Nazca, Sand, Booze and Boobies

      We got our posh bus for Nazca and it has to be the poshest bus we have ever been on. There was actually a departure lounge at the bus station, we checked our bags in like at the airport and when we got on the bus, we had seats like first class; big, wide and comfy, chillout music in the background, pillow and blanket on our seats. We got dinner (a sandwich and cake) and watched a film about some computer that tries to take over the world for the good of mankind. I fell asleep just before the end. The bus even had wifi (although I'm writing this now on another one and it doesn't work...). Anyway we rolled into Nazca about 7 a.m.-ish, walked straight into the agency recommended to us and sorted our flights over the lines. The woman behind the counter told me the flight could be at 9, or 10, or 11, or later. I asked which one and she said she didn't know. We went off to get some cash after leaving our bags in the hotel next door – Nazca just a small town with not much to say for itself – when we got back to the agency to pay up she said, “Can you be ready to go in 10 minutes?”. We said yes and jumped in a van.

      The airfield was small but very busy – loads of Japanese tourists – the little Cessnas taking off and landing every few minutes. We paid our 'air tax' (the Peruvians tax you for doing anything...) and were hustled towards our plane along with another English couple. B still looked a little apprehensive about the plane but I assured her it was fine (I wouldn't have done that now...). The flight was generally very smooth with no problems. I felt a little queasy from some of the hard banking they were doing so that we could see the pictures but otherwise we were fine. The lines themselves were quite amazing. Some of the pictures were indistinct and smaller than we expected but what amazed me more was the hundreds of other lines criss-crossing each other, seemingly at random, but perfectly straight, running for hundreds of metres. B liked the hummingbird and the spider. After around half an hour of flying round, banking hard and the pilots shouting, “Look there! There! Hummingbird! There! Look!” etc. we landed, nice and smooth and we headed back to town. The people at the agency helped us get a bus to Ica, not a posh bus this time, and we were on it by 11 a.m. 

Our plane...

Hummingbird

      Three hours later we got into Ica and we grabbed a taxi for Huacachina – we heard it was a cool place to go – it is just a few kilometres out of the town and it is literally an oasis in the middle of the desert. It is a tiny place that was built in the 50s with a few old colonial houses and hotels built around the little lake that makes up the oasis. All around the place are enormous sand dunes and people go onto the sand in buggies to sandboard and stuff. We got to our hotel and they hadn't heard of our reservation (yawn...) blah blah. This time they told us that they didn't even deal with the website who took our booking – annoying for us as they took a 10% deposit. They still got us a room though – double for first night then 'matrimonial' for next. We also got a special rate because we'd used the posh bus service (Cruz del Sur) that day. It was a nice place as well – big pool, great view of the dunes to the back, parrots walking about everywhere and fantastic showers as well – the sort of thing we've started to appreciate more.

      We spent four days there – lounging around, eating in each of the 4 or 5 different restaurants they had there (we discovered arroz chaufa – basically a kind of Chinese fried rice – and ate it a lot...), we took a dune buggy up into the sands – amazing ride (I want one) – I got to sandboard down some big dunes (not standing up, just on my belly) and just generally spent time taking it easy. We discovered the joys of 'Super Collapse 3' on the computer, then got withdrawal when our free sessions ran out.

This is what it is like on a sand buggy...

Sunset over the dunes

The oasis of Huacachina

     

     During the next day we chilled by the pool in the desert heat and enjoyed the Oasis, however as it was the Peru election no booze was served and this made me and Neil (in particular) very sad. We however went in search of some alcohol and found a few stalls were Rum was clearly on show and asked if we could buy it, with no problems we did and enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing with rum and cokes. We also managed to book a Pisco (national grape spirit) and wine tour for the next day once the alcohol ban was over. We were picked up by a man who spoke very little or no English and he drove us to a small winery that also created Pisco. A Young lad gave us a tour and told us of the process which included squashing the grapes with their feet, through a press (wooden and hand done) left in pots for different lengths of time depending on the wine and Pisco. He spoke excellent English and told us he had to practise his English a certain number of hours a day in order to pass his Uni course. Not bad job if you can get it. After a small but detailed explaination we got to the bit me and Neil were looking forward to this being the TASTING! We got to try the wine...,more like Sherry but lovely. Everone else sipped their wine, me on the otherhand necked it as usual. Then we got to try lots of Pisco sour, some flavored with lemon, some you added honey too and some really stong 50% stuff that nearly killed me! Neil was enjoyng the tasting however it did remind him of the Cachaca we had in Brazil and remined him of being very sick after having it. My favourite Pisco was a Bailey's type one which was great but as we are travelling light we couldn't really buy any....sorry guys.

Pisco tasting

 

Wine press

      We then got back in the cab which took us to a 'Museum'. We were expecting some old winery museum or something. Actually, it was just a couple of rooms, where they store their wine urns, which happened to be full of utterly random items of old tat. See pics to explain. My favorite items of tat were; a stuffed sealion (which looked incredibly alarmed), a strange model of a gentleman with his legs spread and an unusually large hoohaa, lots of guns from the second world war (probably brought here by escaping Nazi officers) etc.

We got to drink more Pisco – I was certainly feeling the effects now and I think B was the same... Our driver made us take pictures of ourselves next to a bronze statue of some drunk tramp. Then we went home.

Bindya, a drunk tramp...and statue

     After more Rum the night before we woke uo bright and early at 6am to be picked up and taken to Paracas ( a small fishing town on the coast) to go to the Islas Ballestas which ws the poor man Galapagos where we can see Sea Lions, Penguins, Boobies (yes this is not a typo error, like many of you reading this it makes Neil giggle every time he or someone else says this), Pelicans and other bird and sea life. We were driven as a group to the town and queued for our boat...during the wait I met a huge Pelican see pic and also heard an annoying Yank who was drinking beer at 9am and talking very loudly to anyone who was near him. We managed to avoid him and get in a different boat. The boat was comfortable and we had to wear life jackets (thank God), we then set off on a long Boat Journey to our first stop the Candelabra set in Stone on the mainland and is used by the Inca for prayers and to the Pirates as a coordination point. We took some pics and headed to the Islands there were saw lots of birds and very cute mini peguins (everyone loved them) we also saw Sea Lions (see pics and Video) as it is better than me explaining. We did however experience people on their phone rather then enjoying the wildlife and also birds pooping on many people.

     

     We headed back and had some breakfast after a long wait of trying to organise a bus to Lima that day, it was long winded and difficult to do and even then it was wrong. Anyway we sat by the coast had some drinks and enjoyed the Peruvian music (played live by a band)

We then headed to the Bus Station where again we bumped into the annoying Yank who this time approached Neil and tried to talk to him but Neil clearly didn't want to and did his strong, stern face and saying a little as he could, we hoped he wouldnt be near us on the 4 hour bus ride to Lima. The bus was over an hour late but we got on the bus and headed to Lima.

Just want to say a big THANK YOU to Ben T for the Nazca L:ines trip - there was some money left over from your gift so you also got us the Sand Buggy, Wine and Pisco tasting and Islas Ballestas!!! (It was low season...)

Huacachina and sand dunes and stuff

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=236339&id=547011402&l=aef8454ed5


Nazca Lines
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=236345&id=547011402&l=7e8607cb7d


Islas Ballestas

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=236347&id=547011402&l=506cb46977

Wine and Pisco Tour
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=236349&id=547011402&l=a9f76dd20c