Arequipa, Peru Nov 2011 - Monastario De Santa Teresa

A 12 hour overnight bus from Ica to Arequipa finds us exhausted, and a little breathless with our adaptation to the new altitude. Having read far too many horror stories about night buses (I read one guys blog where his bus went off a cliff!), we got the most expensive bus company (Cruz Del Sur) where we were layed out on comfy cama beds, fed a hot meal and given a suitably cheesy, dubbed over in Spanish, Matthew McConnaughy who else film. Can't escape that flippin gobshite, not even in Peru. It was at this point I felt a pang of homesickness for my housemates who equally share my hatred of this man. Sob!

This city, the second largest in Peru surprised me on so many levels, mainly because I didn't read a whole pile on the place before we arrived, but also because it is absolutely nothing like Lima. Upmarket and well kept, this city has beautiful architecture, excellent restaurants, ice-creameries, fruit markets, wonderful clothes & alpaca woolen wear shops galore! Heaven! Huge Hazel will become Gigantosaurous-zel by the end of this trip. NOM!

Our first day here we met a few people who had shared our Matthew McConnaughy experience so we arranged to meet them for a drink at 9pm, in, yes, the local Irish bar. Cringe. Especial cringe when we had suggested the bar & then couldn't find it, only to show up a whopping 1hour & a half late. Eek. Despite our minor set back we got absolutely locked on 2 beers (altitude is my excuse), dropped & broke a bottle of beer on my own, and some Peruvian guys semi bare feet (flip flops), and talked drunkenly (super super cringe) about art/artists/how great art is/how much I know about Ort (Yaw) with our new Austrian friend. Aaaargh!!!

Following said art discussion, Donal reminds me I arranged for us to meet our Austrian friend at 1pm the next day. Super Aaaargh!!! We meet him bang on 1pm...we were kinda scared to be late...and he notes our surprising time keeping. Double Arrrgh! 

We decide on a museum where the frozen remains of a young girl 'Juanita, the ice princess' lie. Her remains were sacrificed to the Gods 500 years ago during Inca time when the Inca people believed they had to make offerings to the Gods to avoid punishment. The greatest offering believed to have been the life of a young child. They climbed to the top of Nevado Ampato and killed Juanita as an offering to the Gods. Juanita's body was found in 1995 completely preserved as ice had covered the mountain shortly after her death, preserving her exactly. Not unlike the bog bodies in Ireland. They believed that if they did not make a sacrifice to the Gods, they would be punished in the form of Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. To this day Arequipa is plagued by volcanic eruptions & earthquakes - the most recent earthquake in 2001.

We also visited a monastery that used to be run by nuns - a beautiful building which has managed to stay put since the 17th Century despite the natural disasters in-between. Its obvious from the size, condition & amount of expensive artifacts remaining in the convent that they were incredibly wealthy nuns.

Courtyard at Monastario De Santa Teresa  

I just thought this was kind of cool..

Donal's Model shot - yaw!

My model Shot - Yaw!

Where the nuns used to sleep - creepy eh?

Where the nuns used to cook - the semi-circular holes beneath the cooking area was where they used to store the guinea pigs (cuy) before they gobbled them up!

I will have a dresser just like this someday! Gorgeous!

More cooking facilites - hole in the ceiling to let out the smoke. Unbelievably well preserved right down to the pots & pans.

Old school pestle & mortar along with a cheese grater...they don't make em like that these days hah!

Ha...more modelling!

This nun had a picture on her wall uncannily like Donal

Ah jayz, someone just give me the modeling job already

Spot the difference 1

Spot the difference 2

The amazing view of 'Misty' from the top terrace of the monastery

Huacachina, Peru Nov 2011

Huacachina - definately a place for chilling out.

We arrived here after an hour long taxi ride from Paracas (for 20soles, the equivalent of €5) to La Casa De Bamboo, a beautiful house made from bamboo owned by an English lady. She recently opened up a couple of rooms in the house as a semi-hostel...but as the family still pretty much live there every time you leave the shower/bathroom its usually to a houseful of Peruvian men/women/children who have never seen such extreme gringo-ness. The room we had was a stunning boudoir (romantic as lynders would say!) with high 'A'shaped bamboo ceiling, with flow-y light curtains leading out to a pretty balcony over an even prettier garden. Excellent food served - delicious pasta with freshly made tomato sauce & basil & mozzarella with a dessert of chocolate brownie (Oh Lynda I wish you could have tasted them! They were nearly as good as yours!) with vanilla ice-cream...served up with a freshly squeezed mango/passionfruit/melon juice...all for less than €4. I would've been one huge momma if I'd stayed here longer than 3days. 

Onward & upwards to the sand dunes above the oasis for some dune-bugging & sand-boarding. What a laugh! An exhilarating/erm..partially terrifying journey to the top in the dune buggy (see pic below - an amazing vehicle which somehow defies gravity by driving literally sideways on the dunes, up to the highest peak where the terrifying realisation of how high the dune actually is hits you too late & you're already screaming your head off going down the near verticle drop. Side Note: Although according to the video Donal took I was the only one screaming, I am 100% positive I wasn't the only one...

As for the sand-boarding - Jee.Zus.

A board, not unlike a snowboard with straps for the feet was handed to each of us...down ya go there! Yip, death to you all!

The first little sand dune gave me false hope - wow.I.am.good.at.this. Nopedy doo. Not so!

The first one you go down on your bum, and is relatively un-steep, easy! The next one...about twice the height and twice as steep, where you have to go down head first with your legs in the air.

Erm. HARD. in the midst of a panic attack.

Thankfully, I had a Peruvian instructor, not unlike the Dali Llama who henceforth said unto me, 'jew can do eet', I absolutely crapped myself the whole way down, but once that first one was over I could not wait for the rest of the dunes which just got steeper & steeper. What a great experience!

Donal at the Huacachina Oasis - pity it wasn't sunny the day we were taking photos because this really was a stunning place

The Oasis, sin Donal

Flower power

I call this one 'Pensive'

Nom Nom..Selection of various.Pisco sours at a vineyard we visited in Ica (the town closest to the village of Huacachina), where we had consecutive shots fresh from the vineyard. Apparently one type of Pisco sours is 'goot for emakin de babeess' ...twas quite hilarious.

Donal at the entrance to the vineyard - they had mango, fig & pear trees there aswell as grapes, all from which they make tasty marmalade..oh yum.

This stick can store wine in some manner or another - this was how our shots were poured...and we had a lot..

Drums where the wine was stored

Orty shot of Donal on a hammock 

The oasis with a little bit of sunshine!

Little boat on the lake with a bamboo roof

Random pervian, sorry Peruvian who wanted his picture taken with us because we're white?! That has to be racist no?

Sand dunes we were sandboarding down 

Dune buggy / our ride

Landscape of sand dunes

Donals near death experience

I know this just looks like we're standing next to the buggy with our arms up but we had attempted to capture us in the air

Paracas National Park, Peru

Spot Donal to the right there...where the cliff edge drops to the sea below.

Where the desert meets the sea...this land used to be under the sea so its amazing to see fossils of sea life on the land itself. 

Just to prove we're here!

The desert is so vast. If you can see a tiny black dot about halfway up the screen on the far right, that's a car way off in the distance which might give an insight to the actual scale of the place!

Panoramic shot of desert/beach

'La Playa Roja' - The red beach
The sand on this beach is red because the sand is broken down red volcanic rock..what a beautiful place (although you can't walk on it goddamn!)  

Expecting Clint Eastwood any minute..

Other side of La Playa Roja where the sand isn't quite as fine,  but the stones are still red volcanic rock.

'La Gunillas'
A small fishing village in the National park...with the best & freshest fish ever. Delicious! Lots of Pelicans around the place too.

It's amazing how tame they are - this one let me get right up close.

View of La Gunillas harbour

Paracas, Islas Ballestas, Peru

We arrived in Paracas after a comfortable 4hour bus journey from Lima on the Pan American highway which runs from Ecuador all the way to Chile. You can't avoid the shock of the shanty towns in the outskirts of Lima, a real eyeopener. People living in shacks made from stones with only a piece of corrugated metal for shelter. Dust and more dust makes it seem impossible that they would ever have clean clothes/homes/bodies, but amazingly the people are extremely well kept.

Colourful clothes lines litter the dusty landscape with more westernised garments (stringtops/jeans/swimsuits) than my uneducated mind would have imagined. It's hard to imagine people living in these run down places until you actually see it. When you see this kind of living on TV you don't actually see that these places are right next to a city which is pretty(ish) and well developed(ish). The rich/poor extreme is something I'd never seen before now.

Arrival in Paracas...what a pretty place! It's a very quiet and peaceful place until you want to get some sleep and you're kept awake with the thump thump of the club nextdoor until 6am, only to get an hours sleep before a million roosters being strangled in a unison off key cock-a-doodle-do rumbles the much needed slumber. We couldn't figure out if they were dogs or what the hell was making this crazy noise until we got up the next morning to see outside our hotel about 20-30cages with 20-30 roosters screeching at us as we passed. Bastards.

We had arranged to go on a tour of the Islas Ballestas & the Paracas National park the next morning which is why we didn't just go get pissed at the nextdoor nightclub..we should really have just joined them! The islands were quite nice (some pics below), but we had to stay on the boat the whole time, hence the slightly blurry pics as was trying to avoid getting other peoples heads in the shots. The park was lovely too, the landscape is so unusual & drastic, really enjoyed this day trip. The owner of our hostel (which consisting of pretty little wooden cabins) was pretty sound aswell which helped hugely.

Some pics from the boat journey to the Islands

Los Boobies! Or otherwise known as the Peruvian Boobie.

Boat journey to the Islands

Sealions sunbathing on the rocks...so cute!

Sealions sunbathing on top of eachother

Apparantly they sunbath in the morning and go fishing in the afternoon,  some life!

I love them!!

This one's for Gearoid...Los Penguinos!

Those black dots on the mountain are birds, thousands of them with thousands of tons of crap which  is called Guano and is collected every 4-8 years to be sold as fertiliser...mmm.

Peru, Lima 2011

Old School Beatle - Miraflores Nov 2011 

Local Bus - Miraflores Nov 2011

Littal Cat! Parque Kennedy, Miraflores Nov 2011

Cliff edge, Miraflores Nov 2011

Nov 17th 2011, Day 1: Our first day in Lima follows an interesting night. Strange noises in our hostel make reference to a dodge Korean horror film. But the water is hot & the breakfast yum, so here we are for another two nights.Whupee.

Wandered the Miraflores district for the day, lots of nice restaurants & views from the cliffs. Cats hang out in the park...loads of littal rabies riddled cats! It took everything out of me not to pet them although one Peruvian guy had a little grey one in his lap so I dunno was that one of the wild ones or one he brought himself.

The public buses are tiny...about 4 seats larger than our 8-seater taxis except because the population of Lima is about the population of Ireland its about 4 people to one seat and 50 to one bus, the effect is comic.

Lastly, we came across a large mob of people outside the Marriott Hotel where Pearl Jam are apparently staying. We had an hour to spare so we hung around but lost interest, so alas, did not see him. Compensation will be their gig tomorrow night, can't bleedin' wait! Eddie Vedder is to me what Jon Bon Jovi is to my good buddy Steve...he loves you Jon Bon!