Paracas, Peru

We woke up early to meet our guide, Cesar, and our travelling 'family' for the next three weeks. Everyone was shy to start with, but it wasn't long before we were getting to know each other!

We headed south to the coastal town of Paracas and arrived at close to sunset, so wandered down to a nearby beach to admire the view. Cesar then took us out to try the famous Ceviche (raw fish marinated in lemon juices) and then to the most luxurious hotel in town to try a Pisco Sour - Peru's national cocktail.

The next morning Jo was regretting the raw fish and cocktail combo, so unfortunately didn't join Sam and the group on a boat ride around the Ballestas Islands.

Just off the Paracas peninsula, the Ballastas have been dubbed 'the poor man's Galapagos'. Yet despite the name, the islands were absolutely teeming with thousands of birds, as well as dolphins and sea lions!

The best moment was seeing a stranded baby sea lion call out in panic for its parents once it saw that a boat full of tourists coming its way!

We also went to see the 'Paracas Candelabra', which was carved into the earth around 200 BC. Similar to the Nazca lines, there are many theories about what it is exactly... we liked the idea that it's a marker to lost treasure!

Later in the afternoon we went to a local winery to taste some more Pisco. We thought we would be experts at tasting after our stay in Mendoza, but we hadn't counted on doing five shots of 40% alcohol prior to lunch!

Before the shots had time to settle we were off again... this time to Hauacachina, an oasis in the middle of the desert. The town is built around a small natural lake, and is surrounded by huge sand dunes. After lunch were given the option of relaxing by the pool or taking a ride in a dune buggy, and going sand boarding...

The buggy was absolutely mental. We felt as if we were in a roller coaster as the driver took us up near-vertical hills and hammered the accelerator on the way down... everyone was screaming like girls, especially Sam!

The sandboarding wasn't much better for our stomachs as we lay on a snowboard and got pushed down huge hills. Both of us were hesitant at first, but soon got the hang of it! Jo even managed to go the furthest, even a mouthful of sand from screaming... and the very best bit was that the dune buggy would pick us up at the bottom and drive us to the top of the next dune to do it again!

All in all an incredibly hectic, but very fun day!

The Long Road to Lima...

We had given ourselves a few days to get to Lima where we would be starting our three week tour around Peru. Rather than flying directly from La Paz, we decided to take the more scenic (and far cheaper!) route...


Copacabana, Bolivia.

 Our journey started by catching a short bus to Copacabana, a small town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We checked into our hotel and caught the next boat to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) where we hoped to see Inca ruins and beautiful scenery. We took the 1.30pm boat and expected to have a couple of hours to explore the ancient island. What they failed to tell us when we booked our ticket is that the journey takes two hours and that the return journey was at 4... giving us less than thirty minutes actually on the island! The boat was painfully slow - we probably could have swam to the island in half the time! Suffice to say, we saw little more of the island than the end of its pier.

To make matters worse, as soon as we got back on the boat, Jo became violently ill... Most of our time in Copocabana was spent in our hotel room.... at least Jo did, whilst Sam was tucking into a delicious Italian dish down the road!


Puno, Peru.

After a smooth trip through the Bolivian border (a rarity when speaking to other travellers) we were in the small Peruvian town of Puno. We didn't want to see too much of Puno as we would soon be returning here with our organised tour. This turned out to be irrelevant as Jo continued to be violently ill and our main objective was to try and get a good night's sleep before we met our tour group in Lima the next day.


Juliaca, Peru.

Feeling slightly more refreshed after a decent night's sleep, we took an hour long taxi ride to the town of Juliaca. The only reason a tourist steps foot in this town is because of its airport. The town is infamous for its criminality, black market and strikes. We had got to the airport four hours early to ensure that traffic wouldn't be an issue and we were all set for our short flight to Lima. Just as we were about to board the plane we were told that the flight was cancelled, the airport was shut and that we needed to retrieve our bags and leave... The local teachers (who have been on strike for two months) decided that this was the day to storm the airport and start fires around the runway!

All the passengers then charged at the the information desk to demand an explanation and an alternative way of getting to Lima. We were then told that if we gave our tickets to a Taca representative we would have a ticket for the next flight to Lima from Arequipa - a city four and a half hours away. In blind faith we handed over our boarding passes and jumped in a minibus headed for Arequipa. Due to the strike we had to leave the airport via the back entrance and slowly made our way across the bumpiest 'road' either of us had ever had the pleasure of using!

Time was of the essense as we only had five hours before the flight left for Lima, so naturally we stopped for twenty minutes to change buses half way through. Our bus wasn't filled to capacity, so they put us on one that would be, ensuring an uncomfortable remainder of the journey!


Arequipa, Peru.

We arrived at the airport and dashed to the check-in desk to explain our situation. We weren't that close to the front of the queue and began to panic when passengers from our original flight were being told to wait and leave the queue. It quickly transpired that there was not nearly enough room for all of us to get on the flight... Those in front of us were being turned away and told to add their names to a waiting list. We began to panic as there was a good chance we weren't going to make it out of Arequipa anytime soon.

We patiently remained in line and our expectation was that we were going to be adding our names to the growing list. For some reason the check-in staff were a lot friendlier to us and asked us to wait whilst they searched their system. Ten minutes later they found two spare seats and asked if we would be OK sitting away from each other. This was the least of our concerns as we grabbed our boarding passes, shoved our bags onto the conveyor belt and ran for the departure lounge!

It quickly became apparent that we were two of only eight people from the forty people that had had taken minibuses from Juliaca to make the last flight to Lima. Someone, somewhere was smiling on us and wanted us to go on our Absolute Peru tour!

After three days, three buses, two taxis, a boat and a flight, we had made it to Lima!

*Naturally we didn't take too many pictures of this journey.

La Paz, Bolivia

This journey to La Paz was far less stressfull than our previous attempt. After a 40 minute flight, we jumped in a taxi that gave us incredible panoramic views of the city, before taking us through the choatic center...

This was the city we felt most apprehensive about visiting in South America thanks to guide book warnings and stories from other travellers. However we were pleasently surprised by our plush hostel and went straight out to hit the shops selling "genuine fakes" and to find some food. We went to a recommended British curry house, but it turned out to be an insult to the word curry. We've had more flavoursome cardboard than the Bolivian attempt at Indian cuisine!

Whilst in La Paz we had planned to cycle ´The World's Most Dangerous Road', but our plans were scuppered when the companies offerering this tour refused to take us due to a local festival that meant the road's traffic would treble and would likely be full of drink drivers. Even by Bolivian standards 'The World's Most Dangerous Road' had become too dangerous!

As an alternative, we signed up to see the local Cholita Wrestling league that evening. We didn't know what to expect other than the cartoon images of Bolivian women strangling each other! The arena was no more than a rundown sports hall filled with plastic garden chairs and a wrestling ring. Over the next two hours we saw a variety of opponents take each other on; including, gimp v cat, clown v overweight woman, cheeky camp man v overweight woman and the tag-team finale, two overweight women v men in gold spandex! The crowd went crazy for it, as locals and tourists threw bottles, food and chairs at the wrestlers! This was an evening like no other and one that we won't forget in a hurry!

      

The next day we visited the infamous San Pedro Prison. On our travels we had both read ´Marching Powder´, a book about a British drug traffiker who is thrown into Bolivian prison and describes how crazy the prison system is. It didn't look too daunting from the outside, but there was a huge queue of women and children waiting to see their husbands. We visited the main tourist plazas and spent a lot of time wandering around La Paz's vibrant street markets. Around every corner plump Bolivian women could be found sat surrounded by their wares - flowers, fruit, vegetables, meat and more. Most traders didn't have a stall, but simply laid out their produce in the road whilst cars flew inches away from them.

Close to our hostel was the famous Witches Market where you can pick up a llama fetus to bury underneath your house for good luck; unsurprisingly neither of us made a purchase!

     

We did, however, go shopping for alpaca jumpers...

Rurrenabaque, Bolivia

We decided to fly from La Paz to Rurrenabaque - a forty minute flight as opposed to a 20+ hour bus that is liable to get stuck in the jungle for days if it rains. The plane was tiny, with less than 20 seats and the airport was little more than a landing strip in the middle of the rainforest!

Much like the Salt Flat tours, choosing a tour operator is a minefield. After speaking to most of the tour companies, we opted for Mashaquipe as it's run by an indigenous Amazon family and they use the money to protect the rainforest and its wildlife.

Our tour started with a boat ride up the Yacuma river where we saw aligators casually basking in the sun! 

We then hopped off the boat to visit the Mashaquipe sugar plantation, where we had a go at making sugar cane juice. It tasted really good, but after two bowls we started to get the shakes!

When we got to the camp we were really impressed with our jungle lodge - better than our accomodation in the town! Once we had unpacked our bags, we set off into the jungle to learn about the medicinal uses of the plants and trees... 

 

Leading the way with his machete, Ismael (our guide) welcomed us to the jungle... He had us trying a variety of rainforest delights; parasite-killing milk from a tree, bamboo water and even a live lava he found inside an almond nut! Sam was the last person to try his lava as it was wriggling around in his hand... but he caved in and gave it a go! It tasted surprisingly nice - mostly of coconut milk and almonds.

Next Ismael found a conker-like seed that when cracked open, contained lots of tiny red berries. He then proceeded to mash the seeds up and paint tribal patterns on our faces with the juice. He reckoned he matched Jo's colouring perfectly, but we're not sure he'll be making it as a make-up artist any time soon - especially when it wouldn't come off!

We emerged from the jungle hot and sticky, so decided to swim back to our lodge by jumping out of our boat and into the Tuichi river. Tuichi means 'angry' in the local indigenous language, and it quickly swept us to our camp!

After a cold shower, a hearty dinner and the discovery of even more wildlife in our camp (a tarantula and a boa constrictor to name just two!) we headed out in the boat again... this time in complete darkness. By shining our torches across the water we could see the red eyes of aligators staring at us just above the water. The highlight was when Ismael spotted a jaguar staring back at us on the other side of the river. We could only see its eyes, but no one was too keen to go across the river to get upclose and personal with it! 

The next morning we set off on an eleven kilometer trek through the jungle to our camp. The hike through the was rainforest was humid and sweaty, but the views were incredible. Despite concerns we may not see much wildlife through the thick rainforest, we were lucky enough to see four different types of monkey swinging in the trees above us. It really was remarkable how much they looked like Jo...

 

We came across a huge variety of unusual plants and insects. The Army Surgery ants were the most impressive as they're used to stitch together wounds when their pincers clamp across a gash! Ismael was even brave enough to show us how they worked!

Ismael had found some vines hanging from a tree - and in true jungle fashion - taught us how to swing through the rainforest like Tarzan! Our newly found skills earned us the nicknames, Jungle Boy and Jungle Girl! A few hours later we made it to our camp, which was no more than some wooden posts and some tarpaulin... 

After a quick lunch we were back on our feet once again, this time in search of wild pigs! It didn't take long for Ismael to track some down and he managed to find a group of two hundred. Unfortunately they smelt us coming and did a runner, meaning we embarked on a wild chase through the jungle trying to catch a glimpse of them! When we got back to camp Sam smelt as bad as the pigs, so we both decided to head to the nearest stream for a wash. It felt like we were on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! as we stood in the water in our swim stuff scrubbing ourselves down!

After a night sleeping under just a mosquito net, we headed back into the rainforest towards a mirador (lookout) high above all the trees. The view was absolutely stunning, with lush green trees as far as the eye could see. It made the long and arduous hikes completely worthwhile. Ismael then whispered to us that we should follow him as quietly as possible... he had found a tree filled with over a hundred makaws!

We were soon back at the river and Sam decided to cool off by floating back to the camp again. Jo decided to take control of the boat and sailed back to the shore instead. Once we were on dry land again, we had a go at making jewellery from seeds and nuts we had collected in the rainforest. It involved a lot of sanding and elbow greese, but on completion we were informed that we'd created jungle 'wedding' rings - and would have to stay monogamous like the makaws!