"The days run away like wild horses over the hills."
They sure do. We´re counting the days more and more now, as New Zealand looms at the end of September.
We´re making rapid headway on long bus journeys night and day, to reach the more southerly Peruvian highlights of Nazca, Cuzco and Lake Titicaca, stopping briefly to smell the roses along the way.
Here´s a whistlestop of deepest, darkest Peru so far (click on the names for gallery links)...
PIURA
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| Grau's Monument |
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| Not the Tyne Bridge |
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| Water tower thing |
A nice little town with a Grau´s (Grey´s?) Monument, poor man´s Tyne bridge over a smelly river and huge water tower masquerading as some sort of urban sculpture, but a nice Neo-Classical cathedral and some cute churches.
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| Geordis here, Geordis there... |
TRUJILLO
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| Ruined |
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| Goddess |
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| Smelly |
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| The Birds |
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| Fishing boats drying out |
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| "If you don't stand up, you don't pay" |
Piura to Trujillo via Chiclayo and we are travelling through the desert, which is very odd.
Trujillo is a pleasantly sprawling, working family town with loads of shops and restaurants.
We day-trip to the pyramids at Huacas De Sol y Luna, to Chan Chan to see the ruins, then to the beach at Huanchaco.
There are slightly-blue-footed boobies and pelicans to be stroked on the pier, while the waves apparently form the longest surf rollers in the world.
I didn´t get to hang ten, but did get down to my Ys for a paddle in the Pacific. Sorry ladies, no photos.
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| Authentic 2000-year old dog |
HUARAZ & LAGUNA 69 at HUASCARAN
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| Miming for their new video |
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| Main square |
A trekker's Mecca, a climber´s Nirvana, we stayed at the 'proper' Andescamp hostel and did a day hike to Laguna 69 (passing Laguna 68 en route) at Huascaran.
A 6am three-hour bus ride took us to the national park, from where we set off on a 6-hour hike up to the Laguna at 4400 metres.
Smoke 40 Rothmans and drink a bottle of red wine to experience the altitude effect.
I was nacked after 500 yards and had a headache for two days after, but we made it up to the spectacular laguna, where it had just started snowing as we left.
On the way down, we passed Peruvian blokes going up with toddlers on their shoulders!
Trujillo was also where I lost my second jacket - my beloved UniQlo puffa - in the local cemetery. Fate must have dealt a hand, as I picked up a nice new "North Face" shell jacket for only twenty quid at the market, which was a perfect replacement for the Laguna trek.
LIMA
A big city, but smoggy and overcrowded. We are only here to connect for Nazca. The bit we stayed at and saw was Miraflores, where they clearly love a casino.
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| Evidence of what, I can only imagine. Food for thought for Dave and Sharad, mind. |
The beach front is a bit Copacabana-lite - way too built up with tacky hotels and casinos and the most massive, brand new, designer shopping complex (replete with brand-new-moneyed designer shoppers) built into the sea front. (Imagine the MetroCentre UNDER the Spanish City).
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| The neglected but prettier pier. |
Rather tacky, but the beach front was nicer with lots of microlites over the cliffs and urban art on the promenade.
Weird to think only a few hours away from this sophisticated urbanity there are people living in shacks in a deserted wasteland. Suppose you could say the same about Newcastle and Sunderland.
We are on the Nazca bus this afternoon, flying over the Lines tomorrow morning.
Told you we were moving fast...
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