Days 354 – 355: Return to Lima & The Nazca Lines
It started to rain heavily in the middle of the night, but we didn’t mind as we had finished all our Amazonian sight-seeing during the first two sunny days. Throughout the night, we would occasionally hear loud THUNKS of something landing on the canvas roof of our treehouse – we didn’t hear the noise the first night, so we wondered if the wind and rain was knocking fruit off the branches of the trees? The next morning, we discovered a troop of monkeys climbing in the branches of our tree – we suspect they were sleeping above us all night. Whether the thunks were due to falling fruit or poop, we’re not going to spend too much time thinking about.
Though our return flight to Lima wasn’t until 2PM, we had a long boat ride followed by a long car ride to Iquitos, so we and the other departing guests boarded the longboat after breakfast. Luckily the transfer boat is covered, so the return journey was dry.
A troop of monkeys slept in our tree last night. After breakfast, we say farewell to our guide, Martín
After two beautiful sunny days it finally starts to rain cats & dogs in the Amazon
When we got back to Lima, we resigned ourselves to another 1+hr. long taxi ride in traffic. Once we checked into our hotel, Lindsay lazily spent over an hour trying to order pizza delivery online. When that proved unsuccessful, she tried to walk to the stupid pizza place, only to find out they were closed for a private event. Along the way, she passed a public bus where a group of young thugs inside were rioting – screaming at passengers, breaking windows, etc. Witnesses on the street started yelling for the “Policía!” who luckily showed up within a metter of minutes. Rather than stay out looking for another pizza place, she returned to the hotel and just ordered us room service (crappy pizza, but at least we won’t get our heads bashed in).
Room service “pizza” and some welcome drinks back at our hotel in Lima
For our last full day in Peru, we booked a day trip to Pisco to see the Nazca Lines – a UNESCO World Heritage site – and the Paracas Marine Reserve. Igor was starting to develop a little cold, but luckily there was nothing strenuous on the itinerary. A private car picked us up from our hotel at 7AM for the long, 3hr. drive down to the province of Pisco, which is about halfway to Nazca, where we would catch our flight. (Pisco has been stealing a lot of tourism business from Nazca since building their airport. Even though it is only currently used for scenic flights and emergency landings for Lima Int’l, the Pisco Airport is HUGE – 13 gates and brand new. I supposed it was constructed with a, “if you build it, they will come,” agenda – it might pan out.)
Day-trip to the seaside province of Pisco, about 3hr. south of Lima
Igor asks Lindsay to “check the water” because he wants to see how cold it is. When she tries to refuse, he gives her a pouty face and pulls the “I’m sick card.” So, like a good little wife, she goes to the edge of the rocky beach and reaches out to the water just as a wave comes crashing in, soaking her boots up to the ankles. You’re welcome, honey-bunny, now go fuck off.
The airport in Pisco is huge (13 gates) but the only flights that go out of here are scenic flights to the Nazca Lines
We get our tickets, go through security, and into the massive, empty waiting area. It feels like we’re in a post-apocalyptic zombie movie – where IS everyone?!?
We have a large group of Japanese tourists in our plane, all of whom want a pre-flight picture with the captain (check out the dude rockin’ the country-bumpkin suspenders!)
Lindsay hums the Indiana Jones theme song as we board the 1-engine plane
Flying over the resort-town of Paracas – the Pan-American Highway cuts a line through the desert below
Dried up floodplains run out of the fertile valley
The Nazca Lines are a collection of dozens of shapes that were etched into the desert ground by an ancient civilization pre-dating the Incas, around 2,000 years ago. What’s puzzling about these shapes (which resemble birds, animals, plants, etc.) is how and why they were created. The shapes are only properly visible from the sky (you can view some of the shapes from nearby hills and a modern viewing platform, but not all of them) – so how did the original artists design and build the shapes when they couldn’t see what they were doing? There are some hypotheses that the shapes were installed as religious offerings to the heavens (supposedly God would have a good view of the shapes from the clouds!).
Sadly, the Nazca Lines have become victims of their own success, and a lot of damage has been done in recent decades as a result of tourism. Many of the figures have tire tracks and even roads cutting right through the lines, making them hard to identify, and there is plenty of graffiti on nearby hills (Greg wuz here!). Even so, the figures were pretty cool to see in person – there’s nothing in the world quite like them (maybe crop circles would be close). The flight itself was also really fun – in order to give the guests good views, the pilots would bank REALLY HARD and fly at a 45⁰ angle (once for the right side of the plane, then swing around again for the left side of the plane). Surprisingly, even though this was a much bumpier ride than our hair-raising flight to Lukla in Nepal, Lindsay did not cry at all (it was the landing on a cliff that scared her the first time – today she wasn’t afraid that the pilots would fuck-up landing on a wide, flat desert).
The Whale and the Astronaut
The Monkey and the Dog
The Hummingbird and the Condor
The Spider and the Crane
A viewing tower on the ground is surrounded by a Lizard, the Tree and the Hands, and the final figure we see on our tour is the Parrot
After our flight, we made a quick stop in the resort town of Paracas for lunch (unfortunately, overpriced and not very tasty) and picked up a local, English-speaking guide for our drive-through tour of the Paracas National Reserve – a park along the coast with really dramatic landscape scenery. By 4PM, we were back on the road heading north to Lima – our driver dropped us off at our hotel at 7PM. It was a 12hr day of touring – our very last international activity! Next stop: the USA!
Seafood Fried Rice at a waterfront restaurant in Paracas
Beach goers and funky art in Paracas
Paracas National Reserve – known for dramatic coastal scenery
Our guide points out fossilized seashells in the ground on the Fossil Walking Trail
The remains of La Catedral – a rock formation off the coast that used to have an arch connecting it to the cliffs that was destroyed in the 2007 earthquake
Lindsay and Igor admire the vast, tropical desert of Paracas
Desert meets ocean in Paracas
Stunning red sand beaches in Paracas – the colors are amazing!