The morning of our departure in Paracas we walked to the bus station and arrived at 10 am, half an hour before we were to depart. This was advised to us by Bamba, our travel agency. When we got there however one of the computer stations was down and the line of people was quite long. We were actually third in line but the line did not move for the next half an hour. This bus station was not like the others we have been to. This one was just a hut outside with employees who were clearly not trained to handle computers. Anyway the bus was 15 mins late (thank goodness) because when we got to the front of the line and gave the guy our ticket numbers he just kept letting other people in front of us! And we're just like "HELLOOOO?!" And finally when the bus pulled up we were so stressed out and panicked that we just waved our tickets in their faces like "hello we have to be on that bus it's time to help the poor English speaking tourists!!". We got on the bus in the nick of time and drove to Ica, a city just an hour south. From Ica we took a quick 7 min taxi ride to Huacachina where we were staying. Huacachina was a very cool little place, I have never seen anything like it. It is a very little town that surrounds what they call an "oasis". The oasis is a lagoon surrounded by palm trees in the middle of the desert. And by desert I mean REAL desert, with huge sand dunes like 100 stories high! I don't know how high they really are but the people standing on top look like ants. The lagoon is surrounded by a lovely board walk with restaurants, hostels, and shops lining it. I never saw any actual homes so I think the workers must live in Ica and it's more of a tourist destination. When we arrived we checked in and took a walk around the lagoon, watched people sand board and did a little shopping for souvenirs. Then we had our sand boarding and sand buggy tour at 3 pm. We got in a big sand buggy that seats 12 people and started out. The tour consisted of about a 25 km sand buggy ride with 4 stops along the way to sand board. The buggy ride was so great! At first I was totally freaked thinking our driver was crazy because the ride WAS crazy! We were going real fast and up and down the dunes like a roller coaster ride. There are tons of sudden drops in the dunes and the driver loved hitting those and making all the girls in the buggy scream like crazy! It was really fun though. On the four stops we got out and chose a sand board and went down whatever dune the driver stopped at. The dunes started at a nice medium size and progressed to very high and steep!! You actually rode the sand board like a body board. You laid on your stomach face first and tucked your arms in but let your feet drag behind you to use as breaks and to help control direction. Then you slid down the hill gaining speed as you went. It was a bit of a contest to see who could slide the farthest after reaching the bottom of the hill. Some people did ride the boards like a snowboard but it looked quite difficult and you also didn't go nearly as fast. We were on this tour for 3 hours. We were supposed to watch the sunset from the dunes which I heard is quite beautiful but unfortunately it was too cloudy that evening. The next day we decided to do some more buggying so we went on a little guided tour through the dunes where we followed a guide on an atv but we got to drive our own 2 person buggy. Shelby and I each drove for 30 mins. That was pretty fun too, and I was glad we didn't do the daredevil stuff our driver had done the day before but we still got to drive pretty fast (got up to 50 km/hr) and go up and down some steeper dunes. After this we just hung out until evening when we were to take a night bus to Arequipa.
We made sure to get to the bus station an hour ahead this time but it was much quicker and so we waited at the bus station for an hour until our bus came. We played go fish and crazy eights hahaha. Our bus was supposed to be an 11 hour ride, departing at 6:30 pm and arriving at 5:30 am. The bus was SLOW and we were 2 hours late, arriving at the bus station at 7:30 am. This was bad because we had scheduled a 2 day 1 night tour that was supposed to pick us up from our hostel at 7:30! We thought for sure we had missed it but we rushed out and grabbed a taxi to our hostel. When we got there they informed us that no one had come to pick us up yet! So we quickly checked in and scrambled to pack some things before our tour bus showed up. In our scramble we didn't pack many warm clothes which was a huge mistake because that night and the next morning were so so cold!! But we got on our tour bus at 8:30 and off we went. Our tour was a tour of Colca Canyon. We drove for a couple hours to reach the town of Chivay, stopping a few times along the way to admire the scenery and get some candy and tea made from the cocaine leaf (supposed to help with altitude sickness). You can also chew the leafs but they don't taste good. At one point we reached 4800 meters above sea level and despite the candy I was feeling quite sick from the altitude. I was nauseous and very light headed but we were just driving through at the altitude, we didn't have to stop so I just laid back and breathed through it and I felt better after about 30 minutes. A few ladies were very sick by the time we reached Chivay. They were very faint and they were so sick they couldn't come to that nights events. That night we went to a local hot springs for a couple hours, so I got to feel warm again for a bit which was heaven. The only time it was warm on this trip was from about 11-2 when the sun was shining. Before and after that it was so cold mine and Shelby's hands and toes were totally freezing and we were always shivering. I was dreaming of my winter jacket and boots... And Costa Rica. After hot springs we went back to our hotel and changed and then went to a local restaurant where we had dinner and got to watch a show of local music and dancing. The music was a band of 4 guys playing the recorder and a pipe thing and guitars. The dancing was a woman and a man dressed up in their traditional garb which is very colourful with lots of skirts and shalls and funny hats haha. Every so often they would grab someone from the audience and get them to join in, and they grabbed me and Shelby at one point, so funny. For dinner I had a homemade tomato soup and what turned out to be a beef stir fry dish (I just picked something I didn't know what is was!) and we got a chocolate mouse for dessert. Back at the hotel I was hoping to get a hot shower to warm up but there was no such luck. The water was icy cold and there was no heat in the hotel (it had been this way in all our hostels so far in Peru but I was hoping a hotel might be different). So we bunked down again in all the clothes we had trying to stay warm!! We had to wake up at 5 am the next day and Shelby needed money so we walked to the ATM (which turned out to be broken anyway). On our way back to the hotel we got lost because it was still pitch black out and there are no street signs or anything. We got to what we thought was our hotel so I was banging on the door because it was locked. Unfortunately this woke up the 10 stray dogs on the street who proceeded to bark their heads off and surround us. We were quite nervous so we really wanted to get in! We kept banging on the door and finally a man came out and yelled at us that this wasn't a hotel. Oops. So we kept going and finally found our actual hotel! We quickly ate (jam and bread and tea is all they serve for breakfast in Peru) and got on our tour bus at 6 am. We were heading to a look out point for the Condors. On the way we stopped in a few small towns and watched some children dancing in the square (raising money for their schools) and saw some nice architecture, churches, and more scenery. I also bought a toque cause I was freezing! When we got to the look out point it was very crowded but Shelby and I found a good spot to watch two Condors who were sitting on the edge of a cliff. Condors are massive birds with a wingspan of 3m. One interesting thing we learned is that they don't have sharp enough talons to tear their own meat apart so when they find a carcass they circle it. This apparently signals to the Pumas that there is meat there. The puma comes and tears up the carcass and eats what it wants, and then the Condor can eat what is left. After an hour, more Condors started showing up and they began to fly around the canyon which was pretty cool to watch. They don't need to flap their wings, they just soar along. The only reason they flap is to stop themselves. We met back at the bus and our guide took us on a hike to another look out point. We were the only ones there and there were no Condors at first but great views of the Canyon. Then the Condors started coming one by one until there were 7 flying right above us! He said we were very lucky. They kept soaring down very close to us like they were putting on a show! It was great. After Condors we went back to Chivay and had lunch and then headed back to Arequipa, returning to our hostel at around 5.
That night we went to Saga Falabella, a local department store kind of like Sears or something and found me an iPad, which is what I'm typing on right now! It's been so nice being connected to the world again. Then we went to a restaurant called Zig Zag, recommended to us by two Canadians we met in Huacachina. They were from Calgary but the guy actually knew where Weyburn was... I think his grandma lived there for awhile or something. It was so crazy. Small world :). Zig Zag is a fine dining restaurant and we got "the trilogy of meats". This dish included a fist sized amount each of pork, steak, and alpaca! It was sooooo delicious. I hadn't had a good piece of steak since Saskatchewan and I was surprised how much I liked alpaca. I liked it better than the pork! This was served to us on a sizzling platter on a wooden board along with native potatoes, 4 different dipping sauces and a salad! Shelby and I shared a drink for two (not sure what the alcohol in it was but it had a raspberry flavour) and it was served to us in an ostrich egg shell which was so neat. Then for dessert I had flaming raspberries and ice cream. Mmm I wish I could go back! The meal was $33 CAD, but would definitely cost AT LEAST double that in Canada! Everything is very cheap in Peru. After Zig Zag we found our hostel and I set up my iPad and went to sleep! The next day we had off until another night bus to Cuzco at 8:30 pm. Our hostel was located in a great area very close to downtown so we did a lot of walking around. We dropped off some laundry to get done and then found another restaurant called Crepisimo (also recommended by the other Canadians). They have over 100 different kinds of crepes. It was around lunch time so I got a crepe with chicken, cheese, and avocado and Shelby got one with steak, spinach, and fried egg! It was pretty good and we were going to come back after supper to try a dessert crepe but we ended up being too full! After lunch we walked around shopping. Lots of locals sell crafts and things on blankets beside parks and we were in a plaza looking at some earrings from a local lady when all of a sudden someone yelled and all the vendors started quickly packing up their things!! Me and Shelby were totally freaked but the lady was telling us to stay stay stay so we just stood there while she packed up her stuff, besides the earrings we wanted. They were all packing up because a couple of policeman had come by and were yelling at them. We figured they weren't allowed to be selling their things there. But we bought the earrings even though it was really awkward. After that we went in some legitimate stores and searched out an area that was supposed to have really good alpaca clothing but it ended up being quite expensive so we didn't buy anything from there. I'm still looking for an alpaca wool sweater because I have been wearing my one bunny hug constantly since Costa Rica, and they are sooo soft like cashmere! After shopping we went back to the hostel until supper where we went to a terrace restaurant beside the main square in Arequipa that offered great views of the city, especially as the sun was setting. There I got a vegetarian lasagna and another Lucuma milkshake (the fruit that tastes like butterscotch). Writing about all the good food in Arequipa really makes me miss it!! After dinner we picked up our laundry, packed, and found a taxi to take us to the bus station for our bus to Cuzco. The buses are great in Peru. They are double decker and up to that point we had been seated in two seats right at the front of the second floor so we got huge windows in front of us to look out and lots of leg room. They also feed you on every ride. It's not great food, it's similar to airplane food, but its still nice. On our tickets to Cuzco were seats 7 and 8 so we were disappointed we didn't get our usual seats, but then we found out we were on the first floor in "first class"! The seats here were much roomier, leather, and leaned back nice and far for a good sleep. You also got your own television. We were super excited and I conked out for the first 3 hours of the ride but when I woke up I was soooooo hot. It was probably 28 degrees in our little cabin, no joke I was sweating hard. I tore off as many clothes as I could but it hardly helped. I couldn't even use my neck pillow because my neck would get wet with sweat within minutes. Yuck. There was no AC blowing which was why it was so hot. So for the next 6 hours of the ride I hardly slept and was super uncomfortable... Then for the last 30 mins they turned the AC on again which just pissed me off. But this time at least we arrived on time to Cuzco because we had another tour booked for that morning.
This tour was called the Sacred Valley tour. It was a 12 hour tour of 3 different Incan ruins. Shelby and I struggled through it because we were so tired from no sleep the night before. It was a good tour though. We learned a bit about the Incans at each site. The many terraces they built into the hills were used for growing potatoes, quinoa, oats, barley, corn, etc. which the local farmers still produce. They built terraces because they could irrigate them easier by letting the water run down step by step. They also built the walls of the terraces using stone that accepted the suns heat so that the crops would not freeze during the night. At our last site there was a huge Incan face carved into a hill opposite the terraces and a temple dedicated to the Mother Earth. They built this temple there because on one day a year the sun would shine into the eye of this face and be directed onto the temple across the valley. It was pretty cool. They had many different temples for different gods like Mother Earth, sun, moon, water, and earthquakes. Their architecture is so amazing. They pointed out the quarry they used for the stone which was way up high on another hill across the river from the village. They would cut huge blocks of granite (some at least 15 ft high and 5 ft thick) and then they would just let them slide down the mountain using gravity, and land them in the river. The blocks would stay there until July and August when the river was low enough for them to haul the blocks across and back up the hill. I have no idea how they hauled those blocks back up because they would have weighed a ton (literally). Our last site of the day was a current village with many Incan remains. The local church was actually built ontop of an Incan palace. We finally got back from the tour around 7 pm. We checked into our room and had a small supper at the hostel's bar. Then we went to bed early cause we were so wiped from no sleep and a long day of walking around sight seeing. I got to sleep in for the first time in awhile which felt so great. Today we are just relaxing. We actually haven't left our beds except to eat breakfast and its 2:30 pm. It feels so good. They also have hot water here which I am so pumped about. I am never taking hot showers for granted again. Tonight we are being briefed on our Machu Picchu trip which starts tomorrow morning.
Woo! Long blog! I shouldn't have left it so long but it's hard to do it without a phone and I've been very busy since I bought my iPad! I hope you enjoyed it!