Day 3 – we’re off! to Pisco…

Off to Pisco today, but had some freetime after breakfast until 12:30pm when the bus was coming to collect us. Before I left the UK I set Polly’s MacBook & my iPad up with ‘FaceTime’, a sort of Skype but obviously better because it’s Apple 🙂 so I was able to have some FaceTime with Pollyanna & the boys! It was amazing! Nearly 7000 miles away & there they were clear as day on my little screen in Peru! Even Bumpy the dog said hello! Louie even went & dragged Maisie & Kate in off the street – who just happened to be walking by – to say hello! I was able to give Kate a virtual hug too – well, that’s to say Kate gave Polly’s laptop a hug & I gave my iPad a hug. It was a beautiful moment.

We chatted for about an hour – free over the hotel’s wifi – it was just brilliant. It made me feel a lot closer to home. Ju, if you read this, we’re going to try & give it a go so your dad can see/speak to you, so make sure you’re ready to take the call – it could be anytime!

A local bus collected us from the hotel & took us to the bus station where we waited to board – so we were led to believe – a link bus to take us along the costal road to Pisco. We were warned not to be phased by the fact that local people would be using the bus, getting on & off with various miscellaneous produce – probably the odd chicken – probably in very close proximity with probably not the best hygiene… so we all psyched ourselves up ready… Only to find that we’d been upgraded to a luxury coach, complete with toilet, cinema screens & refreshments & snacks! I pointed out to Mike that I was going to find it increasingly difficult to make this trek sound like hard work at this rate… however clever I was with words!

Once boarded, a security guy came on board with a video camera. He looked very official so clearly he was videoing in some official capacity. However, I think the uniform had escaped John’s notice & when the security guard pointed it at him he said – with some determination – “no thank you”. I pointed out to John that the guy was a some sort of security guard, but John was convinced he was going to try & sell him a video of the bus journey! Turns out that a lot of ‘fugitives’ travel across Peru by bus, so this was an easy way to see who the passengers were on any journey. Good luck John!

It was a looong 4 and a half hour journey through some fantastic landscapes & scenery. Pisco has a population of just over 115,000. It’s about 28 feet above sea level – which I can vouch for as I stood close to it’s shore & took some pictures of the amazing sunset – & is the capital of the Pisco Province, located in the Ica Region. Pisco means ‘bird’ & was originally made famous because of it’s nearby vineyards. Pisco is now the namesake of the Peruvian grape liqour. Pisco’s origins are from one of the major ancient civilisations in Peru: the Paracas culture.

The roads were lined with shanty towns, full of people whose living was made by selling their wares along the road down which we travelled. Some of these towns were ‘fronted’ by brick built houses & it was from these that the huts in the shanty towns would rent electricity, running long leads from the houses. Obviously not all the huts had electricity because there just weren’t enough houses to do it, but there were some.

Other shanty towns had none. Neither type of shanty town had water. Big lorries would come to the towns & sell water, but obviously this is very expensive. Looking at the towns from the bus, they just looked like ‘pop up dwellings’. Nothing more than wooden walled shed like outers, with corrugated tin roofs. The streets were just dusty tracks. But thousands of people live in these towns & children are everywhere, kicking footballs around. They seemed quite happy.

As we drove further south, the shanty towns appeared more organised with some even painted. These dwellings belonged to farm workers. Large fields stated to appear – of corn, asparagus, spring onions, onions, paprika and lots more besides.

As we entered Pisco town is struck me how many half finished buildings there were & how much building work was going on all around. It turns out that back in August 2007 there was a really bad earthquake – 8.0 magnitude on the richter scale – & Pisco was very near the epicentre. A reported 80% of the city was destroyed & many many people were killed. 4 years on the people of Pisco are still rebuilding.

We dumped our bags in our rooms & headed off to see the sunset. It was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. We walked along the edge of the town’s sea port to where we were going to eat & settled down to order. The food here is pretty basic really. The menus sound very nice with things listed such as steak, sea bass, chicken, seafood… but we’ve picked up very quickly that there is a scale of food quality in these joints, however we haven’t yet picked up the ability to tell what kind of restaurant it is ‘from the outside’. Our guide chooses where we eat & I guess because he’s Peruvian – & I’m a food snob! – a ‘good’ restaurant to him may not necessarily be an opinion I agree with! But hey, this is an adventure right?! I just hope my insides stay the course…

I had grilled sea bass with chips. I thought possibly a bit of garnish, or perhaps some salad, but no. A piece of grilled sea bass. A dozen fried potatoes. Cold plate. Eat it quick! The beer was very nice though – I can’t remember what it’s called (not for any other reason than I have a bad memory before you ask!) but it’s proper Peruvian brewed lager & tastes of holidays 🙂 Beer always tastes better in a foreign country!

After the meal we went back to the hostel & I had one more beer before retiring. That end of the day is still playing havoc with my body clock, so I was in bed for 9pm (3am!). Plus we have an early start in the morning – we’re off to the Ballestas Islands where we’ll be hoping to see penguins, sea lions, pelicans & many many species of birds at close range. After this we’ll start our journey to Nazca – but not before stopping off to ‘do the dunes’ at the Huacachina Oasis, where we’ll be bombing across the amazing dunes in dune buggies & sand boarding! Can’t wait!

Ok, signing off for today. Hopefully the internet will be live at the nextbplace so I can upload today’s & yesterday’s blogs. Hope you’re enjoying the show so far 🙂 I’ve some comments about my spelling & grammar, which of course I apologise for, but I’m writing the blog mostly as we travel on the bus between towns. For those of you who’ve seen any of the tv programs on Peruvian roads I’m sure you’ll acknowledge it’s a feat on it’s own to write anything whilst travelling on a bus along them – let alone it make any sense! So please, bear with 😉

Such fun.

Gb.