Wrapping up

Since I last wrote I've hung out for a few nights in the seaside town of Paracas, but never actually managed to do any of the touristy things there are to do there, and don't have any pictures of it worth posting. So I am just skipping to the end of the journey! Which is: Lima, again.

This time I stayed in the neighborhood of Barranco, which is LOVELY, and shifted my impression of Lima way more into positive territory. Lots of walks along the Pacific coast cliff that the city perches on. Oh, and before my travel buddy, D, headed home, we finally had ceviche in Peru, which we'd been meaning to do for almost a month.

I also ran into a couple of Germans I met in Ecuador six weeks ago--just happened to walk past them on a sidewalk--and got to have dinner with them on my last night in town. All in all, a nice way to wrap up the trip. After being skeptical at first, I have to concede that there is plenty to like about Lima!

Now I'm greatly looking forward to the holidays at home with my family, then gearing up for my February return to Antarctica. I'll be back in the new year from way down under, to chronicle another winter on ice. Till then!

Huacachina

I had no idea before coming here how much of Peru is serious desert. Case in point: the dunes surrounding the strange oasis/tourist trap of Huacachina.

What you see in the picture is literally all there is to this little hamlet of restaurants and hotels/hostels surrounding a lagoon near the bigger city of Ica. It was a great place to chill for a couple of nights.

The thing to do in town is to take a dunebuggy trip out into the sands, which was fun and beautiful. I don't have pictures that demonstrate any of this, but we sandboarded (on our bellies) down a few enormous dunes, and the drivers of the dunebuggies are very skilled at driving crazy enough that everyone in the vehicle is screaming as if on a roller coaster but not so crazy that there's actually any crashing or flipping or anything. Since I don't have pictures of any of that, here's just a bunch of sand pictures for you.

Arequipa

We ended up spending quite a few days in Arequipa, set in a desert-y landscape (that somehow really reminded me of southern Morocco) at about 7500 feet. Even though Arequipa is Peru's second-largest city, it has less than a tenth of the population of Lima and a COMPLETELY different feel than the capitol. It was a really chill and relaxing place to wander for the better part of a week, with volcano Misti watching over us.

The central market is an amazing, sprawling place.

Especially the juice bars.

It's nice to travel with a chef who likes to go out to fancy meals and can't finish everything herself. Thanks, J!

From here, back to Lima for the last 10 days of Peru way closer to the coast.

Colca Canyon

I had no idea until this week that the deepest and the second-deepest canyons in the world are here in Peru. D & J & I took a two-day organized tour to the second-deepest: Colca Canyon. The drive to the canyon took us through a national reserve where we spotted a bunch of free-ranging vicunas...

...some of them set against the backdrop of one of the seven volcanoes gracing the landscape in this high country.

The landscape was sparse and gorgeous and mostly abandoned-seeming.

The high point on our drive to Colca Canyon (before we started descending into the canyon) was at nearly 15,000 feet--the highest I have ever been--and had amazing views.

Finally heading down into the canyon, you can see the town of Chivay, where we spent a night, in the background of this picture.

Chivay was chill, both in temperature and in atmosphere, and I wouldn't have minded spending another night here.

But on we went, deeper into the canyon. It's wide enough that it's hard to appreciate its full depth (more than 6,000 feet between the top of the mountains that tower over it, down to the river bed).

One of the reasons people like to visit Colca is that Andean condors thrive in this region and can pretty reliably be seen from a viewpoint called Cruz del Condor. We only saw one of these incredible birds when we were at the viewpoint, but later on, on our way back out of the canyon at another viewpoint, a condor flew almost directly over our heads at extremely close range. It was a stunning sight--so stunning that I was too busy marveling to manage to take a picture before it soared away and was gone.

Puno / Lake Titicaca

I'm now on the road with TWO great friends from the States, D and J.

Our first stop together as a travelin' threesome was the city of Puno, due to it being situated on Lake Titicaca--the largest lake in South America and the highest (12,000ft+) navigable lake in the world.

Puno itself is a really relaxing town that I enjoyed wandering, even if I was huffing and puffing every time a street went uphill. The altitude!

The main purpose of going to Puno, though, was to get out on the lake for a day. And a gorgeous one it was. Our first stop was the floating reed islands of Los Uros.

The indigenous people who live here literally build the "ground" they live on out of reeds that grow in the lake, constantly laying down new layers of reed as the bottom, oldest layers rot away beneath them. They also make their boats out of reeds (and then paint them these really bright colors). It's pretty mind-blowing.

When you're standing on one of the islands, the ground feels really boggy and squishy beneath you, but people have houses like normal, except they're made of reed and just sitting on more reed.

We also stopped on the island of Taquile (actual land, this one) and climbed to the top of it, enjoying sweeping views over the lake.

I was trying to imagine what it would be like to grow up and live one's entire life in this very isolated place, no cars, in the middle of a lake so high in the sky. I can't really! But loved this little glimpse into that world.