Apr 22, 2013 - Paracas to Nazca

Early morning start, 6.30am! Watched the sunrise from our balcony overlooking the sea. We met at 8am for our trip to the Ballestas Islands. Amazing! I have never seen so many birds in my life! Such a vast amount of species in one place from Pelicans to Penguins. We also got so close to sea lions! A perfect start to the day. We then got a private minibus to Ica to visit and winery. After a short tour to show how they make both their sweet wine as famous pisco, we have a tasting. Pisco sour is great, an equivalent to limoncello. And then...

Jan 7, 2013 - Lines and Dunes

After a couple of days in Lima following surf camp, we put Katie on a plane back to college and the four of us boarded a bus and headed south to the town of Nazca. Katie did a project on the Nazca lines when she was in 6th grade and ever since that time, my curiosity has been piqued. The Nazca lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs-basically pictographs in the ground made from rock- that are found in the desert south of Lima and cover an area more than 450 km2. They were believed to have been constructed over a period of 800 years from 500...

Jan 5, 2013 - Lady finger, dipped in moonlight....

Writing "What for?" across the morning sky Sunlight splatters dawn with answers Darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye.... My time in Bolivia was too short (I'll be back) but it was time for me to make my way back across the border into Peru. It was a long day of travel, a bus to Puno, and then another bus to Arequipa, all in all about 12 hours of buses. Thank god for Cruz Del Sur - a first class bus company that runs on most routes around Peru. The first class cabin has huge seats that recline almost all the way back, they serve meals...

Oct 30, 2012 - Monkeys, dogs and spiders in the desert

We took off from Nazca airport in a four seater plane with Mike andVivienne to view the Nazca lines, drawn in the desert 1500 years ago. They are not sure why they were drawn, but the result is a wonderful collection of drawings of animals and objects that can only be appreciated from the air. Our pilot was skilled at tipping the plane at just the right angle for the designs to be seen below the wing. A whale, a monkey, dog and the famous hummingbird that features on our rally badge. After a coffee at he hotel we set off into town to fill...

Oct 29, 2012 - Pelicans

Easy drive south along good roads, largely parallel to the coast.  We took a diversion to the Paracas nature reserve - a beautiful coastal peninsular with dramatic sand dunes. At some times of the year you can see a wide variety of wildlife, but the only ones around at present are the Pelicans. They did not disappoint. Much larger than ones we have seen before and with red white and blue stripes on the side of their beaks. We travelled with Charles and Jane ( always ip for a good outing off route) drove across the sand to reach a small...

Sep 21, 2012 - Beam me up Scotty, or my visit to the Nazca Lines

As a kid, on Sunday afternoons at 3pm I would lie on the floor in front of the TV, transfixed as Leonard Nimoy (he of Mr Spock fame) explored mysteries on "In Search Of", including the Nazca lines in Peru. The voice-over calmly explained about these incredible etchings - animals, symbols, intersecting lines - covered 300 square kilometres of desert in southern Peru, and speculated on why and how they came into being. Time now to see for myself. We booked a flight over the Nazca Lines in a light plane. The van to pick us up arrived early...

Sep 11, 2012 - Ballestas Islands - Paracas - Nazca

What a day ... up at 3:00 am to board the bus at 3:30.  All twelve of us are in a state of mutiny, but we steel ourselves for a very long day.  After polite greetings in the lobby of the hotel (no one slept very well in the 4-5 hours that we had), we all pile onto the bus.  Day one of travelling with new companions ... and in a few minutes on the road, our heads were bobbing along in various states of sleep. Our 6:30 am stop for breakfast (truck stop along the way) wasn't terribly invigorating ... confusion about what to order, how to...

Nov 13, 2011 - Exploring Nazca

Chauchilla Cemetery & Nazca Pottery Jump to full entry