14 Feb Left Arequipa today at 6.30am bound for Nazca. The 11hr bus ride passed easy enough and without incident. We booked our scenic flight over the Nazca lines. Nazca is a touristy town and has a population of about 50,000.
15 Feb Got collected at 8am for our Nazca lines flight. We had to hang around the airport for over 2 hours waiting for our plane. Eventually got up there (in the sky) to see what the lines were all about. They are mysterious lines in the desert, estimated to be about 3000 years old, that form either geometrical line formations or animal shapes including a monkey, spider, a whale and an alien....all at least the size of a football pitch. The amazing thing is that they are perfectly formed and are only visible from the air. On the ground they seem to be nothing unusual and even the monkey (unfortunately) has the Pan American highway running through its tail. It was good craic flying around in the single engine Cessna airplane, tilting way over one way and back over to the side to allow all passengers the best view. Inside it was smaller than an old mini, but comfortable none the less. Eventually got back to Nazca town and got the bus to the next major town called Ica. On the way we came across a car accident between a bus and a Daewoo Matiz, a tiny bean can of a car. It apparently had a head on collision with a bus of the same company we were travelling with. The driver of our bus stopped to check it out. We saw the car driver dead in a pool of blood and his passenger lying on the ground nearby screaming at him in shock, pain or horror or perhaps all three.
We arrived in Ica a few hours later and got a connecting bus bound for the capital, Lima. Arriving late that night we met up again with Ben, Liz and Caroline. They had gone on ahead of us as they dd not want to hang around while we climbed the mountain.
16 Feb Had a look around Lima city centre today including the Palace, the Catacombs and had a Pisco sour (famous Peruvian alcoholic drink) at the Royal Bolivia Hotel. A posh hotel reknowned in these parts for the best Pisco Sour in the world. It wasnt bad either. There wasnt a huge amount else to do in Lima and we booked our bus tickets north to a town called Trujillo.
17 Feb Hung around Miraflores (our district in Lima) and had the rare treat of a Starbucks coffee. I checked out the beach too but a strange sea mist covers Lima at times during the day so didnt see much in the way of views. That night we got our night bus to Trujillo.
18 Feb After a mildly uncomfortable nights sleep we arrived in Trujillo at 8am. From there we got a taxi to a coastal village 12km away called Huanchaco. Had a walk around town and a spot of lunch when I realised that if you are not sunbathing, surfing or swimming there is nothing else much to do.
19 Feb Went back into the main town, Trujillo to book our onward bus to Mancora. After that we went into the town to check it out. In the main square their were a whole load of local models trying out at some audition or something so we watched them and had a bit of craic with them, taking their picture etc. They were loving the attention. After a look around town and a bite to eat we went to the nearby ancient ruins called Chan Chan. The Chan Chan was the largest pre - Colombian city in the Americas but was taken over by the Incans and plundered by the Spanish.
20 Feb Arrived in Mancora and got a Tuk Tuk to the Point hostel. It was miles from the town and although it was right on the beach, it was a bit of a dump. Back into town on another Tuk Tuk where we were overtaken on the inside by a huge American pick up truck. It had been raining the night before and the truck went through a huge puddle to overtake us. We were drowned. He would have lived his last day today if I had caught a hold of him. We got to another better hostel (Loki) in the town & on the beach and with ensuite rooms overlooking the pool at E9 per night including breakfast, satillite TV and playstation.
21,22 & 23 Feb Just hanging around these 3 days and leaving for Equador on the 24th.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment