We are extreme.

I woke up this morning to the sound of military music. I was drifting in and out to the sounds of marching bands, national anthems and loudspeakers for quite a while before I started to focus on what was being said... All I could pick out were the words "war" "Ecuador" "patriotism" and "brother".     Suddenly I was wide awake... Oh god they've started another war with Ecuador. 

I got out of bed to look out of the window, half expecting to see a tank roll past. There was a man in army combats with a backpack fitted with a loudspeaker. At first I just thought he was just a nut case but it turns out he was selling DVDs of the various wars that Peru has had with its neighbours and with itself. Very much a relief but still a strange way to start the day. 

We're currently in huaraz, a very ugly city in a very beautiful place. High in the cordillera blanch mountain range, we are here to do a bit of trekking And mountain biking and soaking up our last bit of Peruvian culture. Its probably not very fair to complain about the architecture as Huaraz was flattened by an earthquake in the seventies, and probably several times before that since the conquistadores turned up. I do find it strange that the more tectonically unstable the place, the flimsier the architecture becomes. the Inkas would not have approved.

 The mountain biking was a great success - although my hands ceased up after using the brakes so much - turns out downhill is actually harder the uphill. We had a great guide called Julio who spoke perfect English. Dermot took to it like a fish to water and our guide was able to take us down some amazing single tracks. Probably a bit adventurous for me as I've only been on an adult bike about five times but it was really fun. Especially as our track was blocked every so often by the occasional cow, donkey or pig. And we were regularly chased down the road by dogs - Julios advice was to kick them to death if they came too close - A: thats a bit strong; theyre only defending thier territory and B: highly unlikely as I was having enough trouble balancing as it was.

We managed to avoid the dogs but dermot turned into a all you can eat buffet for the mozies so we are deeting it up tomorrow for the trek.

We are also going to visit one of the tiny farming communities in the hills. We have both been a bit wary of these kind of tourist ventures, as I'm not sure whether it's a good thing or a bad thing for the communities themselves. But I feel like I should go and see for myself instead of dismissing it outright. 

 

Before huaraz we were in Trujillo, a city in the coastal desert. We had heard that you can do sandboarding in Peru - usually in NASCA which we aren't able to get to, so we decided to have a go while we were still in the desert. I had heard things about quads driving you up the mountain - and the picture on the flyer had a guy with full boots and bindings - ha! 

We got into a taxi with our tutor - who turned out to be a porter at the hotel. They took us out of town and through the sugar plantations to a farm. We paid the farmer two soles to walk through his lands to the dunes where we were presented with two chipboard planks with some cloth straps bolted on and told to walk up the huge dune in fronts of us! Luckily our guide was nice and the scenery was fantastic so we didn't mind too much. From the top you could really appreciate the wonders of irrigation - a lush valley surrounded by dunes. The sandboarding was essentially sledging while standing up - good fun really - although we got sand EVERYWHERE and I spent most of the time on my bum.

After about five goes I point blank refused to walk back up the dune, so we went back. Our tutor suddenly started climbing up a tree and came back with what looked like a giant bean pod which turned out to be guava. I don't know what I thought guava looked like but it wasn't that! Tasty though.