Nazca, Ica and Huacachina

Trip Start Jun 15, 2008
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Trip End Jun 14, 2009


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Where I stayed
Hotel el mirador de Nazca
(Lima hotels)

Flag of Peru  ,
Saturday, July 26, 2008

We arrived in Nazca on the 24th at 8am and checked into our hotel. Rather than go to bed for a rest we figured that as our time was limited we would try to fly over the Nazca lines today and go to Huacachina tomorrow. We took ourselves off to the airstrip and booked a flight with AirIca.  About an hour later we boarded a tiny cesna 3 seater plane and put our lives in the hands of Andy our pilot. The flight was very bumpy and Andy kept turning the plane on its side so that we could see the lines better. The lines were cool though it was  difficult to get a good picture of them from the plane with the bumpiness and having to concentrate on not getting sick (Cliona thanks for the advice on taking a motion sickness tablet before the flight, it definately saved us having to pay a soilage charge!!!) The flight lasted about 25 minutes and I was relieved to be back on solid ground again.

Yesterday we took a bus to Ica (just us and a load of peruvian people on the bus) and from there we got a taxi to the Huacachina oasis . Huacachina is basically a tiny oasis in the desert surrounded by sand  dunes OUr plane for Nazca lines
OUr plane for Nazca lines
 . We wanted to try sand boarding (similar to snow boarding but on sand instead of snow)  so we hired a dune buggy with a few other people to take us to the top of the dunes. I naively thought that the dune buggy just took you to the top of the sand dune so that you could sand board down and then picked you up at the bottom to take you to the top of the next one to save you from having to walk. How wrong I was! It turns out that the sand boarding is only a minor part of the experience and the main part involves the dune buggy driver scaring the b'jeasus out of you by driving over sand dunes at high speed, its a bit like being on a roller coaster but without the built in safety features! I was petrified and had Dermot's hand squeezed off by the time it was over. Anyway the sandboarding part was great fun but the sand gets absolutely everywhere. We then hired a peddle boad a sailed around the lagoon for a while before heading back to Nazca on another bus full of peruvians with matresses tied to the roof!
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