Arequipa

View from Plaza de Arma with the volcano in the background

After Nasca and the desert we climbed again to the highlands to Arequipa. This place is magical - cloudless sky 300 days a year with temperatures ranging between 18 and 27°C ...

Best terrace café we've been to so far

We visited the lovely Santa Catalina convent where there are still 30 nuns living. The colours were amazing !

Peru or Greece ? Your pick ! 

Roxana experimenting with colours and contrasts

Then we enjoyed some of the best food we've had so far. Peruvian cuisine is really something extraordinary.

Juicy meat that melts in your mouth - We're in food heaven

Finally ! Roxana got her Pisco Sour

More pictures : Arequipa

Nasca

The Pan-American highway crossing the Nasca desert

Many of you have heard about the Nasca Lines. These figures drawn in the desert that can only be seen from the air. And it is from the air that in the 1930's when commercial and postal planes started to fly over the area that pilots reported seeing what were clearly man made figures on the desert floor. There are thousands of drawings spread over an area of about 350km². There are many straight lines, geometric figures and about 70 zoomorphic drawings. 

Traces of ancient floodings

There are many theories as to what they represent and what was the purpose of these drawings. They mostly revolve around water. The Nasca people lived in this desert plain, a place where every drop of water is vital. In 2010 for example there was only 30 minutes of rain. This year 22 minutes so far ! And most of Nasca town today receives only one hour of water a day. 

30% of all the lines point directly to water sources as if to ask the gods to send more water. Then, many of the lines are in perfect alignment to the rising and setting of the sun and the three most luminous stars in the sky at exactly summer and winter solstices. This sort of giant astrological calendar would tell the Nasca people when to start preparing the land, when to sow the seeds and when best to use the small amount of water at their disposal to irrigate.

The Hummingbird

Finally many of the animals drawn are symbols of water : the whale living in the ocean, the hummingbird and the monkey that live in jungles where there is plenty of water. 

The Humanoid - a figure that fuels the Alien theory 

Of course there are also theories that this civilization knew about the existence of aliens and have drawn some kind of landing pad for them. But obviously very few observers in the scientific community pay any attention to this.

Anyway I booked myself a flight (7-seater Cessna) to see for myself 13 of the animal drawings that this very advanced people drew. The flight lasted only 35 minutes but it was magical. 

For more picutres : Nasca Lines

The Spider

The Condor

A perfect triangle - part of the geometric designs

The 9-fingered hands occur often - we don't know what they represent

The tree - symbol of water

After that exhausting adventure, it was time to relax a little bit by a welcoming swimming pool ...

Roxana could not be in a better place

Ica

When one thinks of Peru one does not think of deserts. But Peru has a LOT of it. And Peru has a lot of HUGE sand dunes. As a matter of fact the highest sand dune in the world is located in Peru and is 2078m high (yes that's over 2km) from foot to summit.

Our hostel in the middle of the desert

We went to Huacachina near Ica which is a surreal place. It is a small village in the middle of the desert. The only reason it is there is because of a natural lake that formed there. Here is a quote from Wikipedia :


"Legend holds that the lagoon was created when a beautiful native princess was apprehended at her bath by a young hunter. She fled, leaving the pool of water she had been bathing in to become the lagoon. The folds of her mantle, streaming behind her as she ran, became the surrounding sand dunes."

I'm ready to roll

Anyway we went there to do some sandboarding and some buggying. The sandboarding as you may guess is like snowboarding, only that we ride down the sand dunes.

There she comes

For more photos : Huacachina Sandboarding

We are surrounded by desert

Difficult to describe how surreal this feels

Sea of Tranquility

Lima

The Presidential Palace (Formerly Francisco Pizzaro's Residence)

Lima, the “City of Kings” was founded by the great Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizzaro. Nowadays it is a modern city, the fifth largest in Latin America in fact and at the opposite end of the spectrum from the no-electricity-no-running-water-no-toilet trek we just did.

We take a taxi to our Hostel which is in the very touristy and somewhat uppermarket Miraflores neighbourhood. We check-in and decide to hit town straight away. It’s only 6.30 a.m. and the city is slowly waking up. The cleaning trucks are finishing up their night shifts and garbage has been collected.  Traffic is slowly picking up and cafés are setting up shop for people to have a some coffee on the go before work. I love this time of the day.

We discover Lima and find comfort in some of the things a big city has to offer : museums, comfortable shopping centers, nice restaurants, modern transport system … after travelling for one month in South America we appreciate some comfort if only for a brief moment.

So, with our “Town Mouse” costumes decidedly on we visit the Museo de la Nacíon. There is a photo exhibition celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the re-discovery of Macchu Picchu and a very comprehensive expo on all the civilisations that lived in Peru from 7600 B.C. to modern day. 

A policeman and removing a hanged dog

The best part of the museum is a work of remembrance on the Internal Armed Conflict that plagued Peru in the 80’s until late 90’s. During this period, about 70.000 Peruvians (mostly civilians) died. “Shining Path”, a terrorist (Maoist) organization was responsible for about half of the deaths. The army and secret service taking direct orders from the government was responsible for the unjust arrest and summary execution of almost 30% innocent people. To learn more : Wikipedia : Internal conflict Peru and photos from our visit Armed Conflict Peru

Then we enjoyed a very nice water show (son et lumière) in the Parque de la Reserva  

More Photos: Water Show.

Francisco Pizzaro and "the line in the sand"

The following day we start with a walk in the centre. We visit the main Cathedral where Francisco Pizzaro’s remains are. This cathedral is one of the richest we’ve seen here or in Europe. Every single chapel is lavishly decorated, a testimony of Lima's importance as the main gateway to Europe during the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

That's a lot of bones (and it's 7m deep)

Then we pay a visit to the catacombs. This is where all the poor people were buried. The excavation works are still going on but more than 80.000 thousand skeletons have been found so far.

That evening we treat ourselves to a very nice sea food restaurant only 5 minutes away from home. Peruvian gastronomy (of European, Chinese and Indegenous influence) is slowly making its mark on the world scene.  That’s handy ! My Octopus, clams and fish Ceviche (wiki Ceviche) with a coulis of coriander pesto was to die for and Roxana’s Black Risotto with baked octopus was equally delicious. 

The next day Roxana decides to get her shoes waxed ... after all we’re going to see the Peru National Ballet that evening.  While she waits I pop into the best football pub I’ve seen in a long time. A football temple, big screens everywhere, one of which in 3-D, beers flowing abundantly from the taps, and look, all the stars are here : good morning King Pele Sir, and here is Maradona ... if you sit at table 7, David Beckham will be taking your order! Impressive! Anyway I have time to see ManU leading Chelsea by 3 goals to nil (great goal by Nani btw), don’t know what the final score was.

The show that evening was excellent. The Peru National Ballet (photo : Peru National Ballet) offered a modern dance performance from Jimmy Gamonet.  After all this pampering, we’re ready for some hard core desert stuff now…

For more photos of Lima ...

Santa Cruz 4-day trek

After the warm-up trip to Lake 69 we are in for the big haul. A four day trek in the Andean wilderness.

Amazing peak

Tents are set up already - that's handy

We set off with our day-packs and leave the tents and sleeping bags to be carried by mules. The first day we climb to our camping site. Jaime camp. Umberto the guy who leads the mules and also takes care of the other details is already there for an hour. He's had time to set up a make-shift toilet and now is busy peeling the potatoes and washing the rice that we'll eat tonight. With no electricity we want to make sure everything is ready before night fall, at around 6.30pm. I put my drink in the ice cold stream running by our camp to refrigerate it. It should do the trick in half an hour or so. Everything would be perfect would it not be for the mosquitos. They are eating us alive even through our long sleeves and pants. Desperate times call for desperate measures : we encourage Hannes, our Austrian companion to smoke his cigarettes inside the tent to fend off these little creatures … and it works! 

Exhausted but relieved

The next morning we set off early, right after breakfast. We have to climb 900m and go through the infamous pass of Punta Union at 4800m. During the first hour the gradient is moderate and we fare reasonably well. Then the steep rocks start to appear. We cannot see the actual pass as it is concealed by clouds.  The more we climb, the more the air grows thinner, the more the temperature drops and every step we take is more and more difficult ... And it starts to snow ! I'm wearing gloves but my hands are cold. Roxana who is ahead of me does not have her gloves on, she must be freezing!

We arrive at the new camp site that day cold and exhausted. Umberto as usual has been there for a couple of hours and offers us hot maté (Wikipedia Mate). It's a Godsend ! As we come back to some sort of "normality" we can start to appreciate the scenery. It is simply breathtaking. We are amidst some of the highest mountains in the world, in a green valley set at 4100m above sea lever. There are waterfalls and wild horses grazing peacefully on the other side of the stream.     

The stream is freezing

Roxana winning against Ben and Greg

That night we have rice, potatoes and lamb for dinner. It hits the spot. After dinner we play some whist with Ben, Greg, Hannes and Emma. Angel who does not want to play lies down for a bit on the tent floor. I play a terrible round and blame it on bad cards and bad luck! Or maybe it's the altitude sickness. Roxana actually makes a perfect run not losing once! Then I decide to teach the group "Gare aux Coeurs" and that goes better. They all play it well but I finish with a score of -47. Honour is saved.

Lake and snow at the top

That night it rains so hard that water drips through our light tents and wets our sleeping bags. The temperature falls in the negatives and even though we are wearing all the clothes we brought, our nose tip and ears are freeeeeeeeeezing. But we make it to the morning!

The gate to the valley

That's Umberto

The whole group decides to cut the trek one day short by putting two days of trekking back to back. It should be fine, it's all downhill. We get to the village we're supposed to early afternoon and wait for a minibus to bring us back to the main road. Instead we have to settle for a car - the problem is that we are 8 + equipment including tents, foldable table and chairs and a cooking gas cylinder.

The driver insists it's fine (of course it is we're in South America). He tells us of that one time he brought 12 people down to the main road. But he says they did not have much luggage! We all get in except for Umberto who travels the 1 hour winding down mountain roads in the boot! Then it's only a matter of catching a "colectivo", shared mini bus ("Taxi marron" pour les connaisseurs) if you will. It gets us to Huaraz in 2 hours. We made it! The same night we leave for Lima.

For more pics : Santa Cruz Trek

Lake 69

The Huascarán towers at 6768m

Many people flock to this small town far away from everything called Huaraz because of the spectacular treking that can be done there. Huaraz is surrounded by majestic mountains, amongst which the Huascarán which, at 6768 metres above sea level is the highest peak in Peru. 

A laguna along the road 

Tough sport at this altitude

As the end game was to go on the 4-day Santa Cruz trek, we decided it would be best to get used gradually to the altitude. We gave ourselves an extra day. And to stay in shape we, Herman (US/Mexican), Charmaine (Australian) and us two attempt the trek of Lake 69. 

Pure ice-cold water melted from atop the mountain

It's an early start: we hit the road at 6 a.m. It's a comfortable one hour's drive on a nicely surfaced motorway followed by two grueling hours of dirt roads. By the time we get there at 9am the sun is already high. So we set off immediately. 

An amazing palette of colour

It's a tough ascent. It takes three hours to climb from 3900m to 4600m. The slopes are steep and the air is thin. While climbing I suddenly remember the words of the great man of comedy who is Rowan Atkinson : I feel like "an asthmatic ant with some very heavy shopping!".  I puff and laugh and that is indeed a bad idea as it takes me several minutes to catch my breath. 

A postcard picture 

Our first sight of Lake 69

When we finally reach the top, the steel-blue water of lake 69 starts to appear. The scenery is incredible and the colours seem almost unreal. All the long walk and the pain is forgotten. It was well worth it ! 

For more pictures follow this link : Lake 69

Incredible colour

Peru, Trujillo and Chan Chan

Border Crossing

Getting into Peru was "ok" ... we took an 8 hour night bus at 11pm and arrived at the border crossing at 3 a.m. We had to exit Ecuador (military checks etc) and walk across a bridge to Peru. There we woke up the border official in order to get our immigration forms. He was not happy to be woken up at that time but tough going ! I had to explain again where Mauritius is, that it is not Morocco nor Mauritania but that it is another real country ...  We were stuck there for 1 hour as some older folks needed help to fill in the forms.

Northern Peru has a lot of deserts 

Anyway we arrived in Piura at 8 a.m. and decided to take the express (4 hours) bus to Trujillo. Northen Peru is a lot of deserts - don't want to be stranded here.We wanted to visit two archeological sites nearby : Huacas del Sol y la Luna and Chan Chan.

The people who lived there were the Moche and the Chimú. Those sites were really amazing especially when you realise that both the Moches and the Chimús knew so much about the tides, the sea current, astrology, meteorology and seismology.

They built pyramids that did not budge for the last 2000 years during which time the Spanish town of Trujillo 5km away was completely destroyed several times in only 5 centuries. How ? They used an array of construction techniques to absorb and mitigate shocks, stresses, strains and torsions. Great civil engineers.

They also knew everything about the Humbolt and El Niño sea currents and of their implications on regional  weather and fish migratory patterns.  They knew exactly how to explain atmospheric phenomena such as fluctuations in air pressure, the optical prism (occurrence of a rainbow), etc. They had lunar calendars to guide them out to sea to fish when the tides would be the most favourable and fish more plentiful.

The Chimus built, Chan Chan the biggest city in South America in pre-Columbian times. For about 700 years this city stayed the biggest in South America with about 20km². It was conquered by the Inca in 1470 ...  

Business is slow ... 

Snapped at an art exhibition

Still slow the next day ... 

This race of dog has been declared a National Peruvian Treasure - it's  body can reach 43°C

Bouillon Crabe anyone ?