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Published: January 10th 2010
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Nazca Lines
Sunday 13th December - Day 98 From Puerto Inka we travelled to Nazca however on the way Vanessa had organised for us to go to the Chauchilla cemetery. These are tombs by the huaqueros, which were found in the desert and predate the Incas. The tombs had been robbed of the gold but many bodies and artifacts were left behind. It was blisteringly hot with wave after wave of sandstorms peppering us, an arid desert with nothing around us but sand and skeletons. Our all-knowing guide Vanessa decided that this would be the perfect place for lunch.
After a sand filled, difficult lunch we headed for our hotel, where we would be staying. GAP had arranged for us to camp in a field which, on arrival, had chickens and goats roaming around it. We set up our tents, whilst Vanessa checked into her room, then we made good use of the swimming pool for the rest of the afternoon. We continued to use the swimming pool area to cook and eat our dinner that evening. Then we got our heads down with the chickens and goats as we had to be up early in
the morning. It was nice to end a very strange day.
Monday 14th December - Day 99 Up early to take a flight over the Nazca Lines. It was advised not to eat any breakfast before the flight. This was sound advice. We jumped into a 6 seater Cessna light aircraft and headed into the sky. The flight was pretty bumpy as we didn't climb much above 3000 feet and spent most of the flight spiraling left and right to get a good view of the lines. There are over a dozen ancient geoglyphs which include a whale, dog, monkey, spider, hummingbird, condor and astronaut. The pilot would say "Now on the right wing tip is.. the Monkey" and spiral round for us to take pictures. Then just to really make us dizzy we'd hear "Now on the left wing tip is.. the Monkey" and we'd start spiraling the other way. This was repeated for every geoglyph. By the time we'd done the last one, 2 of the 5 passengers had made use of the bags provided on board, and everyone except the pilot was looking pale green and feeling rough.
After a quick breakfast and
with the colour back in our cheeks we jump on our bus and head for Huacachina. On the way we make a surprise stop at a bodega which specializes in making Pisco Sour, the local firewater. We have a quick tour of the vineyard and then get the chance to try the various varieties of Pisco Sour that they produced. This is normally served as a long drink, but we were knocking back these spirits straight at 10:30am in the middle of a 6 hour bus journey, after our nauseating rollercoaster flight over the Nazca Lines. After sampling the 6th harsh sour spirit of the morning, the group stumbles and wobbles back to the bus to complete our bus journey to Huacachina.
Drowsy and tired we arrive to the sight of enormous sand dunes surrounding our hotel, in which we don’t have a room again. Instead we are advised to set up camp around the edge of the swimming pool where “paying guests” are trying to relax. Timidly we pitch our tents and prepare ourselves for the days next adventure, Sand boarding.
The group splits into 2 and mounts these 9 seater Dune buggies. We head out into
the dunes. Miles and miles of huge sand dunes as far as the eye can see. It is clear from the offset that the drivers were going to race each other all the way, they obviously love their jobs. It was also clear that we were going to enjoy this a lot. After a bumpy ride we stopped at the first of 4 dunes at which we will hurl ourselves down. We are told to lie on the boards with our legs slightly apart and to dig in our feet if we want to brake,... won’t be wanting to do that! Lizzy was one of the first to go as she didn't want to watch everyone else and then get nervous. Well, one go was all Lizzy needed to know she couldn’t wait for the next one.
We get back in the buggies for some more racing before our next go on the boards. The next dune that we stopped at was not as large or steep as the first and the drivers said that if we want to try going down standing up that we could. Red rag to a bull. Rick volunteered to have a go along with
2 others of our group. Even though he went down the slope in stages and wiped out at the bottom, he thoroughly enjoyed it. Lizzy and the majority of the group went down on their bellies again and the buggies met us at the bottom for another race.
The next 2 dunes were steeper and longer than the others and immensely enjoyable. We then embarked on a longer buggy race. This involved going as high up the biggest dune the drivers could find, slinging the back end round and bombing down at full throttle, getting air on several occasions. Followed by heading uphill and getting some more air on the crest of the next dune. This was repeated several times until it was time to watch the sunset.
The sunset was gorgeous and a nice way to end the day… but not before another mad buggy race back to the hotel!
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jane
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great blog, love reading it, keep them coming.. but also amazing photos, especially like rick sand boarding - brilliant. xx