Lima, Pisco and Ballestos Islands, Nasca (including Nasca lines!) and towards Arequipa

When I left off we had just arrived in Lima, I tell a lie, we didnt go to a restaurant, we instead hit up Peruvian McDonalds. Not as good as the kiwi version but some cravings were satisfied. In the morning we headed to the supermarket to get some breakfast then went for a walk along Lima´s waterfront and beach area. Not actually a particularly nice or attractive part of town and not really much of interest to report on. Headed back to Hostel to chill out as we were saying adios to our tour guide Diego, who had been magnificent to us, and saying hola to our new guide Ollie (Oligar really but Ollie to us). Few tears shed by some of the girls and corry when saying goodbye to Diego. Ollie gave us a run down of our itinery with us then we headed off to a much nicer part of Lima, basically the municipal/presidential area, with some beatutifully historic buildings and palaces. Had a walk around the main square then went into the cathedral for a tour, which included seeing the catacombs, a huge underground cemetry where all people from Lima used to be buried. A lot of human remains etc, some beautiful artwork in the cathedral itself but apparently only 20% of it was real and the rest had been done recently to mimic the original. Still an interesting site to view. Went for a walk down some of the streets of Lima and tried some local food before ending up in another square with more magnificent buildings (although one housed a KFC which was rather disappointing). Then got a taxi back to the hostel. Driving in Lima is an absolute experience as I alluded to earlier, pretty dodgy taxi ride both ways. Went out for dinner at a local restaurant with more local cuisine which escapes me now. Then hit up a bar for a couple of drinks with Ollie before heading home. Relaxing morning before catching a long local bus ride to Pisco on the coast. Pisco was destroyed by a huge earthquake not that long ago and the town was a bit of a mess with lots of roads completely out of order and plenty of piles of rubble where buildings used to be. Bus ride fairly boring, but getting used to long trips now so handling the jandle no sweat. Had time for a quick dinner at a nice wee restaurant, delicious avocado salads etc (south american avo is superb) with some more cerveza. Early night as we had to be up early for our boat tour around the Ballestos Peninsula and Islands. Was a really good activity, firstly we saw a huge candelabra shape that had been dug into the side of a sand dune on the Peninsula around Incan time that was completely intact 500 years later more or less in the same state. Around 150m high and 60m wide I think, an odd phenomenon. Then we headed out to the islands, where we saw a huge amount of pelicans, penguins, sea lions and other bird and sea life. Very cool spot. After the tour we hopped on a bus towards Nasca (famous for the Nasca lines). Along the way we stopped at a desert oasis for dune buggying and sand boarding. Dune buggying was epic, in a massive 10 seater buggy with a crazy peruvian driver flying up, down and across sand dunes at top speed. Quite exhilarating. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far. Sand boarding involving lying down on something like a snowboard and flying down a massive sand dune as fast as you could. Also very exhilarating, got up to some pretty decent speeds. Got covered in sand also and corry was sporting a sand moustache after applying too much sunscreen. Had a wee race, I came second to Australian Tim, whilst Corry utterly embarrassed himself... After dune buggying back to the start we headed to the pool which was a beautiful setting, no one wanted to leave so we set off late after a load of swimming, suntanning and cerveza-ing. A really cool spot also and we all reckoned it was one of the best days on the trip to date. Back onto the bus and set off for Nasca. We stopped at a lookout along the way and got a bit of a view of some of the lines and shapes as well as a beautiful sunset, however the best was to come the next day on the scenic flight. Nasca was a nice litle town, we had pretty rubbish accomodation so set off quickly for a restaurant specialising in spit roast chicken, really good and I absolutely gorged myself, couple of cervezas werent helping matters either. Had a bit of a walk around the town and the square before getting an early night for our early flight the next day. Early start with another delicious (haha) breakfast of bread and jam. Set off early to the airport to avoid the lines and got on a plane almost straight away. I was on a plane with Corry. Aussie Emma and an Irish guy with the worst B.O you´ll ever have the pleasure of smelling. Luckily, think the pilot got a whiff of it too so had the window slightly ajar for the whole flight. The Nasca lines were awesome, got a bunch of photos out of the side of the plane but they dont do justice to seeing it with your own eyes. Shapes included the owlman, whale, trapezoids, hummingbird, spider, spiral and pelican amongst others, pretty amazing sight to see, especially in amongst the surrounding landscape which I found stunning. Corry was pretty glad to land and kissed the ground upon exiting the plane. Airport was a bit of mickey mouse operation but wont dwell on that, getting accustomed to south american shambolicness. Waited a while for the others on the tour to complete their flights, only one vomit amongst them which was promising. In the afternoon me and Corry went on a tour of some local aquaducts which had been constructed pre-Incan time, they were really interesting and beautifully constructed. Also saw the world´s highest sand dune in terms of height above sea level which was pretty cool. Apparently people sandboard it - 1.5km straight downhill, we didnt get to do it but can imagine it would be an incredible rush. After the tour we got a quick meal with some of the other tour guys and some snacks for our overnight bus ride. Bus was pretty comfy but not as good as the first one, still had reclining seats and a couple of snack meals, wifi internet etc. We left Nasca at 10pm and slept most of the ride which was good (think we both woke up about 630), arrived in Arequipa at 8am. Arequipa is Peru´s second largest city and is very beautiful set at the base of some volcanos with lots of rich architecture, cobbled streets etc. Next post will be Arequipa and the Colca Canyon trip which we´ve just come back from - really great trip including seeing Andean Condors in flight and viewing the Canyon, which is the world´s deepest. Think we are having a quiet night and cooking at the hostel (really good accomodation here apart from slow internet) as the trip was rather exhausting, 530am start today and many hours on unsealed roads. Until next time then