Puerto Inka, Peru

23rd August – 24th August 2017

Leaving Nazca mid-afternoon was strange (and made the organisation of my blog quite difficult), as we usually leave in the morning.

We had finished lunch and had washed up and cleaned up by 2, so set off towards Puerto Inka. Puerto Inka was only a short stop – it was more like a layover on the way to the next place.

We drove for a couple of hours before stopping in Yauca – a town where literally every stall and shop sold olives. It would have been great if I was a fan of olives but I’m not, so I hopped off the truck, wandered up the street a little bit and then got back on the truck. We were only meant to be stopping for about 15 minutes but so many people wanted to buy olive products, so we were there a little bit longer.

At about 4 o’clock, we set back off to Puerto Inka (which used to be an old Inka port), with 50km to go. I had a little nap on the way but the journey wasn’t very long.

We arrived at the campsite just before the sun went down – you could tell that it was only an old port because there was nothing but the campsite around. The temperature had dropped a fair bit by this point and it was misty, so I was very tempted to upgrade to a room, but I persevered and put up my tent ready for my last night’s sleep in a tent for a while (well until Cuzco but I don’t have to put my tent up then). I borrowed a fleecy bag from the truck, to put my sleeping bag inside to hopefully make me a bit warmer.

Stephanie’s group were in charge of dinner, so I had time to chill before dinner was ready. I needed some chill time because the strain of the trip is starting to take its toll on me with the exhaustion, so some chill time and an early night was definitely needed.

I woke up far too early the next day, but my sleep was much better because of my double layered sleeping bag. My alarm went off at 5.45 again and I gradually got myself up and dressed. I went to the toilets and on my way back was a bit surprised that no one else was moving, but I carried on packing. I came out with my bags and in a very serious tone, David said ‘You were asleep last night when we found out…’ I thought he was going to have some bad news for me, but it was just that we were leaving later because of road closures (so one road is only open between 12 and 2 because of recent earthquakes and landslides, so there was no point in us getting there too early) – it also explained why everyone was still asleep. We still had breakfast at normal time because I wasn’t the only one that was in bed before they found out about the opening times. This meant we had time to chill and get ourselves sorted before we left.

Puerto Inka wasn’t anything to us at all; we drove into the campsite, ate, slept and then left again to get to Arequipa.

To travel is to live, Katie x