Pisco & Nazca lines

Trip Start Sep 04, 2007
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Trip End May 28, 2008


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Flag of Peru  ,
Monday, October 8, 2007

Iīve had a busy few days since leaving Lima. The first stop was a boat trip out to the Ballestas islands a few miles off the coast. The islands are famous for the sea life including sea lions, penguins, Peruvian boobies and many other birds. The boat trip was good fun but nothing compared to Galapagos because you canīt land on the islands. The sheer number of birds was impressive (we were warned to wear hats due to airstrikes).

We also got to see the candleabra, which is a sand carving claimed to be hundreds of years old. Itīs only visible from the sea and nobody knows who made it or why.

Then it was a trip to the desert for some fun with dune buggies. The company is run by Peruīs top rally driver and offers overnight desert trips. We left in the afternoon for fast rides over the sand dunes and some head first sandboarding down the larger dunes The plane we flew in over the Nazca lines
The plane we flew in over the Nazca lines
 . It was really good fun, although it would have been better if they had let me drive a dune buggy! In the evening the drivers cooked a great dinner over an open fire and provided plenty of piscola (pisco & coke). Everybody slept under the stars and we had a great sunrise.

Yesterday I went to Nazca and had a flight over the famous Nazca lines. There are a number of animals and shapes drawn in the rocky desert by removing stones to reveal the fine dust beneath. Some of the shapes are over 200m long so they are only visible from the air. The shapes were drawn between 200BC and 700AD and nobody is sure of the exact purpose. My favourite was the "Astronaut" on the side of a hill.

The flight itself was in a very small plane (1 pilot & 5 passengers), which was very uncomfortable. Lots of tight turns a bit of turbulence meant that passengers in every plane were sick. Fortunately I had taken my remaining sea-sickness pills so I just survived the 30 minute flight (another 10 minutes flying would probably have been too much!).
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