Monastery with a twist

I got my act together to research the schedules for our trip to Colca Canyon. The schedule for the times we required were very limited and would definitely require us taking a bus to the station to secure seats ASAP. We would need to book the 4 legs (to Chivay then to Cruz de Condor […]

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Exploring Arequipa

Despite the late night sleep, we woke relatively early with the sun streaming in through the thin curtains. We had breakfast at the hostel before heading out around 1000 for a brief exploration, dropping off laundry and changing money. We spent a bit of time around Plaza de Armas before taking a tour of the […]

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Flying over the Nazca Lines

Above:  Whale at Nazca; upper central part of the photo.  Today we were booked to do a flight over the Nazca lines. Kim woke up feeling very lethargic. He also had stomach pains through the night too and soon enough he was having the runs. As we share all our meals, we expected that it […]

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Short easy day

We took a taxi from Huacachina to Ica where we caught the Soyuz bus to Nazca. The bus leaves every 20 minutes. The 2.5h ride felt quite long and cramped with about 60 long-distance seats crammed into the bus. It would have been more comfy with thin commuter/suburban seats as there would be space between […]

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Riding the gigantic dunes

We had set the alarm for 0715 to allow plenty of time to get to the bus station. It took an hour to get to near that area yesterday but today being Sunday should be easier. We took a taxi around 0810 and made it in time for the 0830 bus. We had booked for […]

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Historic centre of Lima and the real Lima

American Airlines rang to confirm that we hadn’t checked out as they weere putting the bags in to taxi to our place. We waited and waited, then gave up and prepared to go out. I said that as soon as Kim had showered and put on his dirty clothes back on, the bags would arrive. […]

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Exploring Miraflores and Barranco

I woke before 0900 after the best night sleep since we left home. After breakfast we walked to the centre of Miraflores, an affluent suburb. Our priority was to get some Peruvian Soles. For Soles withdrawals ATMs had a high local fee of about USD5 and a low maximum withdrawal. For USD, the fee was […]

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Arriving in Lima but bags still in Miami

We landed about 10 mins ahead of schedule at 2230 and immigration was swift. The airport billboard advertising was all targeted at mainland Chinese travellers! Later in my stay in Lima, I noticed that UnionPay was accepted in a number of places too. Getting to the carousel at 2300 we waited for our bags. By […]

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Long wait in Miami on standby

Leaving New Orleans I woke just before the alarm at 0530 in New Orleans, had a quick wash and downed a cuppa tea before summoning my first ever Uber ride to the airport for USD33 (no tips required). At MSY airport, we tried kiosk check-in for our standby tickets but weren’t able to. A check-in […]

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Unplanned explorations

The plan for the day was not to have a plan, or as little of a plan as possible. After breakfast we walked over to St Charles St to catch the street car to Canal St. We bought a 24h pass for USD3 so that we could explore wherever took our fancy. Just because of […]

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