Copacobana, Arequipa, Cabanaconde, Nazca

So, as we can see, since leaving Cusco, I have been on the rapid fire adventure path and have visited many places in a short amount of time. Most have been culturally stimulating, often with beautiful landscapes and historical significance. However, unless you are seeing it for yourself, this is pretty dull, so I shall sum up before getting to a more interesting story:

Copacobana: had salt and vinegar pringles at the border crossing on the way there AND back. Bliss. Took a boat to Isla del Sol where myself and a French friend, Laure, walked far too far into the middle of nowhere in flip flops or, as I learnt after about six confused references to them, 'claquettes'. We missed the sunrise and came back to Copa where I bumped into Christian, an Austrian hippie I had worked with very briefly in Cusco who is now living, yes, living, on Isla del Sol. He gave me a rock. For luck.

Arequipa: a very pretty colonial town. Begrudgingly (I have been here for four months now, let's not forget) I thought I'd better do some sightseeing. There was a protest in the square and the people sported flags of Che because, whatever it was they were upset about, he will be able to fix it. I didn't have the heart to tell them that HE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR 42 YEARS and will not be coming to lend a hand. Off I went to Santa Catalina Convent where, I am telling you, if I have little to do when I'm 65, I will be retiring there to prune orange trees. It is sweet! Every 'cell' (try: deluxe single room) has an ensuite kitchen where one of the duties was to bake cookies. Also in Arequipa I ate delicious trout (Peruvian speciality) on the terrace of a beautiful restaurant overlooking the cathedral. Price for two courses, a coke and a glass of wine? Why, only 10 British pounds!

Cabanaconde: I took a bus through beautiful Inca terracing and mountains. I walked down into a gorge and swam in an 'oasis' (read: outdoor pool), I had a flap about a drowning indentifiably HUGE bug possibly stinging me in the mouth, but it was okay, no permanent damage done to beautiful face. I took a mule back up as I have now achieved Li Hi of all Li Hi (Machu Picchu, remember that?) and feel I no longer need to prove myself. The mule farted all the way up. I discreetly joined him and hoped the horseman couldn't tell the difference. Tee hee. The owner of the hostel tried to get me drunk on Pisco sours, but I have spent three weeks in the Loki Hostel and it shall never be possbile to get me drunk again.

Nazca: now, here comes the touristically significant story. There are two reasons to come to Nazca: the lines and Cerro Blanco, the largest known sand dune IN THE WORLD. But that is a story for another day as I haven't walked up it yet. I know I said I am done being Li Hi, but the appeal of another IN THE WORLD is just too much to resist. So I am walking in the blazing desert sun tomorrow for 4 hours to throw myself down 1000m of sand on a piece of wood. I have seen the boards. I fear for my life.

Today, however, I went to see the Nazca lines, a series of images somehow carved out into the earth. I am wikipedia-ing it now to offer a better explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_lines There we go. Wikipedia is just so much more articulate than me. Seeing the lines requires paying a comparatively extortionate amount of money to go in a little plane and fly over them. When I arrived at the airstrip, my first thought was: are these Cessna 207s REAL planes or have they constructed them from bolsa wood? Does Peru have rules about this sort of thing? If so, could I get a copy faxed to my desk straight away? Also, who is this man? Does he look like a qualified pilot to you, Brazilian and Czech couple? What's that? No speaky English? Oh.

However, all fears dissipated when the 'pilot', if that was his real name, looked at the two couples, shoved them in the back and ushered me INTO THE FRONT OF THE PLANE. WOWOWOWOW!! What an idiot. He clearly hadn't received the urgent telegram informing him that EMMA HAS TO TOUCH DANGEROUS LOOKING BUTTONS THE INSTANT SHE SEES THEM. So, whilst he was chatting to his groundling person, I sat in the front, silently spazzing out, repeating 'do not touch unless you want to die, do not touch unless you want to die.' But the dials and red and blue knob thingies and playstation stylee joystick were so pretty, I almost considered that death would be a fine price to pay just to see WHAT HAPPENED if I pulled the thing that had THROTTLE taped over the top of it.

I managed to resist and orf we went into the sky, I, waiting and waiting for the sick feeling to come but, to my amazement, delight, pride and astonishment, the sick feeling never came! No warmth in the cheeks, no OHGODHEREITCOMES, only a little bit of warning forehead sweat. And, just because I have always been taught that competition and winning at the expense of others is healthy, I beat the lady in the back who was sick. Ha. Take that lady. Not as Li Hi as me, are you? AND I get travel sick! So I proved myself to have a firm and steadfast constitution even in the most stomach stressful situations and therefore, despite farting-mule, am still Li Hi.

Also, the lines were cool, my favourite being 'the tree', but not as cool as seeing the landscape from a tiny plane, out of which I was definitely not sick!

It is very possible that next blog will be coming from Heathrow airport as I sit waiting for my bags that will probably NEVER COME (sod's law). How exciting is that?!