June 25, 2004 Ariqupa Peru
Well I've been in Peru now for a little over a week and its fantastic! Been having an amazing time.
Landed Tuesday night and swam through a sea of men shouting TAXI AMIGO? at me over and over. Got a good deal on the taxi (a local I met was impressed I got it so cheap) to town and then met a few Americans and we had the national drink....a pisco sour. Its a tasty concoction of Pisco, which is this weird liquor made from grapes, with lime juice, sugar, bitters, and, get this, egg whites! Ah yes, who would have thought to add egg to a drink? Gives it a nice frothy merinquish (is that how you spell it?) head. Pretty tasty....kinda like a mojito or margarita but with its own Peruvian twist.
Tooled around the big dirty city of Lima....population 8 million. Not much to say about it...its got some pretty parts but mostly just dirty pollution and lots and lots of people. They were nice though. For being a big city, its very relaxed and chill.
Stocco arrived Thursday night and the next day we bombed off to Pisco. Pisco is not where pisco is made...go figure. But it was the site of a great day trip. First, out to Isla Ballestras, which is the site of the worlds most expensive shit. Yup. Guano. Bird shit. Doesn't smell too good, but you could not believe the hundreds of thousands of birds flying around this island. We cruised in a 12 passenger speedboat around the island and saw lots of birds, and lots of crap, and the islands are these rocky crags. Apparently, this stuff is sooo valuable that it was their most important export for awhile, providing the cash to build their first railroad and instigated a war with Chile over who owns it! Nuts! Now, I guess they just get a little of the stuff....and chage $60/lb for it. Damn!
In the afternoon we went to Paracas national park and cruised thru the desert and saw staggering cliffs hanging over the ocean, and then sand. Like an unending beach. Really gorgeous. Striking. Had a tasty lunch there with one of the typical peruvian dishes....ceviche! Ah yes, ceviche or cebiche as its sometimes written (although prounouced the same since B and V are the same) is realllly tasty. Its fish and or seafood marinated in lime juice with some spices. Awesome! And really really good when you can see the fishing boats that caught the sea bass that I was munching on. Its probably soemthing that could easily get ya sick (its not cooked with heat, but with the acids), but they seem to know what they're doing.
Ah well that great trip finished, it was time to be off again, this time to Huachachina! Ah and this place is great. Its an oasis, a little lake almost completely surrounded by desert. Desert is not quite right, because this town is rringed by huge sand dunes. And everyone is there sandboarding on them! Brilliant. You throw some wax on the board and strap in, and woosh, you are cruising down the dune and destined to pick sand out of your pockets and ears for about a week! Awesome!
Oh, so that isn't quite enuf. We took a dune buggy trip out into the desert. Kinda a Lawrence of Arabia on a gasoline fueled testosterone trip. Phew! Flying around the desert, down sand dunes like a roller coaster, and sliding around. Great great great fun. Scared the hell out of me though! And it was our 'lift' for sandboarding, shuttling us to the top of the dunes....since climbing 500ft high sand dunes is tough work.
So that was amazing. And the desert was just sooo gorgeous. Like all the pictures you see of the really sandy nothingness with dunes with their sharp edges on the top. We watned to take the 'twilight' trip and catch sunset out there but it was Father's Day in peru....seems that Father's Day is the same day in all countries of the world!
Well, after all that excitement, we left for Nasca, home of the famous Nasca Lines. Took a plane ride and saw them for 30 minutes....pretty cool. 2000 year old lines in the sand. Did a little hiking in Nasca and gut stuck there when a general strike rolled through the state. Got to see some interesting protests, but no big thing....strikes are really common in Peru.
Then off to here, Ariquepa, which is the second biggest town in Peru and its really nice. Has a gorgeous old town where we're staying, packed with tourists, and lots of good places to eat and hang out. A nice break from our running around. Sunday we're off on a three day trek to Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world....twice as deep as the grand Canyon. CAn't wait! We get to relax in some hot springs and hike around and enjoy the views! Then we are trying to book our 4 day Inca Trail trek, but there is some insane wait of a month or something....so we will set that up while we're here and then go to Cuzco when our number is ready. Good thing I didn't come for 2 weeks or we probably wouldn't have been able to do that hike.
Weather here is chilly. Amazing that we're on the equator and its so cold. Sweatshirt is a mandatory piece of equipment if it isn't sunny out. Food has been great and cheap. I like to hit the "Chifa" which somehow is what they call their chinese restaurants here....and they are everywhere. Get a big bowl of wonton soup and some chichen chow mein for $2! Toss in a tasty coke in the glass bottle (a treat not available in the US) or a cold cerveza, and you're set!
Well, thats all from here! Hope all is well back home
- Ryan
Well I've been in Peru now for a little over a week and its fantastic! Been having an amazing time.
Landed Tuesday night and swam through a sea of men shouting TAXI AMIGO? at me over and over. Got a good deal on the taxi (a local I met was impressed I got it so cheap) to town and then met a few Americans and we had the national drink....a pisco sour. Its a tasty concoction of Pisco, which is this weird liquor made from grapes, with lime juice, sugar, bitters, and, get this, egg whites! Ah yes, who would have thought to add egg to a drink? Gives it a nice frothy merinquish (is that how you spell it?) head. Pretty tasty....kinda like a mojito or margarita but with its own Peruvian twist.
Tooled around the big dirty city of Lima....population 8 million. Not much to say about it...its got some pretty parts but mostly just dirty pollution and lots and lots of people. They were nice though. For being a big city, its very relaxed and chill.
Stocco arrived Thursday night and the next day we bombed off to Pisco. Pisco is not where pisco is made...go figure. But it was the site of a great day trip. First, out to Isla Ballestras, which is the site of the worlds most expensive shit. Yup. Guano. Bird shit. Doesn't smell too good, but you could not believe the hundreds of thousands of birds flying around this island. We cruised in a 12 passenger speedboat around the island and saw lots of birds, and lots of crap, and the islands are these rocky crags. Apparently, this stuff is sooo valuable that it was their most important export for awhile, providing the cash to build their first railroad and instigated a war with Chile over who owns it! Nuts! Now, I guess they just get a little of the stuff....and chage $60/lb for it. Damn!
In the afternoon we went to Paracas national park and cruised thru the desert and saw staggering cliffs hanging over the ocean, and then sand. Like an unending beach. Really gorgeous. Striking. Had a tasty lunch there with one of the typical peruvian dishes....ceviche! Ah yes, ceviche or cebiche as its sometimes written (although prounouced the same since B and V are the same) is realllly tasty. Its fish and or seafood marinated in lime juice with some spices. Awesome! And really really good when you can see the fishing boats that caught the sea bass that I was munching on. Its probably soemthing that could easily get ya sick (its not cooked with heat, but with the acids), but they seem to know what they're doing.
Ah well that great trip finished, it was time to be off again, this time to Huachachina! Ah and this place is great. Its an oasis, a little lake almost completely surrounded by desert. Desert is not quite right, because this town is rringed by huge sand dunes. And everyone is there sandboarding on them! Brilliant. You throw some wax on the board and strap in, and woosh, you are cruising down the dune and destined to pick sand out of your pockets and ears for about a week! Awesome!
Oh, so that isn't quite enuf. We took a dune buggy trip out into the desert. Kinda a Lawrence of Arabia on a gasoline fueled testosterone trip. Phew! Flying around the desert, down sand dunes like a roller coaster, and sliding around. Great great great fun. Scared the hell out of me though! And it was our 'lift' for sandboarding, shuttling us to the top of the dunes....since climbing 500ft high sand dunes is tough work.
So that was amazing. And the desert was just sooo gorgeous. Like all the pictures you see of the really sandy nothingness with dunes with their sharp edges on the top. We watned to take the 'twilight' trip and catch sunset out there but it was Father's Day in peru....seems that Father's Day is the same day in all countries of the world!
Well, after all that excitement, we left for Nasca, home of the famous Nasca Lines. Took a plane ride and saw them for 30 minutes....pretty cool. 2000 year old lines in the sand. Did a little hiking in Nasca and gut stuck there when a general strike rolled through the state. Got to see some interesting protests, but no big thing....strikes are really common in Peru.
Then off to here, Ariquepa, which is the second biggest town in Peru and its really nice. Has a gorgeous old town where we're staying, packed with tourists, and lots of good places to eat and hang out. A nice break from our running around. Sunday we're off on a three day trek to Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world....twice as deep as the grand Canyon. CAn't wait! We get to relax in some hot springs and hike around and enjoy the views! Then we are trying to book our 4 day Inca Trail trek, but there is some insane wait of a month or something....so we will set that up while we're here and then go to Cuzco when our number is ready. Good thing I didn't come for 2 weeks or we probably wouldn't have been able to do that hike.
Weather here is chilly. Amazing that we're on the equator and its so cold. Sweatshirt is a mandatory piece of equipment if it isn't sunny out. Food has been great and cheap. I like to hit the "Chifa" which somehow is what they call their chinese restaurants here....and they are everywhere. Get a big bowl of wonton soup and some chichen chow mein for $2! Toss in a tasty coke in the glass bottle (a treat not available in the US) or a cold cerveza, and you're set!
Well, thats all from here! Hope all is well back home
- Ryan
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