Visiting Machu Picchu #2

Well, we are now in Arequipa, Peru. Our stay in Lima was for three days and we found plenty of things to do.

The catacombs were amazing. 70,000 bodies buried under one church. The free guides speak good English. The cathedral was equally as good, however the guides expect a tip at the end and ours complained when we didn’t give her enough!

Don’t stand too near the gates when the changing of the guards are about to start. The band comes out and lines up in front of the gates about arms length from the rails. So our home movie viewers will be turning the volume down at that point.

We found the artisans market in Miraflores beautiful. We didn’t buy anything. Thinking we would buy each craft local as we came across it but so far we have not seen the selection nor the quality that was present at the market.

There were many police, tourist police and military police and even a couple of tanks in Lima when we were there. The elections were about to be held and I guess they were taking extra precautions.

From Lima we took a four hour bus trip to Pisco and visited the Ballentes Islands and an afternoon tour to see a cathedral rock and flamingos. If you are short on time don’t hesitate to drop the afternoon tour. All the companies charge the same price so choose one with a good English speaking guide.

Next came Nazca. Our three hour journey turned into 6 hours. And we had trouble getting out of Nazca once we flew over the lines because of the election. We had to stay an extra day. There is nothing to do there so we caught up on letter writing and e-mails. Oh yeah.

Bring ear plugs to Peru. This place is so noisy it is difficult to sleep. Cotton gauze out of a bandage doesn’t work as well as you might think.

The tour operators in Nazca are very aggressive. They are in your face yelling from the moment you get off the bus. US$45 is what you can expect to pay for a flight over the lines and a tour to the cemetery. Nazca Trails is an excellent company and Juan (the guide) speaks good English, German and Italian.

We are in Arequipa after a tour-ish bus ride of 10 hours. If you can afford it, travel to Arequipa on the royal class bus as it would be much more comfortable. We had no choice but to accept the only few seats available. Tomorrow we are off to the Colca Canyon for two days.

Last tip: Be careful with the taxis. We heard some reports of strangle muggings in Peru,
most recently in Lima.

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