Huacachina: Where Laurence of Arabia would go on his holidays

We took a 5 hour bus ride from Lima to Ica (opting this time for the cheap seats as we didn´t want to spoil ourselves) and crossed the desert as the sun was turning everything a lovely shade of pink. We arrived about 7.00 and took a taxi with our new buddy Gary to Huacachina, about 10 minutes drive away. On the way, both Gary and the taxi driver William sounded unimpressed when I told them about the hostel I´d booked. This coupled with the fact that I had actually booked the wrong dates, not for the first time, was enough to persuade us to try El Huacachinero, which we duly did and were quickly installed in a triple ensuite room with towels shaped like swans and a a view of the pool - luxury!



After an unimpressive meal we went to bed and prepared for our winery tour with William the next day. He took us to two wineries where we tasted various wine and pisco, which is the local spirit, and about as nice as tequila to drink neat. Nevertheless, I left with a bottle of Pisco tucked under one arm, slightly feeling it´s effects.



Gary and I also managed to make friends with some parrots who we chatted to for a while!





That evening, we all went out of the back gate climbed up the huge sand dune behind our hostel and after a 40 minute climb to the top, we watched the sun go down across the desert, which was pretty much the most spectacular thing I´ve seen!





After admiring the desert from afar, we decided to get up-close and personal with it the next day and went on a dune-buggy and sandboarding tour. I think we sent Beth down first on all the dunes because she was by far the bravest in our group of nine! Both Rich and Beth picked up some kind of injury (although Beth´s might have been from jumping off the bunk bed on Day 1) but I was unharmed for some reason. One woman came right off and sprained her wrist!

Meeting Beth in Lima

We travelled back down on the bus to Lima to stay in the ´party hostel´. We had a day relaxing on the beach before we got a taxi to the airport to meet Beth.



Well I finally arrived in Lima after a very long flight and was greeted by two smiling faces! We headed back to the hostel for a bbq and drinks before the tiredness kicked in and we headed to our bunk beds. The next day Rich and Jodie showed me round Lima, the market and the beach which I was pleased about!

Chavin

We went on another day trip to Chavin to visit another beautiful lake and a rainy achaelogical site!

I am ill!

I am on the mend now but have had a couple of nights interrupted by toilet stops. I have decided this meal may have been where the trouble started - I didn´t feel quite right afterwards. I think I need to know when enough is enough!

Huaraz, Peru

We got the bus overnight from Lima to Huaraz. Turned out to be very comfortable - here is jodie pleased with her big comfy seat and her pillow!



Huaraz is very nice with a nice market for buying earrings. Here is Jodie buying some earrings in the market... and a pencil case no less!



Yesterday we went on a trip to Lago Llanganuco which was beautiful and blue but a little rainy. It was a funny group of Peruvians as well as one English man on our bus. We had a bit of a scare on the way back with one old Peruvian lady flat out in the back of the bus and the tour man giving her a slap every now and then and asking if she wanted to go to hospital.













We stopped at a memorial for people who died in the avalanche which was quite sad.

Lima, Peru

We arrived in Peru after 24 hours of travelling (and waiting). We were staying in Miraflores, in the Angels Inn, which was great except they were double-booked, and had to move us to another hostel for the second night. But the hostel dueñas were so friendly and helpful, booking our bus tickets to Huaraz, walking us to the next hostel in person, and helping us with taxis.

Even after New York, Lima was a mad place; loads of noise and traffic and taxi drivers who took short cuts through petrol stations and up pavements! It was a whole lot quieter and safer in Miraflores, where they had a beach and some really nice parks. Plus huge meals for less than a fiver!

We were a bit scared to go to central Lima, so we went on an open-top bus tour instead, where we could look in safety! Although the seatbelts were very necessary, as the traffic is horrible.

Computer´s a bit slow, so we´re having trouble putting up many photos, but hope to put some up later!

Pictures of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty

We took quite a few pictures of the statue of liberty. These are just a few!

New York!

We got the bus from Boston to New York which took about 4 hours. It was interesting arriving in to the city and seeing all the massive buildings. It got a bit more like hard work when we tried to get the right Metro to our hostel in Harlem. We finally got there after going backwards and forwards quite a few times on different trains. When we got there though we were told we had been upgraded to our own room as there were no mixed dorms available - a bit of good luck!


We had a little rest and then got the metro back into the city, heading for the Empire State building. It was a very impressive view and a good way to start our visit to New York as ´Tony the Taxi driver´told us all about the city and the different areas (on our audio guides). It was very chilly up there though so we were quite glad to get in the warm when we came back down and have some food.

We walked back to the Metro through Time Square which was very bright and big.. and as we were tired a bit too big and bright and scary.



We woke up and joined the scramble for breakfast in the hostel this morning. Free breakfast was good though and set us up for the day. We walked down through central park in the sunshine which was lovely compared to the busy streets. We stopped to get a hot dog before getting the metro to Battery Park to get the Ferry to Ellis Island. (Tip - get there before 2 so you can go to Ellis Island and Liberty Island - this made us a bit moody). But spirits were high again despite the heavy security check when we sailed passed the statue of liberty (giving me a chance to take numerous photos with a gentlemans elbow in the way).



So after we visited my island (Ellis Island) we walked back into the city and came across Ground Zero accidently which was actually very sad to see - seeing the firemans memorial.

We had dinner in Little Italy to a soundtrack of Queens greatest hits before getting an early night to get up at 5:30 and get the bus to the airport. (We had a slight incident getting up at 1 am when our alarm went off (which I had forgotton to change the time on). So we nearly set off 5 hours early!

Boston

We landed in Boston after a scary (I thought it was scary, Rich was fine with it) turbulent flight and went straight to sleep when we arrived at Jane´s apartment in Cambridge (we have basically had a lot of early nights, trying to blame the jet lag, but it won´t wash). The next day we left at 9.30 and walked around ALL day long.


We went to Harvard Square for a coffee and a muffin and a quick update on the state of the Boston Celtics in a disgarded Boston Globe (I don´t even know which sport they play - sorry, basket ball says Rich). Then we walked into Boston and had lunch into an Irish pub. After a couple of pints , Rich told a helpful Bostonian that we couldn´t work out where we were on the map, as we had had too much to drink! Haha, I don´t know how well this went down, but after telling us that the museum that we had spent hours trying to find had burned to the ground, he pointed us to ther Freedom trail (probably to see if we could follow it´s red painted line as required in our state of inebriation. Then we walked back before falling dead asleep.





The following day, Jane took us to her museum (the Museum of Fine Arts) through the staff entrance - brilliant! And then up the Prudential tower for views over the whole of Boston.



Then later, after discovering the clocks had gone back the day before, we went out for a cocktail and some pizza, followed by ice cream and coffee!