Paracas to Nazca - 9th Jan 2018
Slept well, waking around 7 to music blaring from one of the restaurants below our room. Welcome to Latin America! Everyone except for Dee and me was doing a morning boat trip to Islas Ballestas to view penguins, sealions and seals, but as I have the Galapagos Island in my near future, Dennis assured me I wouldn't be missing out by not going. Dee and I hunted down the only place in town that made real coffee (everywhere we've been so far has a choice of Nescafe or Nescafe) and decided to spend the rest of the morning by the pool, given that we'd pretty much done Paracas last night.
We had to be ready to leave by 11am and all of us were down in the lobby, keen as mustard. But no Dennis. At 11.15, our bleary eyed guide emerged from his room just off the lobby, woken by our voices. I was hugely relieved that the first person to be late was our guide. Talk about taking the pressure off, plus we have something to hold over him for the rest of the trip!
Our first stop was the Huacachina Winery where Peru's national drink, pisco, has been made by the same method for centuries. Grapes are squashed by foot, then passed into a many hundred year old press, from which the juice is transferred into original ceramic urns, last made in the 1890's. It's then distilled, the methanol removed and bottled. Really amazing that the process and equipment haven't changed in centuries. We were then treated to tastings of no less then 11 different piscos in quick succession, each one preceded by a traditional 'bottoms' up greeting in either Spanish or Quechua, which, given our empty stomachs, became increasingly slurry until it was hard to tell them apart. Needless to say we had a very lively, then sleepy, onward journey!
Our next stop was at the Huacachina oasis. We drove through enormous sand dunes, to be deposited at the largest oasis in South America. A small village, palm trees and hotels surround the lake, and are in turn surrounded by sand in all directions. Almost too perfect to be real! Some of our group went sandboarding, but having done that in Qatar years ago (and not rated it), I joined the rest of the group in the pool and sunshine.
After lunch, we headed off through the desert to Nazca. As we came across the first of the ancient Nazca lines etched into the desert floor - difficult to miss, as the highway runs right across it - we stopped to view, as best we could, from the tower on the roadside. Climbing the open staircase in high winds, we grabbed onto the rails to get a look at 3 of the carved glyphs: a tree, frog and lizard (whose tail has been cut in half by the highway). Onwards through the dry dry mountains to Nazca, where we settled into our hotel and a huge family style roast chicken dinner. Nando's should come and see how he Peruvians do it...
We're flying over the Nazca lines tomorrow, so more about them later. And anyway, my stomach is not happy so I'm going to bed and hope it will be better for our overnight bus trip tomorrow!
We had to be ready to leave by 11am and all of us were down in the lobby, keen as mustard. But no Dennis. At 11.15, our bleary eyed guide emerged from his room just off the lobby, woken by our voices. I was hugely relieved that the first person to be late was our guide. Talk about taking the pressure off, plus we have something to hold over him for the rest of the trip!
Our first stop was the Huacachina Winery where Peru's national drink, pisco, has been made by the same method for centuries. Grapes are squashed by foot, then passed into a many hundred year old press, from which the juice is transferred into original ceramic urns, last made in the 1890's. It's then distilled, the methanol removed and bottled. Really amazing that the process and equipment haven't changed in centuries. We were then treated to tastings of no less then 11 different piscos in quick succession, each one preceded by a traditional 'bottoms' up greeting in either Spanish or Quechua, which, given our empty stomachs, became increasingly slurry until it was hard to tell them apart. Needless to say we had a very lively, then sleepy, onward journey!
We're flying over the Nazca lines tomorrow, so more about them later. And anyway, my stomach is not happy so I'm going to bed and hope it will be better for our overnight bus trip tomorrow!
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