Peru – Round Up

Peru – Round Up

From Nazca, we headed towards the coast. On the way, we visited Ica and its splendid museum, where we saw real mummies recovered from the nearby archaeological sites and examples of elongated heads. This cranial deformation took place when the person was an infant by applying tight cloth bandages and was an indication of high status. We met up with […]

Northern Peru – Bit of a Dump

Northern Peru – Bit of a Dump

We travelled north along Peru’s coastline from Lima, with a short deviation into the mountains, before cutting inland to our preferred Ecuadorian border crossing. I have to say Northern Peru does not have so much going for it as the south does. The main feature of driving north of Lima is the incessant rubbish that lines the edge of the […]

Peruvian Mountain Roads – Nightmare!!

Peruvian Mountain Roads – Nightmare!!

Leaving Lima, we wandered up the coast to Paramonga and, against Francine’s better judgement, turned inland to explore the Peruvian mountains. We climbed 2,500m, with the weather deteriorating the further inland we went and camped half way up before reaching the plateau at 4000m plus. It was very spartan countryside before slowly getting more populated as we followed the Rio […]

The Nazca Lines

The Nazca Lines

Just outside the town of Nazca in southern Peru is a flat desert plain on which ancient peoples (500BC – 500AD) etched hundreds of large images (geoglyphs), sometimes over 300m in length, that only really become apparent when viewed from above – the Nazca Lines. Our merry band of overlanders, David and Francine, Ivan, Heather and Jon, and Gerhard and […]

The Sacred Valley

The Sacred Valley

I do love a good ruin and so I wasn’t disappointed with Peru’s Sacred Valley!  Although the Inca empire is estimated to have lasted for less than 150 years (before it was rudely interrupted by the Spanish Conquistadors quest for power and gold), they managed to accomplish a great deal of infrastructure and construction in that time. We bought a […]

Peru –  A Promising Start

Peru – A Promising Start

We left the Bolivian holiday town of Copacabana and crossed into Peru at the Kasani border crossing. The border personal were serious, but very polite. A promising start. Having had our passports stamped and collected Big Bertha’s temporary import permit (TIP) we entered Peru and were immediately greeted by numerous and quiet fuel stations – what a change from Bolivia! […]

Bolivia Round Up

Bolivia Round Up

We spent just over a month in Bolivia. Not our longest visit by a far cry, but given the fuel shortages and regular road blockades (government protests), we decided to not press our luck. We entered Bolivia from Chile in the south on the Laguna Route and drove to Uyuni to visit the Salt Flats which we explored for several […]

Blessing Big Bertha

Blessing Big Bertha

Exploring Copacabana in Bolivia, we saw a lot of decorated cars around the town. Further investigation revealed they had been adorned with trimmings in preparation for their blessing by the pastor at the town’s church. Turns out this is quite a thing. Each day at 10am and 2:30pm, and especially at weekends, vehicles assemble outside the church ready for their […]

Wrestling in a Bowler Hat!

Wrestling in a Bowler Hat!

Francine told me she wanted to see the Fighting Cholitas – a group of female wrestlers that perform in El Alto (just above La Paz). Unfortunately, Francine caught a bug and did not feel like going. Given they only perform twice a week, Dave decided to go and report back. What a laugh! You either love or hate wrestling. It […]