Saturday, 17 December 2016

Nazca, Ica & Huacachina

Day 1– Lines & Tours & Dunes….Oh My!

Being rudely awakened 2 minutes before we had to get off the bus at Nasca, I quickly got ready and got off the bus to collect our bags.  Shell had not heard me saying I was going to collect the bags and thought I was in the toilet, so she waited on the bus as it was pulling out of the station, I banged on the side of the bus to stop it so Shell could get off.


Crisis averted we then realised the bus had arrived early at 5.15 am and we were not due to be picked up until 7.00am, With nothing open we just had to sit and wait at the bus station for the duration until our ride arrived.  When it did turn up, we could see how the tourist agency made its margins as the car was old, tiny and beaten up.


The driver greeted us and then drove us to the Nazca airstrip where he took us to the desk where we were booked on for our Nazca Lines flight.  We were given around ½ to watch a documentary in the waiting area before our flight, it may have been good if we could have heard it above all the noise in the room!!

From what I could gather and have read, no one really knows why the Nazca Lines were created (Created between 900bc & AD600) or what their purpose actually were for.  Some say religious ceremonies, some say astrological calendar, giant running tracks or extra-terrestrial landing sites...take your pick!

We were then led through the departure gate, getting a standard security check (which was surprising) and then waited for our plane to be readied.  Soon we were called out onto the tarmac and watched whilst a very small twin prop pulled into a parking spot next to us.



Ourselves and four other passengers then squeezed into the plane, each of us had a window seat as it was  two a breast and the two pilots up front.  Soon it was chocks away and we were hurtling down quite a bumpy airstrip and into the air above an arid dessert landscape below
 


Pretty much 5 minutes after we had taken off we were seeing some of the Nazca lines, but these ones were pretty basic triangular shapes.  The pilot would tilt the plane so if you followed the line of the wing with your eyesight it, would point directly to the lines he was trying to show you. He would spin round and do the same for the other side of the plane, so everyone got to see the lines clearly.



As we continued the flight we soon found ourselves looking at some lines on the side of hill that seemed to represent an astronaut (more evidence of extra-terrestrial life), before heading on to see some more familiar shapes, i.e. Monkey & Hummingbird.
 


We had been told that the flight was pretty stomach churning and not to have any breakfast before getting it, but we were finding it fascinating and didn’t even think about it.  The flight continued for about 30 minutes and during that time we saw about one dozen of the lines, including the eagle, spider and parrot.
 


Unfortunately, it was over far too quickly as it had been fascinating and we would have liked to stay up there for at least an hour to see more of it.  Back on the ground, whilst waiting for our driver and his crappy car to pick us up, we went for a coffee. We compared our photo’s as it was hard to see what you were actually capturing whilst up in the air (the Galaxy phone as usual outperforming our crappy camera!).



Once the driver arrived we were driven back to the bus station where he purchased tickets for a local bus to take us to Ica, then he bid us farewell and we headed across the road to a café to grab some overdue b/f.  We also took the chance as we had been on an overnight bus to brush our teeth and freshen up in their toilets.

The sandwich I ordered took around ½ to produce for some reason, so when they turned up we had to bags them and trot swiftly back to the bus station to catch our local ride. The local buses are not quite up to the standard of the tourist buses, so we had quite a cramped, hot, 2 ½ journey through the barren desert landscape to Ica.

Arriving now hot, bothered and tired in Ica we were pleased to be met at the bus station by a guide who was going to be taking us on the next leg of the tour.  However, he said he was waiting for some more people and we were going to do a city tour (we hadn’t booked this), Shell and I did not fancy this and we asked if there was a restaurant/bar nearby where we could wait until it was over.  He wasn’t having it and we found ourselves kidnapped on possibly the most boring city tour ever.

After picking up a few more tourists we were taken to a small park with a golden statue of a witch in a tree (Shell & I went to a nearby bar and waited), some palm trees that grew along the ground instead of up (Shell & I stayed in the van).  By the point we arrived at a Pisco vineyard we convinced the guide (who did not speak English in any case) that we would go to a nearby restaurant and get some drinks whilst we waited for the others to do the vineyard tour. 

The penny finally dropped and he realised we really didn’t want to be doing the tour, let alone paying extra for it and we went down to the restaurant. We were both really pleased with this, until I noticed that West Ham were playing live on a big screen in the restaurant, so had the misfortune to watch them lose 1-5 at home to Arsenal…..not a good afternoon!!

Eventually after a few hours and the city tour was over and we were heading for Huacachina and to the sand dunes and oasis that we had paid to see.  It was a short drive from Ica and we were soon parking up and were walked along a few streets before we were taken to a small shop where we were given some chocolate tasting.

No chocolate was bought and we were given about 45 minutes to have a wander around the Oasis.  If I’m honest it wasn’t quite what I expected (a lush waterhole in the middle of a desert) as it had hotels, restaurants & bars around it and a number of touristy streets running off it.  So, we visited one of the bars next to it and then took a few snaps which try to make it look like it’s in a remote location (if you can ignore the peddalo’s!!).

 


It was then time for the last activity of the day which was taking a dune buggy trip over the sand dunes.  Again not what I imagined as about 12-14 of us climbed and strapped ourselves into a monster V8 dune buggy.
 


Right from the quick ride through town it was clear that this thing was powerful and our driver was slightly insane and he gunned it at every opportunity he could.  Out of town and we were soon heading up a very steep sand dune at quite a speed.
 


Once over the first ridge and the fun began as we literally flew up large dunes only for the driver to handbrake turn at the ridge and come back the other way even faster.  On other occasions, he would drive over a lip into practically a vertical drop on the other side.



If I’m being honest this was possibly one of the scariest things I (Glenn not Shel) have done on this trip as it felt like he could roll it at any point or hit another high speed dune buggy.  Sometime he would just open it out to what felt like 100+ mph over the sand, pits and drops.  Take it along 45 degree sandbanks and then either handbrake or take you over yet another vertical drop, to be fair the guy could really drive but I would have preferred to be in the driving seat.

After about 20-30 minutes of haring round like we were on the longest roller coaster ride ever and stretching our seat belts to the max the driver then took us to the top of a huge sand dune, where we parked up and got out of the buggy.  The driver then went to the back of the vehicle where he handed out sandboard’s to everyone.
 


The view from the top of the sand dune was quite steep (near vertical) and after a brief instruction we found ourselves zooming down the dune on our bellies.  I went first and it was pretty quick, but not as scary as imagined, shortly followed by Shelley, which meant I could get the picture below.
 


At the bottom, we then walked to another dune ridge and did the same again but this time it wasn’t so steep, before being collected once again by the buggy driver.  From here we spent another 5 – 10 minutes bouncing around the dune before the driver tried to break his fastest time to get back to the town!
 


Underpants now changed (and tip paid to mentalist buggy driver) we met back with the guide who then took us back to the coach station as we had another lovely overnight bus trip to Cusco!  Arriving very early at the bus station we checked in our luggage and then headed out to see if we could find a drink and something to eat it the town.

Looking around for a while we could not see anything close to the bus station and ended up walking down some side streets and down an alley where we found a bar.  After ordering a beer and necking it fairly quickly, due to some shifty looking local guys, we headed down the road until we found the main square.

Once again wandering round for some time we finally found a bar on the square where we settled down and had a couple of hours whilst we waited for our coach departure time.  The owner was very friendly and came over and had a brief chat to us. Then we spent quite a bit of time speaking to a local couple on the next table to us in Spanglish and them in Englasol, but we seemed to understand each other.

On the way back to the bus station we stopped off for some Empanada’s in one shop and some take-away chips from a restaurant next to the station, for our evening meal. Healthy!

Back at the bus station we soon found out that our bus was going to be delayed and after speaking to an Australian couple we started to worry as they had been waiting for around 6 hours for their bus.

We had our food and waited for news, thinking we may have to book a room for the night in Ica.  In the end we went to the check-in/info desk and spoke the man to find out what was happening, not being fobbed off and refusing to move until we had an answer.  Finally, we were told that there had been an accident on the main road, our bus was no.6  of the delayed buses and would be turning up in around ½ hour.
 


True to his word, suddenly lots of buses started to turn up and soon our new Australian mates were on their way and about ½ later our bus turned up, at 12pm not 10pm!  We boarded the bus and quickly settled down to what we thought was going to be a 17 hour journey!

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