Right so Iīve already uploaded a couple of pics of the absailing and ice climbing in Huraz so hopefully you are already all stunned by them. The absailing was done on a massive two hours sleep due to a great night of dancing, live music, excesive alcohol consuption and the lack of a watch the night before. Wicked fun though, we (manuel and I) started the night being really classy and drinking a bottle of wine on the street (out of plasic glasses not the bottle!) cos bar drinks were far to pricey, then headed off for dancing. Left the club at a reasonable time but then on the way back passed a bar with a live band so stoped in there and when they finished we attemted to go home again but then passed another bar with a live band - and well it would have been rude to just walk on by!! So we went there and ended up talking/dancing/drinking with some other locals. They have a custom that you all share one glass and you pour some drink to your glass, pass on the jar/bottle to the next person, then when you are finished you pass on the glass and this continues round everyone, I like it itīs friendly, but would be no good for anyone with germ phobias!!
So yeah back at 4, up at 6 and guess what - no hangover - YEY must be the fresh air and all that. Canyoning was cool, big fan of absailing. They started us off with a nice little waterfall, and we were all like "oh this is easy" ha ha, then came the big ones and ones with overhangs, oh and obviously the ones with carzy amounts of water absolutely drenching you, but that all added to the fun. It was great, the guide of course did not get wet at all, like a little monkey!
So ice climibing was done on a massive 4 hours sleep after a very quite but late night due to not eating till almost 11, oops. But the food was great, and while we were waiting for it I met a couple of NASA planetary scientists, so i got to be very geeky and talk planets for a while, great fun.
Now Ice climbing, that was hard. Even the walk to the site, which is at about 5100m was tough, but phew I donīt know how mountainers do it, like our cliff was only about 15m and oh so tiring. and those croupon things for your shoes, not very helpful when you kick them into the cliff and the cliff just desintigrats!! ha ha, but it was wicked and the odd fall and danging from the harness was great fun, except that it meant reclimbing part of the wall. Anyhow, an isreali guy in the group made it to the top, I got a little further than in the pic, after much cursing the wall, along the lines of "you are a cliff, you are an inanemate object, you are not gonna beat me, AARGH" but not quite to the top. But higher than manuel and the other girl in the group, so that was cool. But great fun, wanted to go back the next day and try again, but not to be. Istead it was off to the night bus to Lima.
Now everyone hates Lima, but I had an okay time there, but I think I did it differently to most people. We arived at like 5 in the morning and went straight to manuelīs auntīs house, arrived there like 6am and rang the bell not comletely sure if it was the right house. Thankfully it was and three very sleepy people emerged in pyjamas, who were suddenly unsleepy when they saw manuel (he hasnīt been home for 4 years, living in the states) so yeah lots of excited spanish talk, breakfast with the fmily including a 7 year old whoes english is almost as good as my spanish! then off for a quick spot of siteseeing, the main square is very pretty but not a good area, lots of crime on tourists and locals alike but was nice, and then off to see the coast, which was very very pretty, all smart and clean with great icecream. Following this it was off to the Auntīs italian restaurant for lunch, great food so overeat (as usual) and free yey!! nice restaurant, a bit away from anywhere to suggest as a place to visit but very very good food. and then finally to the bus to Ica. I was invited to stay the night and go out with them all but figured I would try and get to Ica so I could go sandboarding in the morning and also though, club, loud muisc, spanish family reunions, possibly not. So said goodbye to manuel and got the bus, gonna reconvine in Cusco, so probably more family visits in order!
So when I arrived in Ica at 9:10 at night, in the dark with no idea of a hostel to stay in, i though, "hmm maybe a mistake to get the bus now" but spoke to a taxi dude and he showed me a flyer of a place that looked perfect so i was like, "okay thatīs cool", now then as we were driving down dark deserted roads out of town I was all "hmm where are we going? hmm" but then we arrived at the hostel and it was cool, there was a party going on! Mostly peruvian people and an english lass, was great, lots of drinks and food and the people were fantastic, it was two peopleīs birthdayīs hence the party, and managed to have conversations in spanglish and occasionally with the help of a translator, but generally did well had a great time. I went to bed fairly early, but got up to find that sandbaording would not be till 4 cos the driver had a hangover, none of themn went to bed till 7. So sandbaording, now thatīs fun. First dunebugging over huge sanddunes and then you stop at the top of and almost vertical dune, and then youīre expected to go down it head first, and its like a shear drop, and i was like, "hmm I donīt THINK so" so you lie down on your belly on the sandboard, hold on and just go, and oh my god itīs fast, so cool, you go for miles (well that might be an exageration but you get the idea) so three runs like that and then the attempts to stand up, not hugely successful at first, but wicked fun and sand is so much softer than snow when to fall, and by the end i was sowly getting there, phew this is getting long, sorry guys, kinda going into too much detail me thinks, but hey, its for my memory too so you will all have to cope, sorry dudes. Anyhow yeah, sandboarding cool, met great irish couple and american in the evening, went out, went back to hostel bar, spoke to locals, sleep. Now had so much fun sandboarding, and also cos i kept falling over and wanted to be better (I donīt like not being able to do things well) I decided that the next day I needed to go again, of 12am today off i went again, and damn was I good, well okay probably not that good, but much better than last time, and only fell over twice or three times per dune!!
Was gonna go to Nasca this afternoon but canīt seem to get myself to leave, itīs so nice and tranquil here and beautiful oasis with just a scattering of houses and shops. so current plan is 8am tomorrow off to nasca, gonna fly over the lines, yey. So fr behind where i planned to be by now, but hey, iīm having fun. Talking of which had better get off this internet and go have some fun. Speak to you all soon.
Me.
PS incase anyone cares, iīll be back on the 20th of august, hopefully see you all when i get back (except of course those of you that live in silly foreign countries! will see you some time)
ta ra
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