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.
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