Hola from Peru!

(click above for link to flickr)

Started our trip, as most people do, in Lima... another huge, sprawling, polluted capital. However we were actually quite pleasantly surprised by the city... it really isn´t as awful as everyone says! There are a couple of really nice suburbs which we explored during our brief visit. But ultimately, it is just another huge, sprawling, polluted city so we did´t hang around too long!

As it turns out, our chosen route is the one that most tourists seem to follow and has therefore been nicknamed the "Gringo Trail" by the Lonely Planet, but we didn´t know that cos we have the Footprint guide so we´ll pretend that we´ve chosen a really crazy individual trail and try to impress you all with our off the wall adventures!

After Lima we headed south on the incredible "Cruz del Sur" buses which are like travelling first class in an aeroplane... hostess service and cheesy dubbed american movies, bingo and the occasional Madonna music video to keep us entertained... Towards the large harbour town of Pisco. We came here cos we like the drink, but the town is not that great as it turns out so we didn´t stop here, we carried on to the beautiful Paracas on the edge of the Paracas National Park. Our hostal opened out onto the sea and was a really beautiful spot to spend the night. From here we took a boat trip (with about 100 other European, middle-aged tourists, but we won´t mention them) to the spectacular Islas Ballestas which are home to literally millions of birds nesting in huge colonies on the rock faces. Mums and Dads, you would have loved it! Even if you´re not a huge bird enthusiast you can´t help be impressed by the sheer volume of bird shit covering the island! Aparently they harvest it every 5 years cos it´s really good fertilser! Amoungst the birds we saw were a few very cute penguins and there were also tonnes of sealions lolling about too... we even saw one giving birth on a rock...very cool!

So next we hopped on another bus south to find this amazing oasis town of Huacachina. It is just like you imagine an oasis would be, surrounded by ENORMOUS sand dunes on all sides, a small lagoon supports life in this tiny village, which is mainly a tourist trap, but a very nice one at that! You can sand board, buggy or boogy board down the dunes, but we just chose to leap about in them like 5 year olds... so much fun! We also took the opportunity to catch up on some serious sunbathing... aaahh so lovely after lots of cold weather to finally catch a few rays!

After a very uncomfortable night bus onwards we have arrived in Arequipa which is at first glance verging on heavenly... we have read that the sun shines 360 days of the year ... who can complain at that! I hope we don´t catch the 5 days of rain in the year! We are staying in a wonderful hostal in a higglydypiggledy town house and plan on staying here for a few days for a festival celebrating the town´s anniversary... there promises to be lots of street parties and parades and drinking and dancing in the streets... quite nice timing on our part!

That´s all for now... carry on below for stories from Chile... now with pictures.

Lots of love from the slightly red-nosed katie and seb xxx