Feliz Natal!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are here in Porto Alegre, Brazil after the most wonderful Christmas Eve here with Kiki's family. We partied until late and drank even later! We have had a wonderful time so far and, with more friends coming from the airport as I type, we have even more to come!

With the pics of Machu Picchu finally uploaded and arranged, it is time for an update as to our antics since!

When we left Machu Picchu, sad and tired, we went back to one last night in Cusco before our flight to Lima. We arrived late and met up with Clair and Cody, they had arrived that day to start their acclimatisation for the Inca Trail. We went out for dinner and a quick drink or two....... we got back to our hotel room at 6am, 2 hours before we had to leave for our flight! After a quick sleep, we awoke a little late and rushed to the airport and got on the plane a little worse for wear!



I have to give Jen a lot of credit here as we spen the whole day travelling and I could not have directed us anywhere! but we made it all the way to Huacachina, just outside of Ica, in the south of Peru. Here we stayed for 2 nights, it is literally an oasis in the middle of the desert - a small lagoon surrounded by giant sand dunes. Quite an amazing place. After a very well deserved sleep, we decided to partake in the local past times.... dune buggying and sand boarding!! We had a blast and the dunes were beautiful to see the Sun go down over.

With these activities done, and nothing left to do in the middle of the desert, it was time to move on. Not without a trip to the Ica museum first though. Most of the exhibits in this tiny museum are not that interesting, but they do have some really, really well preserved mummies, shrunken heads, crazy skulls and even a re-hydrated mummy hand!! We only have one photo from here of the mis-shapen skulls - they look like alien heads but they are human! Quite the exhibit!



We left Ica and headed even further south for Nasca. One of the few "must sees' in Peru are the Nasca Lines. They were constructed in the sand hundreds of years ago by the native people of the area and depict a wide range of animals, beings and plants. To view them, it is necessary to take a short flight over the area. We arrived for our flight at 845am and were buckled into the tiny plane and in the air within minutes. Jen's dislike of flying seemed to disappear as we soared higher in our tin can of an aircraft! It was really cool to see the lines, but difficult to get decent photos as we were jerked around in the dinky aircraft. The lines themselves were a marvel, the organisation to put them together was amazing, and there were so many in a high concentration in this area, the flight was definitly worth braving to see them! We even made it back to the ground safely!



After the lines we headed West for the coast, just South of Lima. Here there is a small town called Pisco, ravaged only 1 year ago by an 8.0 earthquake. 80% of the town was levelled and it is evident today that it is a very long process to come back from such a disaster. Despite the mis-fortune, the people here were the friendliest that we had encountered so far, everyone waving and saying hello, a refreshing change! Fortunately our hostel was still standing when we arrived and we were able to book a tour for the next day to see the nature reserve close by. We were also very happy to have kitchen, and for the fist time in a long while, we were able to cook our own dinner!

We left for the Ballistas early the following morning and, upon arrival, set out on our boat tour. The wildlife here is similar in someways to the Galapagos. Lots and lots of birds and sea lions. Infact, so many thousands of birds that some of the islands appear black! The one bonus here though is that there are lots and lots of penguins (we missed them in the Galapagos)! We were also able to see dolphins! After the islands we went on to get a tour of the rest of the reserve, we started with seeing the flamingos and then on to see the beautiful coastline.



We arrived back in Pisco that evening and with the 3 guys that we had met on the, tour, Simon, Thomas and Andy, 1 Swede, 2 Swiss, we headed out to experience the local nightlife! The club was poppin'! And Jen even managed to get a kiss!! We retired late, ready for our long travel day that lay ahead.

We desided to get a bit to eat before we left as we would be spending the next 24hrs in the airport. So, slightly hungover, we went in search of food. I suggested a place that I had seen previously, and after a short but hot trek through the city, we arrived for the set lunch and sat down to enjoy. Well, when Jen dug into her soup, she pulled up a chicken foot! It was foul (or fowl!!)!! Put me right off my lunch! Didn't put us in good stead for our travelling to Brazil!

Our Brazilian adventures are still under way, stories to come soon!

Merry Christmas!! xx