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Surf ´n´ Turf You´d never have believed us, we could have lied and said we´d been surfing tubes in those waves, only we´d both managed to lose our cameras a week apart, so no photographic evidence, and not only that but I sat on my Palm computer so we were out of action blogging for a while.
Crossing the border from Ecuador into Peru was a real pain and very confusing, you are not sure if any of the people there are trying to genuinely help and its best to ignore everyone. Even so we got through to the other side via taxi and after a quick meal in Tumbes we continued on by microbus to Mancora after travelling nearly all day.
Mancora in the desert with its crashing surf is blessed with year round sunshine, its a cool little surfer hangout on the Panamerican highway and we had a couple of days fighting with the waves. Johanna and I both took lessons that despite getting sore arms it appeared easier than reality and we were standing up and riding quite big waves from the start. Then the next day we failed getting up for more than a second or two once left to our own devices.
Distances here are long, we broke our journey south several times in the provincial towns of Chiclayo and Trujillo, then tried our luck surfing once again in Huanchaco. Here fisherman ride the surf with home made straw canoes but we could just manage a few seconds at a time, after several hours, tired arms and cold wetsuits we gave in.
Seafood is another reason to come here. Fresh platters of cerviche, the Peruvian speciality raw fish, octopus and prawn, just served with lime juice and red onion is delicious washed down with a Pisco sour cocktail of clear brandy, lime, egg white and bitters. Although their translation into English of lightly battered seafood made me laugh, because "Chicharones" here are pork scratchings, and so "Chicharones de pescado", is translated directly on the menu as "pork scratchings of fish!"
There is only really one easy way to get to Huaraz in the Cordillera Blanca Andes and that's by overnight sleeper bus. As long as you are not near the toilet then these are really comfortable. The chairs recline almost like beds and you can watch videos if you can´t sleep. Huaraz is a mountaineering mecca, its quite a new town as nearby Yungay was completely destroyed by a landslide in 1970, although it doesn´t have the same draw as Cusco it´s far less spoilt by tourism. Here we hiked the 4 day Santa Cruz trek with 2 Austrian students, Thomas & Patrick and a pack of donkeys to carry our tents and food. The hike doesn´t have Inca ruins like other areas of Peru but the scenery makes it ones of the most beautiful hikes in all of the Americas and was so well organised, they even brought along a large tent for us to eat it in as well as gas lighting.
 The second day involved climbing the highest pass to 4800 metres. From the top of the pass we had 360 degree views of +6000m peaks all around us but afterwards I developed a headache mainly because I was holding back on the drinking water, then as the decent to 4300 metres continued my head and dizziness got worse. Once we had stopped for the day I lay in the tent unable to move until dinner was ready.
The next day we hiked up slightly to a glacier then the rest was thankfully downhill. We stayed in Huaraz a little longer and I went on a downhill mountain bike ride in the nearby Sierra Negra, after travelling up by taxi and a hour bike ride at 4200m we started our descent down rock shewn single track, a downhill mountain biker´s dream. My wrists were hurting a lot after just 10 mins of taking the strain even on a full suspension bike, but I hung on in and after proving my worth we took the hard track the whole way down, often just managing to stay on the bike over huge rocks and only slowing down for crazy farm dogs, a great experience, I was totally exhausted after 2 hours.
We were organised and only spent a little over 24 hours in Lima, mainly shopping in Miraflores, such as buying myself a new Palm computer and camera, then we were up at 4am for our flight to Cusco. For me it was really strange being back in Cusco after 11 years. I soon remembered my way around and even found some of the same bars and cafes from last time. We ended up staying in Casa de la Gringa off Plaza San Blaz, a quite homely place with a new age hippy vibe. We had English breakfast in an English pub and because it was low season managed to book the Inca trail with the same company I used before, United Mice.
We took advantage of a few spare days to take some more Spanish lessons with Fairplay a non profit that trains single mums to become language teachers. There are no class rooms so we spent the 2 mornings visiting local markets and chatting in cafes in Spanish as Johanna and I both just wanted to practice our conversation skills.
The first day of the Inca trail involved another 4am start, we got to know our fellow hikers at breakfast in Ollyantambo, 7 Aussies, Austin, Rich, Scott, Julian, Jackie, Emma and Maggie and 2 Brits, Matt and Claire. It turned out to be a great group and there was plenty of laughing and joking when we weren't out of breath from hiking at altitude. The history of this whole area is amazing and doing the hike also gives you time to contemplate this amazing civilisation of the Incas and how they lived, it was only a few hundred years ago, unyet they left no written language to decipher their way of life. 
We stopped at various places on the way to Puno across the altiplano, such as a beautiful and eccentric 17th C Jesuit church in the village of Andahuaylillas, the tallest Inca temple ruins at Raqchi, and the Tihuanaco era ruins at Pukara, also famous for its ceramic bulls on peoples roofs. Then from Puno we ventured out onto the enormous Lake Titicaca to the floating islands made from buoyant reeds where the Uros people have lived since fleeing from the invading Incas. Its a bit touristy but great fun! there is even a restaurant now where you can eat fresh trout from their own little fish ponds built into the island. But I couldn't leave Peru without trying the national delicacy of guinea pig, wood fire roasted. I have to say there is not a lot of meat on one of these things although the skin does taste pretty good.
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