Lima is GREAT!!!! We love Lima :)

Why? Well, better ask why not!

Beautiful buildings, colonial and new ones, very different barrios, each with a totally different atmosphere. From very posh to quiet middle classto avibrant citycentre.

We stayed a few days enjoying shopping, movies, bars, and of course the food!!!! Really, the food is something special in Lima. Endless choices, tastes, ingredients, all fresh and perfectly combining Peruvian cuisine with international cuisine. The Peruvian topchefGaston Acurio has found a way totake Peruvian ingredients and combine them with topquality international quisine. And yeah, of course, we had to check it outfor ourselves, so we had lunch at his famous restaurant Astrid y Gaston, together with my parents, who we met for a farewell lunch,before they were heading back to Holland. Really lovely and gorgeous :) We would have liked to taste everything on the menu.... !

As a last sidetrip in Peru, Nazca was still on our wishlist. So we arranged a trip to Nazca for the world famous Nazca-lines.

We flew over the lines in a small Cesna , with only 5 passengers, turning left, turning right, turning left, turning right, turning left, turning right......... to see the figures at their best angle. A real experience for our eyes (beautiful kolibris and monkeys) and our stomaches.........

Nazca itself isn´t that interesting so we decidedto move on tothe oasis town of Huacachina in the desert, near Ica, a former spa resort for the rich and famous, and now a party meccafor backpackers. We had a lovely hotel with a pool and enormous sanddunessurroundingus. We went on a tour for wine- and pisco tasting :) And afterwardssandsurfingon the sanddunes and crossing the sanddunes with monstrous sandbuggies. Think rollercoster, excillerating!

Back in Lima we had two more days of lovely food, a museum visit, some more shopping and things you do when you´re in a great city.

Unfortunately, we couldn´t swim at the beaches of Lima, because they are too much polluted.

Lima, Nazca and Huacachina were a perfect way to conclude our 3 months in South America. On the one hand, we were sad to be leaving, on the other, there is so much more to discover and experience in the next part of our trip!! We had a fantastic timein South America and definitely will come back some day.

So, Easter Island and Pacific, here we come!