We are on a coach heading for Cuzco. We've just set off. It is going to take 10 hours. It's not as bad as it sounds. The coaches here are fantastic. They put England to shame. My seat is enormous and reclines right the way back. I also have a foot rest. There are televisions every 4 - 5 seats with DVDs playing in English with Spanish subtitles. We get fed too. All for the princely sum of 55 Soles - about a tenner. My only complaint is that they have chosen to put Spice World on the DVD. The idea of noise pollution does not exist here - they obviously don't worry about it because of their choice of movie, but mainly it's the fact that all the buses, 1st class or otherwise have either music or DVDs blaring. You have no choice in the matter. And the sound is ALWAYS BLOODY DISTORTED!
We travelled to Pisco via Lima. The tiny town sits on the coast of Peru about three hours south of Lima. From there you can catch a boat to Islas Ballestas. Often called The Poor Man's Galapagos, the islands are a group of rugged rock formations rising from the Pacific Ocean to form natural caves and archways. They are populated only by Peruvian turns, white boobies, penguins, huge orange starfish and hundreds of sealions. And that's just above the surface. The sealions were great, really fat and lazy, just hanging off the rocks, obviously used to the speedboats arriving close in to see them. It was a fantastic morning, but it was marred. We were supposed to get off on one of the small beaches. As we were approaching we heard a gun shot. After much furious babbling by the guides we quickly headed back for Pisco. I assume they must have been poachers or something. Whatever it was, it was enough to make our crew head back full speed. There are no people on the islands. Not officially anyway.
We spent the afternoon at the Reserva Nacional De Paracas. I had never seen a desert before. It is truly beautiful. So quiet and so many colours. It’s unusual in that it’s a desert by the sea. The dunes and hills are brimming with minerals, salt, quartz and iron ore which add lots of rusty red to the shimmering white, yellows, browns and blacks. We walked to a cliff overlooking a rock formation called La Catedral - named so because that's exactly what it looked like. To the left of the Catedral we could see dolphins jumping into the air. I spotted a family - mum, dad and baby all swimming and jumping together. Lush.
Pisco itself is a fab little place. The same run down, graffiti covered box houses, with a main 'Gringo Alley' that reminded me a little of being on a package tour in Greece. Lots of bars, shops, restaurants and internet cafes with hundreds of touts begging you to come in. We went to a club one night. It was me, Tim and an Irish guy we met called Neil and 500 18 year old Peruvians. They are not into their dancing here at all. The few that do dance, just shuffle. Once again I found myself pining a little for Venezuela. So far the party people of South America.
Pisco is famous for its scallops. And we all know how much I love scallops. We pigged out on a huge platter full of them smothered with garlic and parmesan and decided that, since we were having one of those very rare occasions that we were treating ourselves we would order the best wine on the menu to wash them down with. It was vile. Sickly sweet like your gran's Sherry. Inca greatness and all that, but they seriously fail on the vino front - not even students would drink that stuff.
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