South American Trip: Third go

Day 7 in Peru and we have travelled south from Lima into the central south highlands. The first stretch was from Lima to Huacachina (near the town of Ica that was devastated by a huge earthquake in 2007) Huacachina is a small village sitting around an oasis surrounded by huge sand dunes and travellers come here to ride sand buggies, snow boards and buggy boards down the dunes - mostly a lot younger than us. Never-the-less the 4 of us took a sand buggy ride (someone professional drives) and it was such an adrenalin buzz. At the top of some of the dunes out came the snow boards and by lying on them you scooted down the dunes. After three Claire and I became the photographers while Robin and A.J. had races to get to the bottom first or to go the furthest. We could justify the eco tourism 'dune abuse' by knowing that for 6 months of the year the winds blow one direction, then reverse for the other six months so the dune shape corrects itself and basically are 'not' moving dunes - The settlement around the oasis looked pretty much the same in the photos of 1919 on the wall of our hotel, though the actual oasis has had its hey day and is now a polluted pond.

The next bus trip took us to Nasca and the mysterious lines marked in the desert. The overflight is a short 30 min stint and not for the faint hearted with the pilot trying to give passengers on both sides of the wee Cesna (just 4 of us and 2 crew) a good view and photograph opportunities of the strange markings dating back to ‘who knows when?’ We spent the day in Nasca ready for our first overnight bus trip. Now these buses in Peru are amazingly luxurious. Reclining seats, T.V.'s, two storied, food issued by an attendant,2 or 3 drivers that changes either each 1 or 4 hours, so as far as an overnight bus trip can be bearable, it was. This took us to Arequipa (beautiful16th Century monastry), a large city in the south of Peru and the main entry point to the Colca Canyon the 2nd deepest canyon in the world (and no, the Grand Canyon isn't the deepest - there is another near the Colca) and a good viewing point for the flying of the Condors - the largest birds of flight with a wing span of 3 metres. Arequipa put us at 2,300m. We took a bus to Chivay over a pass of 4,800 where the elevation was definitely noticeable and we witnessed one other person collapse from altitude fatique, down to 3,800 in Chivay where we have had 2 nights. Yesterday we went over to see the Condors - about 20 birds soaring near their nesting ground (tucked into a cliff area to protect the young from predators - the moutain lions, namely Pumas). For the rest of the day we walked around a little village of Cabonaconde testing our skills of exercise and tolerance at 3,800m ready for what we will have on the trail to Machu Picchu. This village is the start of a 2 or 3 day hike down into the canyon (which Matt did last year) and was our first intention. But since arriving at Arequipa we learnt that if we dont make our way to Lake Titicaca before reaching Cuzco (the beginning our the Inca Trail) we may not get to go - there are protests over the Canadian Mining Company's presence in Titicaca and they are threatening to close the access to the lake.

This blog is being sent from Puna on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We have just arrived after a 6 hour bus trip from Chivay and plan to go out on the lake (8400 sq kms!) tomorrow.