Into Peru

After our delightful stay at the Colours Hostel in Cali (not), we took the bus in the morning to Darien, the town next to Calima Lake where we were to have our Kite Surfing lessons. The accommodation we were staying in is a house owned by the Kite Surfing school and within a private section of the town accessed through security gates and is home to some of the nicest places in the town. Our room was spacious and to my delight had a very friendly cat on one of the beds. We had 4 days in Darien/Calima, my first lesson involved flying a training kite on land, I´d never been interested in flying kites before and then progressing to some body drag, whereby you fly the kite in the water without a board and let it drag you about. It was OK except I find when you´re learning something new and some one is shouting instructions and corrections constantly after a while I switch off. It was also very windy, I know you need a lot of wind for this sport but even experienced kiter's said it was a hard place to learn. Anyway Sarah loved it, on the last day we had a free horse ride in the hills next to the lake, courtesy of the kiting school, now this was much better, one of our instructors Mary came too and it was good to see her out of her comfort zone!

After Calima Sarah had come to the end of her trip and was flying back home and I was flying to Lima. My flight eventually left hours after the advertised time, the staff never communicated anything. I did find two other Europeans and an ex-pat Colombian who now lives in Switzerland and said how utterly disorganised Colombia was. I finally go to my hostel in Lima at 2am.
The next day I met Laura at breakfast and she said she was going on a walking tour organised by the hostel, so I went too along with more foreigners than I´d seen in the whole of Colombia. Lima is big and dull, it has some nice big buildings in the center, and we visited some fun catacombs tunnels and the Spanish Inquisition. The tour lasted all day and in the evening a smaller group of us from the tour went to the district of Barranco and tried some Pisco Sours in a fancy modern bar, we then had some more cheap versions in a locals pub down the road and found behind the bar a band playing and enjoyed the evening until one of the group, Tim from the states had to get a flight, in all a great first day in Peru.
The next day was not so great, Pisco Sours are very strong, even the ´Simple´(one shot) ones I´d had. When I came downstairs in the morning I found 3 police officers interviewing and filming the staff member on reception, afterwards they covered the front doors of the hostel with massive stickers that said something negative about the hostel. Apparently some old biddy who lives nearby had complained about some noise, it was actually a very quiet hostel, so she must be a curtain twitcher who hears the drop of a pin.

I booked 2 nights at a surf camp on the coast in a town called Punta Hermosa, in brief it was a total dump, the ´surf camp´did not have my booking and the owner was apparently out dirt biking with his friends, another guest showed me to a free room, which had not been cleaned and there was no bedding on the bed, the view was of a builders yard, which summarised the aesthetic of most of the town. I went out to have lunch and found another hotel next to the beach so I moved there to a nice room overlooking the beach with a restaurant underneath. I had planned on some surf lessons but the place didn´t look particularly nice or safe for learning, so the next day I left for Nasca.
The bus only went as far as Ica, 2.5 hours short of Nasca, it was dark so I stopped there for the night and went to the nearby village of Huachchina. I had no reservations and the hostel said they didn´t give beds to people without reservations, I asked where else can I go and strangely they found a bed, what a surprise, in a dorm, ugh, it was only for one night so it would serve. Thankfully it was quiet and the next morning I found a place inside a storybook. A real desert oasis, the tiny village surrounded a small lagoon, and encompassed by massive sand dunes, I hiked up one to take in the views. This place is depicted on the 50 sole note, I walked around trying to find the same view point.

Back to Ica and continued my journey to Nasca, a pretty town and feels very safe, my hostel lovely and quiet. I took a flight over the lines the next day, I didn´t see the lines except the first two because I had my eyes shut the whole time just trying to survive till the blasted thing landed. On a scale of discomfort out of 10, it was 10. It was worst than the worst migraine I´d ever had and it was all I could do to avoid a full migraine and explaining I was temporarily blind and deaf was beyond my Spanish  instead I had a sensation of paralysis and felt wiped out for the rest of the day. I don´t recommend flying over the Nasca lines, except if you charter a private plane and fly it yourself.
Besides crop circles are much better and far more ingenious.

Notes:

Crop circles are way better than Nasca lines.