NektaR in the World Wild Web: Lima to Cusco

Trying to think how to start this, what the introduction could be, a big ouuaahhh maybe would be ideal but will put it like this; an incredible journey of amazing contrasts, changing landscapes, indegenous cultures and arts, delicious food and a plethora of adrenaline pumping activities. We have been through oceanic views, dessert (like) sand dunes, high altitude Inca ruins, lush green rainforests, snow peaks, Amazon rivers and jungle, high altitude lakes and survived the Bolivian death road, all in three weeks time. An exhilarating experience to discover a part of the world thriving of beauty and secluded wildlife. This is the first part(of three), Lima to Cusco, of a story of four guys travelling that region.

Flight from London was long, in fact veeery long! (LON-ORD-MIA-LIM). We followed the earth's rotation, met our friends in Miami airport and a day after we all landed in Lima, Peru. We've been welcomed by a nice warm but humid temperature, got a taxi and through a heavy Saturday night traffic went to our hostel. This after we've found out that our backpacks did not arrive with our plane. The two of us flying from London had to wait 48 hrs for our stuff to arrive. We were excited and didn't allow this to affect us.. Bought a t-shirt and got out and about in the city.

Long flights blues

I was stunned to see how clean the city was, comparing with Kathmandu or even Athens. Citizens here seem to be responsible for their environments and I liked it. The architecture in the city centre was beautiful with lots of Spaniard influence. Old mansions (haciendas) represented the colonial impact to the city which to my opinion was beautiful and eye satisfying'. Pretty churches and monasteries with amazing sculptures and colours were all over. Lima, as the whole of Peru, is rapidly developing, the economy shows positive index in the last years and this is obvious in the architecture too. Modern office buildings with international company name logos on them, modern bus stops and telephone booths.

We strolled through avenida arequipa, a ciclodia was going on, a cycling as well as running event for 'life and health'. Families with kids, individuals, cycling groups and all sorts of people marching at one of the main avenues in the capital. Weather was hot, people were happy and a sense of happiness and prosperity was all over. Really liked Lima! Miraflores, the area we stayed, was full of party goers, local and international, and everyone seem to have fun! People were friendly and patient with our limited Spanish and almost nowhere had any problem doing what we wanted.

Lima_School of engineering

Lima_Colonial architecture

Lima_'Ciclodia' por la vida y salud

Lima_Monasterio de San Francisco

Lima_Iglesia de Santo Domingo

Lima_Modern perspectives

Semana Santa, the holy week, Christianity's most important week, was just starting. We've seen a lot of parades carrying Jesus statues accompanied by music from a following walking band and a bunch of people. People were out and the centre of the city seem to thrive of life! We visited few museums churches and monasteries. We walked through the little streets and discovered a nice baroque atmosphere, buildings with wooden balconies, an evidence of the colonial architecture.

We grabbed a local taxi and went to Parque del Amor, a Gaudi (Barcelona) style small park on the coast, overlooking the Pacific. We've seen an amazing sunset, along with a joint, and discussed the next activities.

Lima_Happy to be here

Lima_Plaza de Armas (La Catedral)

Lima_Typical shop (periptero) on wheels

Lima_Palacio De Gobierno

Lima_Nice and warm ochre (observe the provision for the wheel chaired)

Lima_Parque del Amor

We wanted to go towards the south coast and get to Paracas national reserve and then to Huacachina oasis. We had few days available to spend before heading to the mountains. It was decided, for practical and economical reasons, to rent a car so we all got in and drove on the Panamaricana highway to the south. I think the highway links all the american countries of the west coast. Good conditioned road, easy drive by the coast. After about an hour driving from Lima, on our left hand side, dessert like sand dunes, were preparing us of what we are going to see further down. We visited the national reserve of Paracas. A desert reserve, we had the opportunity to watch seals lying on the shore from above, sidespin our hire car in the sand and have the best sea food I had for ages!

Paracas Reserve_Sand dunes

Paracas Reserve_Geological manifest

Paracas Reserve_Seals on the shore

Paracas Reserve_Sea food glory (perhaps the best meal of the trip)

From there we headed for the oasis of Huacachina to stay overnight and next day do the so called 'sandboarding'! We arrived at night so we couldn't really realise were we came. Next day morning was just like we are somewhere in Africa. Massive sand dunes and a small lake in the middle, few houses and hostels and full of tailor-made buggies. I woke up by the sound of a buggy getting tested and ready for the day on the dunes. The village itself was the tourist's starting point for rides on the dunes. We waited the afternoon, so the sun to become less intense, and got our buggy and driver to the dunes. It was such a good fun!! There were a lot of them out in the dunes with lots of tourists, most of them quite crazy, attempting to slide down the dunes on boards. Some lying on the board and some of us properly standing on a snowboard board. Luckily enough, we did not have any major accident, other than silly falls. It was not so quick as I was hoping but still it was really good fun and we all had a good laugh. Our driver wanted to impress us by driving the buggy quick on the top of a dune and then head down from the other side of it. We were trying to make him to go quicker, as well as shouting to laugh and the whole activity was like grown ups playing with their toys...

Huacachina_Oasis

Huacachina_Peruvian Mad Max buggy (1)

Huacachina_(Our) Peruvian Mad Max buggy (2)

Huacachina_Mighty 'Boarders of the Sun' team(!)

(Angelos, Stavros, Nektarios, Spyros)

Huacachina_On the edge

Huacachina_Get ready, you going down..

Huacachina_Vertigo

Huacachina_Action preview

After Huacachina drove back the Panamericana and arrived to Lima late night. Next day flight to Cusco, from sea level to 3350m. It didn't feel great at the beginning and instead of taking it easy the first day or so to acclimatise to the altitude properly we did tour the city, ate a lot and walked for hours. Cusco is the ancient capital of the Inca empire. A vibrant touristy city, with loads going on, shops, restaurants, museums etc. I loved the little alleyways, the stoned walls and the sense of fiesta that was constantly going on. It became our base for the next few days to tour around the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. More about it, in the next post...