Team Australia, where we had dinner at a place called Two nations (owned by an Australian/Peruvian husband and wife) and then went out to a club called Mama Africa. Was the biggest night we have had so far over here, crashed in bed sometime before 4am.

Then caught the most horrible bus ever up to Lima, which was supposed to take 20 hours max and took almost 30 because there was a road block, so we had to stop pretty much for the whole night while we waited for it to clear!! Arrgghhh we felt hideous by the time we arrived in Lima. Stayed in Miraflores which is the beach suburb that all the tourists stay at for 2 night looking around and then headed south to do a wee loop...

I have run outta time so will have to continue this amazing story next time for you all where I will tell you all about giant sand dunes and lagoons in the middle of the desert, along with Poor Mans Galapogas Islands!!

Hope everyone is happy and well. HAPPY EASTER to you all!

We are heading to a place called Huanchaco tonight on a 9 hour overnight bus (little surf town).

Take care,
Love Daile and Rod xxx