A Terrifying Experience

WOW...

Our last four days have been absolutely jam-packed with action!

We started in Nazca. Nazca is a little hole in the middle of nowhere that has no reason whatsoever to exist. Except for one of the great mysteries on earth. Right up there with Stonehenge. The Nazca-lines. The lines are MASSIVE shapes formed by taking away rocks in the desert. They are complex, depict animals, plants, were created more than a thousand years ago, and incidentally, can only be seen from a plane... Sort of makes you wonder...

Anyway, to appreciate them, we got into a small cessna, my first small aircraft. A pretty interesting experience, although the extreme banking made my stomach lurch quite a bit! The two girls sharing the plane with us, did in fact manage to throw up in a mostly feminine way into the little plastic bags provided! The tour guide was very annoying with his never-ending stream of "on your right, on your right, look down, look down, the monkey, the monkey".

co-pilot Lloyd

the monkey, the monkey...

We viewed ten of the more prominent figures, the most impressive being the detailed afore-mentioned monkey (90m) and the condor (wing-span 130m). After the flight we searched for something to do, but to no avail. We spent the rest of the day reading, sleeping and eating.

the astronaut

the hummingbird

From Nazca it was off to Ica, another town in the increasingly impressive desert (one of the dryest in the world). Interestingly enough, Ica is a wine district of some note. The whole area is desert dunes dotted with tiny little spots of lush green oasis.

Our final destination was the little resort of Huacachina, 4km from Ica. A picturesque laguna surrounded by palms in the middle of some impressive looking dunes. Our hostel, Casa de Arena, looked pretty nice (even though a bit dilapidated)! A swimming pool, surrounded by deck chairs, hammocks and a well stocked pool-side bar. We immediately grabbed some sand-boards and climbed the closest high dune. It was rather unsuccessful. After a few attempts it was back to base for a shower, beer and a bit of reading. That night we joined a barbeque. R45 for unlimited Pisco Sours, Cuba Libres (1h30 time limit) and LOTS of chicken, hamburgers and a salad bar. Nice...

Huacachina

the hostel courtyard

The next morning we booked a trip for a dune-buggy ride. It was INCREDIBLE! More than two tours cruising the endless dunes at high speed and crazy angles! We did stop for some dune boarding that went a lot better with waxed-up boards and a lift to the top. We started on some small dunes and then gradually worked our way up to a MASSIVE dune for the grand finale. By then we decided the best and fastest way to go down was on our stomachs. We smoked down the slopes at blistering speeds and then unfortunately had to head back.

buggering around (sorry, bad pun...)

Dune

Lloyd of Arabia

Back at the hostel we had enough time for a quick swim and an ice cold coke before heading back to Ica and leaving on what was to become the longest journey...

I came to South America looking for an authentic experience. Well, I got my wish, but it was not quite what I had in mind.

The first part of the road was from Ica to Lima (5 hours). We arrived in Lima at 17h and then had to wait for 22h30 for our bus to Trujillo, a city 570km north of Lima. It is normally an 8h bus trip.

At about 03h00 the first of our troubles began. The bus simply stopped. We were informed (in Spanish) that we could not go on, because of protesters blocking the roads. After 4 hours of waiting we were off again. Unfortunately that wasn't the worst of it. We were stopped again for four more hours at the town of Chimbote. Because the queues of cars were so long, we didn't see any of the protests. By the time we got there the roads were half-cleared (they blocked the roads with rocks, trees and sacks of sand) and police were standing with guns and riot gear. After this we thought that we have finally passed the worst. Once in town we were blocked once more. When we finally started going again it was already getting dark. On the outskirts of town the first rocks hit the side of the bus. We were ordered by the stewardess to get down and close the curtains. The next 30 minutes we sat in the pitch dark on the floor of the bus not knowing what was going to happen. Luckily we got through the danger area without too much further going wrong. Nontheless, I was quite shaken. This was not a pleasant experience. We finally arrived in Trujillo after a tense 23 hour trip, burned out and hungry (no food on the way).

From Trujillo we jumped on a taxi to the nearby coastal town of Huanchaco. This tranquil little town will be our rest stop for the next few days. Lazy days of surfing, swimming, hammocks and seafood!

Neil