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| All fine and dandy, hanging out in the sandy... |
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| Mirador of Yanahuara #2 |
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| Mirador of Yanahuara |
Got back to Arequipa after dark, only to find our previous
hostel was fully booked out. A brief panic, but then ended up in a place just
down the road for the same price which included a private bathroom and TV with
cable. Ker-ching!
Had a bit of back and forth with the doctor before locking
in the second (and final) rabies vaccine – fortunately only had to wait 20
minutes this time round before being seen. After a temporary scare resulting
from some flu like symptoms (probably just a mild flu!),
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| I'm sure I left it in here somewhere... |
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| The view from the buggy's cockpit |
Annaliza was now
officially safe from rabies. Relief all round! Stopped off at the Mirador of Yanahuara for more classic views of the picturesque city, and
then loaded up on the protein with a shared BBQ to stock up before the night
journey.
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| We knew this part of the trip had to be money... |
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| Protein, anyone? |
Disembarked at Ica after an interrupted night, and straight
on to Huacachina – a Peruvian holiday meant that prices were ramped up for the
weekend, so we settled for a more basic habitacion. Huacachina is famous for
appearing on the 50 sole note, and is a lagoon (and therefore town) in the
middle of sand dunes galore. An incredibly popular place with the locals, where
the pastimes seemed to be journeys on buggies; sandboarding; boat trips on the lagoon;
drinking; and fashion parades on the streets (although not necessarily in that
order). Tried out the buggy journey and some sandboarding as the sun was going
down, and our driver seemed to thrive off the ladies’ screams – would never be
allowed in the developed world but tens of vehicles trawl off around these
dunes at high speed providing a rollercoaster style journey which just can’t be
environmentally friendly… Sandboarding was fun as well, although we weren’t
given the chance to try standing up – looking at our boards though that perhaps
wasn’t too bad a thing!
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| Gone! Not sure about the style... |
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| Going... |
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| Going... |
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| Enjoying a sandy sunset |
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| Huacachina - in amongst the dunes |
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Desert Nights - a great place
to follow Europe's triumph! |
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| Now that's more like it! |
The next day was our laziest of the trip so far – we found a
little place called Desert Nights which had excellent food and a decent Wi-fi
connection, so it was a perfect place for Annaliza to do some trip planning and
Tony to catch up on sport – latest football scores; the AFL grand final result;
the Twenty20 world cup; and, most importantly, the Ryder Cup. It was the last
day of the latter, and we couldn’t keep our eyes away from the BBC text updates
as one of the most amazing comebacks in golfing history unfolded. Who knew that
following sports by text updates could be such fun?!?
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Not sure who came up with the
name Movidick... |
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Sand running - an up and
coming sport |
Found time for a 20 minute row round the lake, on the
faithful tub ‘Movidick’, and squeezed in a walk (scramble) up to the top of a
nearby dune. Here we were soothed by the dulcet tones of passengers screaming
on their buggy rides, before enjoying some ‘sand running’ back down to the
town.
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Good steering Annaliza - heading
straight for another boat! |
Key Learnings:
1. Peruvian nurses are not yet 100% clear on how to
administer a vaccination – always reassuring when the nurse is reading the
instruction as the needle is injected!
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| Yummy! |
2. If you ever go on a sand buggy, make sure all
your possessions are secure. Hats are safer than suncream, as they catch in the
back of the buggy… If you do one of them in Peru, be warned that instructions
will not be forthcoming prior to takeoff!
3. Banoffee pie is delicious wherever you can find it.
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