A Peruvian Peradventure

Per-ad-ven-ture

adverb
perhaps

noun 
uncertainty or doubt as to whether something is the case

Our fleeting 8 day Peruvian adventure definitely fell into the category of the 'peradventure'. We started in vibrant city of Cusco, staying at one of my favourite hostels yet, Loki Cusco. On the culture side, we were able to visit some amazing Incan ruins, and of course the infamous Machu Picchu. I have to be honest that due to our limited timeframe, alongside myself and Kelly's fear of falling off a mountain due to our extreme un-coordination, we took the cheats way out and caught the train up to the world famous Incan site. Fortunately this was not detrimental to the incredible experience that we had, and to this day it's one of the most amazing historical sites I've seen. The day spent trawling through the ruins with our amazing local guide are etched into my memory, especially the instance of getting stuck in torrential rain half way through our guided tour, with only an alpaca jumper as a raincoat (which was actually amazingly water resistant, I would have never guessed).

Kelly, Gari & I at Machu Picchu

Kelly & I at Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Incan ruins

Making llama friends

Our exit from Cusco was delightfully unplanned, with a spontaneous bus trip leaving us with an ETA of approximately 2AM in the morning. It also left us on the side of the highway without a place to stay, and when we found such a place we had insufficient funds to pay for it. Waking up in the morning we were greeted with insufferable heat and a trip to the centre of town to visit an ATM & find a more accessible place to stay. As luck would have it we found an amazing hotel for a ridiculously low price, which we spent majority of the time lying on the tiled floor trying to escape the heat. Our one adventure was to visit the lookout to view the Nazca lines (a.k.a. the best possible option for travellers on a budget). We took a moment to appreciate the amazing scenery, then immediately made our way back to the sanctuary of our hotel room (adventurous I know).

Nazca Lines

We decided to move along pretty quickly, travelling to Huacachina, leaving us to a crazy 24 hours of sand boarding, riding around in a dune buggy and partying in our hostel. Making bartender friends is always a good option, though losing your room mate is definitely not recommended (it was definitely a stressful morning), and we eventually made our way to the capital city of Lima in time for a quiet night of food and farewells before we both jetted off to Europe.

On to bigger and brighter adventures!

-Melissa