After arriving at Lima´s airport, the trip started well with Andy being chosen for a random customs search. We clambered into a taxi with all of our bags and headed to Hostal Iquique, which was to become our temporary home. During the ride Andy reeled off 1 to 20 in Spanish to the amusement of our driver. The following morning we enjoyed our inclusive breakfast and headed off into the city to explore and get our bearings, finding many streets which each sold one item. After "musical instrument" plaza, we found ourselves walking down "stove" street, "Jesus and candle" street, "wheelchair" street and finally "medical supply" street. We found our way to the Plaza des Armes and had a lunch of noodle and chicken soup followed by fried chicken, fried potatoes and rice, as well as enjoying our first taste of the legendary Inca Kola!
After exhausting central Lima´s markets and street sellers, we headed back to Iquique and got a taxi over to Miraflores, a much more upmarket part of town. After finding that the hostel we planned on staying in was fully booked, we got out of the taxi with all of our bags and began walking the streets for somewhere to sleep. Seconds later, after fighting over reading the map, we stumbled upon Imperial Inn (Andy found it - a coincidence, I think not!). We settled in and then headed out into Miraflores for dinner. Having had a heavy and cultural day, we settled on Pizza hut!
The following morning we headed over to probably the most posh supermarket in town, Vivanda, for a spanish omelette for breakfast. We headed down to the coast for a walk by the cliffs, taking some photos, and eventually found the paragliders. Andy was only too keen to try it, and convinced Sophie to try it after we saw numerous other tourists take to the sky without dropping to their deaths, including a six year old girl! We both found the experience breathtaking - in a tandem flight we ran off the cliffs and flew along the coasts, past the cliffs and over the beach, before going up higher to fly over the city of Lima.
In order to get back to the centre of the city for the next day, we thought it would be fun to try out one of the Daewoo taxis, aka, tiny beat up smart car type things, forgetting that we were in fact carrying all of our things for 6 weeks on our backs. Eventually we got back to Iquique and enjoyed a quiet night playing pool and watching School of Rock (we had spent the whole day speaking spanish and eating local food!)
Wednesday morning we got up with the plan to go over to the Daytona Amusement Park for go-karting and laser quest, but to our dismay, having taken a taxi over there we found that the park had been demolished last August! Instead, quick thinking led to us heading over to the Museo de la Nacion, the best museum in Peru. However we wern´t really feeling up to it. So...in what has become "Sophie and Andy Style" we headed back to Iquique after our cultural excursion for some Pizza and Cable TV!
This morning we packed up our things and said goodbye to Iquique, to which we have both become strangely attached, and are writing this blog on our way to the bus station to get down the coast to Ica and Huacachina, a small oasis in the desert! Not sure how much we´ll be able to contact you all from there, so hope you´re all having a great summer, and speak soon.
Lots of love,
Andy and Sophie xxxxx
