Peru and Easter Island Day 02

  

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30th April 2010
       
I get up at 3.10am (yes you read that right!) as I am being picked up at 4am for a trip down to the Nazca lines. I start to get ready and at 3.30 I get a phone call, the guide is waiting for me downstairs, I put my clothes on real quick and stumble out the room. I have to admit I am a bit annoyed about him arriving the 30 minutes early as I did not get chance to get ready correctly.
We drive through the dark streets of Lima to pick up a Japanese couple from another hotel, we then start the long journey to Nazca.

It is dark for the first few hours with the sun starting to appear at around 5.30. We travel down the Trans American Highway and even at this time there is still a lot of traffic on the road, most of which is lorries that are difficult to overtake.

We stop at a place called Paracas and the driver hands us over to a lady from a local tour company, it turns out we are going on a little boat trip. The tour is around Paracas and then over to the Ballestas Islands. I was not expecting this, I had only paid for a drive to Nazca, a flight over the lines and then a drive back.

When on the boat they say the tour is going to last around two hours, it is then that my heart sank a bit, I wondered if they had booked me on the correct tour, maybe I was on some kind of wildlife excursion, as come to think about it the guide in the car mentioned nothing about the Nazca lines only asked for my name.

I tried to enjoy the boat tour the best I could and saw a lot of wildlife including many different types of birds, sea lions and even penguins. The whole place we visited stank of guano. There was one place that you could even see the candelabra drawing in the hillside.

After the boat tour I ask the diver if I am the correct tour going to Nazca and thankfully I am, just for some reason I have been booked on the more detailed tour than my basic one which was a bonus as I only paid for the cheaper version.

We then head over to Ica and the Huacachina Oasis where we hire a dune buggy and driver to take us over the sand dunes. This was great fun as he was driving like a madman over all the bumps. We stop to do a bit of sandboarding (snowboarding but on sand instead of snow), the first couple of times I just lay on the board and slid down the hills but then I decide to try it standing up. I think that it is a lot more difficult than snowboarding as you can’t slide as easy, in fact on one large hill that I was barrelling down I had a bit of a bad fall and scraped all the skin off on my right arm, nice!

After the fun in the sand dunes we head back to the Oasis and have lunch, I have some chicken and chips.

We then head over to the Nazca lines and get there around 15.00. we sign in and wait for our flight. The airport is very small with a few shops outside. When it is our turn we are lead to security where they check my bag and pockets. We then go out onto the runway and board our place, a small six seater.

After all the checks we taxi to the runway and then take off.to begin our flight over the lines. We see all the major sites such as the monkey, hummingbird and astronaut. To be honest I found it all underwhelming. I have seen shows about the lines on TV for years and always wanted to go there, but if I am honest they are not as impressive in the flesh compared to TV. I say this because they look a lot smaller in real life and the place if only overhead te drawings for just a brief few seconds.

After the flight lands we get back in the car and head back to Lima, I arrive back at the hotel at 23.30, it has been a long day.
       

Travelling

     
       
       
       
       
     
       

Paracas

     
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
 
       
       

Ballestas Islands

     
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
   
       
       

Huacachina Oasis

     
       
       
       
       
       
       
       

Nazca Airport

     
       
       
       
       
       
 
       
       

The Nazca Lines