Tag: Peru

Arequipa, the second biggest city in Peru, known as the White City. White for two reasons: because of the sillar stone used for the buildings, and/or because its colonial past gave it one of the whitest populations of Peru.

It’s a beautiful city, that feels pretty European aside from the three volcanoes that surround it. On our first day we joined a free walking tour, which ended in the main square at sunset. The main square is one of the most beautiful we’ve seen so far, with the cathedral taking up the entire width of one side. The tour also included a trip to Alpaca World (!) where we returned the next day to see the weavers at work and to make a purchase…

One morning we took a tour of the monastery – confusingly, in Latin America, monasteries house nuns and convents house monks. It was like a whole little village! Once home to hundreds of nuns, it’s now almost entirely open to the public, save for the private area where the current 16 nuns live.

Weather:

Lovely and sunny, chilly at night.

Where we stayed:

A great hostel in the old town, in a surprisingly grand room with a high vaulted ceiling and a bath!!

Best thing we ate:

We had such a range of food in Arequipa! Our walking tour guide recommended places to get traditional dishes, so we tried rocoto relleno (stuffed spicy red peppers, veggie and alpaca meat versions) and chupe camarones (prawn soup). Both were very tasty!

There were also some good GF options in Gringas (mainly pizzas again), Crepisimo (don’t think I need to explain what they serve), and Tanta. The latter is a more affordable chain restaurant from Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio, where we went back several times.

Coolest thing we did:

While we had a great time exploring the city, our highlight was the day trip we took to Colca Canyon. We ummed and ahhed about whether to do this, mostly because of the 3.30am pick-up time, but we’re so glad we did!

The trip started so early because the Canyon is a good 3+ hour drive away and the best time to see the Andean condors that live there is between 8-10.30am. We made a quick stop at 6am to see sunrise over many surrounding volcanoes, then had breakfast, then made it to the Canyon. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and is full of impressive farming terraces.

I went into the trip thinking it would be great to glimpse just one condor, not wanting to be disappointed, but it turns out I needn’t have worried. We started a short walk to the view point and almost instantly saw three in the distance. It then became absolutely ridiculous, with c.15 condors all flying around, above, and overhead. There was even one perched on a rock right by the view point. I never had myself down as a twitcher but it was staggering to see such huge creatures swooping around.

We made a quick stop to get a better look at the farming terraces (and wear traditional hats, of course). Then it was time for optional activities and we chose the most relaxed: aguas thermales. We had an hour to spend dipping in and out of the hot springs in Yanque before a much needed buffet lunch.

Bonus:

Buying my beautiful baby alpaca wool jumper 😍

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We are just back from our trek to Machu Picchu so will be catching up on some posts!

Hasta pronto,

Florence & Chris

Huacachina is a small oasis town in the Ica desert region. This desert is the northernmost part of the Atacama desert. Whilst largely a jumping off point for various activities, the town itself is really pretty, with the sand dunes above and the calm oasis in the centre.

Weather:

Hot hot hot!

Where we stayed:

We stayed at a nice simple hostel, although with all our activities we probably only spent about 7 hours there!

Sand boarding and buggy ride:

Our first activity, shortly after arriving, was a 2-hour ride across the huge sand dunes, stopping for sand boarding and to watch the sunset. I don’t know our driver’s name, only that his colleagues said we were with ‘El Loco’. Well, his driving certainly confirmed his loco status. We swerved round basins, leapt from sand dune ridges, and were thoroughly thrown from side to side in the back.

The sand boarding only left us with a few bruises here and there, but was well worth it for the exhilarating speed as you approach the bottom.

The sunset across this landscape was simply beautiful.

Day trip to Paracas, Las Islas Ballestas, and Paracas National Reserve

This day trip started (after a minibus ride) with boating around some sparse and hostile looking islands, which were nonetheless home to some native flora and fauna, and economic activity.

There were huge colonies of various types of birds, sea spiders (basically crabs if you ask me), sea lions, and our favourite of all, penguins. Waddling warily by the rocky cliff face, the petite penguins were adorable. [F: Chris loves his alliteration…] All of these birds give rise to the local economy of collecting bird poo which is used as fertiliser.

The afternoon saw us exploring the national reserve, driving along roads made of compacted salt, and taking in the fairly barren landscape. We had a refreshing swim in the perfectly cold water, enjoyed lunch at a different beach area with restaurants, and finally saw a reddish beach, due to iron oxide in the sand.

Bonus:

Just in case a 5.30am start to our day trip wasn’t early enough, the Nazca tectonic plate decided to wake us up in the night with a shake – by which I mean a magnitude 6 earthquake!* This was a little scary, but passed quite quickly.

*Earthquake of magnitude 6.0 with an epicentre 35 miles away. Some buildings were damaged at the epicentre but no injury or loss of life reported.

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Next stop, Arequipa, also known as The White City.

Besos,

Chris y Florence

We rearranged some of our plans to spend a bit longer in Lima, which meant a couple of long buses in a row to get there. Fortunately, one of these was a luxurious night bus where the seats felt like little beds – maybe more so for me, being the height of the average Peruvian man (we looked it up), than for Chris, being a little taller…

We spent a week in Lima using it as an opportunity to rest and recoup a bit as we reached the midpoint of the trip. Lima is a city of districts and we enjoyed exploring a few of them: the central old town, Miraflores, Barranco and a bit of San Isidro.

Weather:

Lima has the perfect climate. It barely ever rains and is consistently in the low 20°s.

Where we stayed:

We wanted to have the chance to cook more of our own food in Lima, so we found a flat in a modern apartment block that had its own kitchen, living area and little balcony. It was in the Miraflores district, which is the middle/upper class area for locals and one of the main areas tourists stay. We made the most of the rooftop pool too, even though it was chilly!

It was great to have entirely our own space for a week and to be able to cook (in a kitchen I’m pretty sure had never before been used). The bonus was the big TV screen opposite the bed, so we caught up on some films we’ve been wanting to watch:

• We Live in Time: went into it expecting a real tear jerker but was somewhat disappointed. Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield were excellent though.
• A Real Pain: funny, sometimes painful to watch. Really good.
• Queer: wowza, what a ride.

Best thing we ate:

Other than my fantastic cooking, we tried a few different places for lunch and our favourites were La Bodega Verde and Terminal Pesquero, both in the Barranco district.

The first was a cute cafe that served sandwiches and salads and crucially had gluten free bread! At the end of our first visit we were greeted by a gorgeous cat who came and sat on our laps and made it very difficult to leave.

The Terminal Pesquero was a suggestion from a Peruvian friend and we are so glad we made it on our last day! We had the recommended ceviche norteño which was delicious (and huge) and I also had their own homemade beer.

Coolest thing we did:

We’ve picked our top 3 things for this, because it’s hard to choose!

Changing of the Guard: not something I thought I’d say! We happened to be in the main square not long before the changing of the guard was due to kick off at 11.45, so we thought why not. It turned out to be a full musical performance, with marching band, shouting, high-kicks and various sword movements. There must have been over 70 people involved in the 45 minute display. Incredibly well choreographed, until the end when a few of them seemed to have a debate about who was actually on guard duty next.

Museum of Contemporary Art Lima: there are a couple of art museums around Lima, but this one was just a short walk down from where we were staying towards Barranco. It had a lovely setting and while I wandered around, Chris stayed in the gardens reading. There were a couple of artist-specific exhibitions, Moico Yaker and Rafael Pascuale, as well as a larger, longer term display of Peruvian art.

Cycling up the coast path: on our last day we decided to rent the city bikes and cycle up and down the path that ran alongside the coast. Lima is up on the cliffs, so we never actually went down to the beach, but the views along this road are amazing. The dedicated cycle path meant it felt safe and thankfully it was pretty flat!

Bonus:

In the Parque Kennedy in Miraflores, they have a very sweet resident cat population. You can adopt un gatito, which I assume pays for the little cat houses, food and water that’s left out for them. Less endearing was the resident Michael Jackson dance impersonator who drew surprisingly large crowds for his underwhelming skills…

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Next up is a quick night in a desert oasis for some fun activities… stay tuned 👀

Besos,

Florence and Chris

It was sad to say goodbye to Ecuador, but we were excited to be entering Peru. Unlike our easy flight from Colombia to Ecuador, this international crossing involved about two hours at the border station, at around 3am. Our arrival in Máncora was therefore quite a tired one! This was made up for by days spent going to cafes and lying on the beach, which aren’t too taxing, so a fantastic time was had.

Weather:

A brief return to the 30’s, and quite a dry heat despite being at the coast. A welcome change after rainy Ecuador, but too hot for us Brits to stay for a long time.

Where we stayed:

Our accommodation was a simple room, completely ‘self check-in’ style, i.e. keys just waiting for us on arrival – but this suited our 5am arrival well. Other than the leaky toilet, we had a pleasant stay making feline friends and sitting on our little deckchairs!

Best thing we ate:

The Green Eggs and Ham cafe welcomed us each day for breakfast, and while the eggs, pancakes and other dishes were good, the Dulce de Vanilla in Florence’s iced coffee was delicious. Unfortunately the next morning I was too sleepy to remember to order it for myself…

Coolest thing we did:

As they say: when in Rome, go to the beach – and that’s just about all we did! An incredibly friendly and helpful tuktuk driver, Alex, recommended the best beach spots for us, namely Pocitas and Vichayito.

On both days / both beaches, it was conveniently happy hour (it seemingly hasn’t not been happy hour for 6 weeks now..) which meant for a wonderfully low price we had cocktails in hand as well as sun loungers, hammocks and palm umbrellas to ourselves. The high season ended a few weeks ago, so there were only a few other visitors on the beach.

The Pacific ocean was a lovely temperature to swim in, and later reflected gorgeous sunsets. We also saw lots of birds diving into the water for fish, which was quite stunning.

Bonus:

The cats. Our accommodation had lots of lovely cats who were keen for some attention, to the point they flung themselves at our mosquito net in the morning.

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Next stop, Lima! (after some long bus rides…)

Besos,

Chris y Florence