Ginny and Duncans Big Adventure

All except Kristen were up for breakfast early(ish) as we had booked a flight over the Nazca lines.  I'd had a rather bad stomach the previous night, so stuck to scrambled eggs, and Krystal had been up all night too - looking pretty miserable.  But she was determined to take the flight and off we all went to the airstrip.  It was very busy - flying over the Nazca lines in 4 or 6 passenger propeller planes is big business! Dee and I were dispatched first, with a local family, and walked over to our plane and pilots.  Each in our designated seats (to balance the plane) we chugged off to the end of the runway.  A few minutes later we were airborne, rising up over the large dusty plain, surrounded by dry mountains.  Within seconds the first of the lines and glyphs were below, the pilot pointing them out through our headphones: a whale and astronaut (!).  What purpose theses lines served (and where the idea of an astronaut came from) is still a mystery. T...

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 t...