the last bit of that trip

So after Cusco-a long drive and then a short night in a small town called Chivay and an early rise so that we could visit the Colca Canyon and see some condors. After waiting a for over an hour some condors did appear, swooping up and back along the canyon. They´re quite amazing birds, but unless you have them flying directly above your head or a really good camera it´s hard to capture it.
The next stop Arequipa, a larger town, almost a city I guess, but quite pretty with some impressive architecture. We camped in the back yard of a hotel, some people paid extra to stay in the hotel, but it was a nice place. I had a really yummy pork dinner that night, you don´t find much pork on the menu´s. We spent two nights in Arequipa, some of us went shopping in the new mall which was kinda fun, first time in ages we´d seen kfc and burger kings! Sad I know.
Another day driving, this time we hit the coast, back down to sea level, no more altitude problems! We got to see some local dolphins enjoy themselve´s in the waves and a dead whale stinking up the beach. That night we camped in a little bay called Puerto Inca, there are paths that the inca´s used to courier fresh fish from, they could be at machu picchu in a ridiculously short time. Our tour group has two ´bands´ so we were treated to a performance which was unforgettable, and another group who stayed the same placed aswell had a great fireworks display. And then there was a fabulous karaoke machine-which I really enjoyed (not).
More driving, we had the Nazca lines to do this time, our last night camping but before that the small plane flight over the vast dry flood plains that are the home to some curoius images said to have been created by the inca´s, their purpose is debated. Some belive that they were used for things like ceremonial dances others think that they are related to constellations and can help people find their way. Here´s a photo of the humming bird, and our plane load pretending to be different character lines. I´m being the hands, then there´s Pam the monkey, Brooke´s being the condor I think, Krissy is the spider and Gabby in front is being a dog.
Huacachina followed Nazca, a little oasis in the middle of big sand dunes. Our hostel was cute, with a pool, it´s been getting hotter during the day the further north we travel (duh) but the nights can still be cold. Sand dunes means sand buggies and sand boards, the buggies were great, 6-9 seaters, basically just an engine, seats and roll cage. We had some fun the drivers would take us for a bit of a cruise to the top of a dune and then we´d get to board down, on or tummies, then they´d come and pick us up at the bottom and drive us to the next dune. We got to see the sun setting too which was a rather spectacular orange.
Our final destination Lima. Some of the group were leaving that night so we all went out for our last dinner together
, some people were pretty emotional but it was a good night, we got to go to Hooters. Very pretty girls but no idea on how to be efficient waitstaff.
Lima is a big city, the nearby town Miraflores is much nicer though. Couple of extra nights in Lima and that´s the end of South America!