Peru Continued...

Day 3

Today, we travelled by taxi (very noisy 1966 Dodge Coronette) for a couple of hours along the coast to the sand dunes around Huacachina Oasis, where much fun was had in sand buggies and sandboarding down the dunes (not for the faint of heart).
We then relaxed by the pool at the Oasis before taxiing to our hotel for the night in Nazca, a little further south down the coast.

Days 4 & 5

We spent the day in Nazca which is a small city, most famous for the nearby Nazca lines. Naturally, we had to take a small plane for an arial view of the lines. While very interesting, we found them a little harder to spot than we thought they would be - maybe we were a little higher off the ground than we thought.
We wandered into the center of the city for supper and spent the rest of the afternoon lazing by the pool and having the odd cervesa. I attempted to update this site but the internet connection was not quite up to it.
Then we had the wonderfull experience of an all-night bus trip down the coast and inland to the City of Arequipa (2nd largest city in Peru, after Lima).

This proved to be a very nice city, lots of character, restaurants and night clubs etc. Some of our group partied pretty hard - not us of course!

Day 6 & 7

In the morning, we were collected from our hotel "Casa de mi Abuela" by a mini-bus and guide for a two-day trip to the Colca Canyon. The bus took up up over the mountains to look for Vicunas, Llamas and such.
At the top of the pass we were at 4910 meters and the air was very thin. Any exertion would get us breathing very hard. Some of our group suffered a bit from altitude sickness - headaches and such, but we survived ok for the most part.
As it was very cold up there, lots of us bought some local sweaters and hats, which will no doubt be very useful on the upcoming Trek in a few days.
We drove along the Colca valley until in turned into the Colca canyon. Both were incredibly spectacular and quite a surprise to us. The Colca canyon is the deepest canyon in the world and is the home to the giant Condors, of which we did see a couple.
Our mini-bus then took us back to Arequipa for the night.




Day 8

Up at 4.30 in the morning to get a bus to the airport for a flight to Cuzco, where we have spent some time walking about the town and getting aclimatized to the altitude. Very pictureque city where we would love to spend some more time.

Tomorrow we start the 4-day Lares Trek. Hopefully we are ready for it.

Peru 1st Impressions

Day 1

Arrived Lima and got to the hotel about 1 AM in the morning. Scary 3rd world look at the city in the middle of the night but in the morning was pleasently surprised.

Walked around the old town and the huge pedestrian mall - very cosmopolitan. People seem nice and food is plentiful, cheap and good.



Met out tour leader later in the day and got our briefing for the tour before we were wisked off for a night on the town, courtesy of a friend of our friends. Stayed up way too late drinking Pisco Sours and will pay the price tomorrow.



Day 2

Left Lima this morning, traveling south to Pisco. Reinforced our original 3rd world impressions of Lima´- big city with a lot of very basic accomodations.

Took a boat to the Ballesta islands offshore where the bird and sea-lions are abundant. Very exciting ride and spectacular wildlife.

Then a quick tour of the desert and on to the town of Pisco (what is left of it after last year´s earthquake).





Tomorrow it is on the sand dunes for buggy rides and surfing.

I am an Aunt!

Much to our surprise Murray and Joanne's new baby arrived yesterday - about a month early. Mom and baby Scott are doing fine, Dad seems very proud. We thanked them for arranging the arrival of the baby before we left since we thought this was an event we would miss.

Anticipation

In three days, we leave for South America. This is a two-month trip where we will hopefully be visiting Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. We are joining two different "Adventure" tours with a couple of weeks on our own in the middle (in La Paz).
Getting ready for this trip has been surprisingly time-consuming, getting our respective work commitments looked after and finding someone to look after our house while we are gone. But everything now appears to be in place.
It is our hope that we will be able to post to this blog frequently while we are gone (which would make quite a change from how infrequently we update it while we are here). So keep your computer tuned to this station for further updates.
We will also be checking for emails at svsinetimore@gmail.com and we look forward to hearing from you.
For now, Hasta Luego.

A Sailing Interlude

Yes, we actually went sailing.

We left Nanaimo and slowly made our way north to Desolation Sound. The trip up was very nice; warm weather and some spirited close-hauled sailing, especially north of Westview. We visited False Bay on Lasqueti Island, the town of Westview, Copeland Marine Park and Refuge Cove en route.

Once we were in Desolation, the weather turned a bit cold and rainy, so we spent 4 nights at anchor, 3 in Theodosia Inlet and 1 in Grace Harbour, both parts of Malaspina Inlet. We were nice and cozy in our cabin, with the diesel heater keeping us warm, taking it easy reading books and playing games. This was a great opportunity to see how long we can go without power as the solar panels were not producing much while the sun was hidden by clouds.

On the forth day, the sun came out and we left the inlet and sailed to Cortes Bay where we able to dinghy ashore and do some hiking. As you can see, it's a pretty tough life.

We made our way back south pretty much all under power as the winds had completely left us. We did see some fog but it was not a problem as it kept itself at a distance and just made for a gorgeous photo opportunity.

We motored to Comox where we stayed overnight at the marina, then cris-crossed the straight, visiting the east side of Lasqueti Island (Boho Bay) and Bargain Bay (just south of Pender Harbour) before returning to Nanaimo just ahead of a major storm front that was moving in.

On this short trip, we saw more wildlife than we ever have before, many seals and birds of course, but also a Sea Lion and some Dolphins. We were beginning to doubt that these creatures even existed.

Unfortunately, we had to cut out trip short and hurry back to Edmonton. We have a lot of work to do, shutting down Richard's business and getting ready for our trip to South America in October.