Day 3 - we're off! to Pisco...

Off to Pisco today, but had some freetime after breakfast until 12:30pm when the bus was coming to collect us. Before I left the UK I set Polly's MacBook & my iPad up with 'FaceTime', a sort of Skype but obviously better because it's Apple :) so I was able to have some FaceTime with Pollyanna & the boys! It was amazing! Nearly 7000 miles away & there they were clear as day on my little screen in Peru! Even Bumpy the dog said hello! Louie even went & dragged Maisie & Kate in off the street - who just happened to be walking by - to say hello! I was able to give Kate a virtual hug too - well, that's to say Kate gave Polly's laptop a hug & I gave my iPad a hug. It was a beautiful moment.

We chatted for about an hour - free over the hotel's wifi - it was just brilliant. It made me feel a lot closer to home. Ju, if you read this, we're going to try & give it a go so your dad can see/speak to you, so make sure you're ready to take the call - it could be anytime!

A local bus collected us from the hotel & took us to the bus station where we waited to board - so we were led to believe - a link bus to take us along the costal road to Pisco. We were warned not to be phased by the fact that local people would be using the bus, getting on & off with various miscellaneous produce - probably the odd chicken - probably in very close proximity with probably not the best hygiene... so we all psyched ourselves up ready... Only to find that we'd been upgraded to a luxury coach, complete with toilet, cinema screens & refreshments & snacks! I pointed out to Mike that I was going to find it increasingly difficult to make this trek sound like hard work at this rate... however clever I was with words!

Once boarded, a security guy came on board with a video camera. He looked very official so clearly he was videoing in some official capacity. However, I think the uniform had escaped John's notice & when the security guard pointed it at him he said - with some determination - "no thank you". I pointed out to John that the guy was a some sort of security guard, but John was convinced he was going to try & sell him a video of the bus journey! Turns out that a lot of 'fugitives' travel across Peru by bus, so this was an easy way to see who the passengers were on any journey. Good luck John!

It was a looong 4 and a half hour journey through some fantastic landscapes & scenery. Pisco has a population of just over 115,000. It's about 28 feet above sea level - which I can vouch for as I stood close to it's shore & took some pictures of the amazing sunset - & is the capital of the Pisco Province, located in the Ica Region. Pisco means 'bird' & was originally made famous because of it's nearby vineyards. Pisco is now the namesake of the Peruvian grape liqour. Pisco's origins are from one of the major ancient civilisations in Peru: the Paracas culture.

The roads were lined with shanty towns, full of people whose living was made by selling their wares along the road down which we travelled. Some of these towns were 'fronted' by brick built houses & it was from these that the huts in the shanty towns would rent electricity, running long leads from the houses. Obviously not all the huts had electricity because there just weren't enough houses to do it, but there were some.

Other shanty towns had none. Neither type of shanty town had water. Big lorries would come to the towns & sell water, but obviously this is very expensive. Looking at the towns from the bus, they just looked like 'pop up dwellings'. Nothing more than wooden walled shed like outers, with corrugated tin roofs. The streets were just dusty tracks. But thousands of people live in these towns & children are everywhere, kicking footballs around. They seemed quite happy.

As we drove further south, the shanty towns appeared more organised with some even painted. These dwellings belonged to farm workers. Large fields stated to appear - of corn, asparagus, spring onions, onions, paprika and lots more besides.

As we entered Pisco town is struck me how many half finished buildings there were & how much building work was going on all around. It turns out that back in August 2007 there was a really bad earthquake - 8.0 magnitude on the richter scale - & Pisco was very near the epicentre. A reported 80% of the city was destroyed & many many people were killed. 4 years on the people of Pisco are still rebuilding.

We dumped our bags in our rooms & headed off to see the sunset. It was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. We walked along the edge of the town's sea port to where we were going to eat & settled down to order. The food here is pretty basic really. The menus sound very nice with things listed such as steak, sea bass, chicken, seafood... but we've picked up very quickly that there is a scale of food quality in these joints, however we haven't yet picked up the ability to tell what kind of restaurant it is 'from the outside'. Our guide chooses where we eat & I guess because he's Peruvian - & I'm a food snob! - a 'good' restaurant to him may not necessarily be an opinion I agree with! But hey, this is an adventure right?! I just hope my insides stay the course...

I had grilled sea bass with chips. I thought possibly a bit of garnish, or perhaps some salad, but no. A piece of grilled sea bass. A dozen fried potatoes. Cold plate. Eat it quick! The beer was very nice though - I can't remember what it's called (not for any other reason than I have a bad memory before you ask!) but it's proper Peruvian brewed lager & tastes of holidays :) Beer always tastes better in a foreign country!

After the meal we went back to the hostel & I had one more beer before retiring. That end of the day is still playing havoc with my body clock, so I was in bed for 9pm (3am!). Plus we have an early start in the morning - we're off to the Ballestas Islands where we'll be hoping to see penguins, sea lions, pelicans & many many species of birds at close range. After this we'll start our journey to Nazca - but not before stopping off to 'do the dunes' at the Huacachina Oasis, where we'll be bombing across the amazing dunes in dune buggies & sand boarding! Can't wait!

Ok, signing off for today. Hopefully the internet will be live at the nextbplace so I can upload today's & yesterday's blogs. Hope you're enjoying the show so far :) I've some comments about my spelling & grammar, which of course I apologise for, but I'm writing the blog mostly as we travel on the bus between towns. For those of you who've seen any of the tv programs on Peruvian roads I'm sure you'll acknowledge it's a feat on it's own to write anything whilst travelling on a bus along them - let alone it make any sense! So please, bear with ;)

Such fun.

Gb.

Day 2 - Lima

Today is Saturday. Last night's sleep was a bit disjointed as my body & brain - what bit there is! - were still on UK time. So although I went to bed at '4am', once my body had slept for what it felt was enough time it woke up. So at 5am (11am UK time) by body said '"it's time to wake up". I pushed it away for another hour before it just wouldn't take no for an answer. So I got up.

I couldn't remember John & Mike's room number, so I whittled the time away until breakfast opened at 8am & went down. There they were, the dynamic duo - great minds & all that :) Breakfast was better than Base Camp was! I had some cereal... some fruit... some scrambled eggs... some coffee... very civilised. John had pork belly! Eurgh!

We were due to meet the GAP guide at 6pm for a briefing, but until then the day was ours. We decided to regroup after 'ablutions' & head in to Lima for the day. We grabbed a taxi & headed in to the city. The taxi driver was Walter & he gave us his card so that we could call him for the return journey when we were ready. Great, we thought, we have a plan :) Half an hour's drive in the taxi later & we're there.

Lima was very very busy. Architurally very disjointed with many buildings of many different styles - some old, some new, some falling down - but none of them really seemed to 'fit' together. A bit of a 'mitch match'. Speaking of which, I think we must have a looked a bit the same! We tried out best to blend in, but with our white skins, clean crisp clothing, rucksacks, cameras round our necks - & of course John's bright white cloth hat - I think it was pretty obvious that we'd 'just got off the plane'!

During the day we saw the changing of the guards at the 'Presidential Palace' including full brass band & marching guards, we had a tour round the San Francisco church including the catacombs beneath where we saw the skeletal remains of some 25,000 peasants who had been buried there many years ago, and we had a look around the church of the San Domingo convent.

Does anyone watch Harry Hill TV Burp? For those that do you need to sing this bit: "Random Situation of the Day". We're standing in the Plaza Mayor (the Main Square) & a guy on a push bike comes up to us & asks us, in a very heavy Spanish accent, "what is da meaning of dis word plees?". On his pad he has the word 'glade' written. We explain the meaning of the word & off he cycles. We look at each other, shrug, & move on. 2 minutes later who do we see talking to another group of rucksack/camera/sunhat clad people?! What was that all about? We still haven't worked it out!

Anyhoo, our time in Lima city drew to a close & we decided to make our way back to the hotel. So we called Walter. The number didn't work. So we called Walter again. It still didn't work. Now what do we do? We make a decision - make our way to the main town road, get a street taxi, tell him the hotel details, away we go. Easy.

So, we hail a taxi, the taxi driver asks us where we want to go, we say 'The Britania Hotel, Miraflores' - & we get a blank expression. The driver explains Miraflores is a LARGE area of Lima - do we have an address? We hadn't thought about that...

After a frantic search through pockets, Mike produces his room card, but all that has on it is an email & web address - neither of which are much use in the middle of Lima town with a taxi driver staring blankly at us - & us back! He quotes us a silly price - clearly wanting to be rid of us (who can blame him) & drives off when we say no. 30 Soles indeed! Daylight robbery! 30 Soles is less than £10 by the way - we'd set ourselves a budget of 25 Soles (about £8)... But then we are English!

5 mins later we'd managed to hail another taxi & - result - he'd do it for 20 Soles. He still hadn't got a clue where the Britania was, but he was willing to give it a go. So off we went. Happy bunnies :) An hour later, however, not such happy bunnies... It was reminiscent of a sketch from Little Britain, except it was 'policeman says nooo', 'person on the street says nooo', 'local taxi driver says nooo' - & on it went. We suggested to the taxi driver - as we had a web address for the hotel - that he drop us off, we find an internet cafe & we take it from there, but he was adamant that he didn't want to give up So on we went. Eventually we compromised - we stopped at a hotel & asked the concierge if we could look on their computer to find directions... 'concierge says yes'! 5 minutes later we were home. Releif all round :)

6pm was the briefing with the GAP guide, so we met him & most of the other trekkers. In total we were 3 Trekkers short, which it turned out to be because their flight scheduled to land in the early hours of tomorrow. Our guide, Angel (pronounced Angheel), is a young guy, early twenties, Peruvian, grew up in the southern end of the Amazon. Nice guy, good sense of humour :)

The 3 girls that would be arriving the next day made the group 16 in total. Let me see if I can remember all the details here: Chris & Bill - a couple of guys from Dublin, architect & social therapist respectively (I think the latter is right - I may correct myself in a later blog if I've got it wrong), Francis - young Californian guy, US Navy, Anna - young lady from Austria, doctor (currently an Intern), Anneka - young German lady, can't remember what she does, Fiona & Maddy - a couple of young ladies from London way, can't remember what they do either, a young German couple - he (Rene) works with computers, she (can't remember her name!) is an interior designer & although they've been married 3 years this is their honeymoon. Lastly, the 3 late arrivals from Canada - home of Rush, yeh - Coral & Brianna (sisters) & their friend Angelina. One works in a hospital, one is a waitress in an old people's home, the other I can't remember.

Then of course there's the men from the Peru & Ruth, making 16. It's a big group, but actually doesn't feel that big & everyone seems to be getting on great. Sorry to be so rubbish, but hey, many would say that's pretty good for my memory! I'll find out mre as we travel no doubt & I'll fill in the gaps later :)

Francis is my room mate for the trek, & he's a Mac man so we're going to get on just fine.

We rounded the evening off with a meal out together as a group at a really nice restaurant in Miraflores. Mike & I shared a bottle of red - after which John told Mike off for being 'squiffy' - however he's always 'squiffy' to me, so I didn't notice any difference! After we'd eaten, 'the youngsters' wanted one for the road at an authentic local bar, so us oldies made our way - unassisted! - back to the hotel. The following morning we would find out that they'd had a lovely time in the Irish Bar... so much for authentic Peruvian!

Lights out for me at 10pm, which my body was still saying '4am' to me, & I didn't hear a thing as Francis came in at midnight. I was out for the count. A lie in was on offer the following morning as we weren't leaving the hotel until 12:30pm - question was, would my body clock accept the lie in...? It was doubtful.

Signing off for today. Gb.