Blogs from Nazca Lines, Nazca, Ica, Peru, South America - page 5

To say I felt a bit iffy would be a total understatement! If Id have been in that plane just 5 minutes longer I think all those poor tourists in that plane would have seen what I ate for breakfast! The driver was flying all over the place, taking sharp turns, dips and flying into areas of turbulence for a horrid 30 minutes. My stomach definately didn like it, I only just about managed to glance out the window at each picture for a few seconds as we passed them before leaning back into the middle to desperately try and compose myself. Nonetheless, it was a good experience. The night before wed visited the planetarium in the Nazca lines hotel to be shown a presentation about the various theories on the Nazca lines and Im still ... read more

Day 6 Where do I start? Peru is very beautiful with a lot of culture and history to soak in. The first night... I met up with Lydia at the airport in Lima and we were ready for our pick up that we had previously arranged. We searched and searched for a sign with our names but nothing. We waited for about half an hour before we called the hostel. They came within 10 mins but we had to wait for another party they were picking up. While we were waiting, we were approached by numerous people asking if we needed a taxi or a place to stay. We also noticed that a lot of people had large jackets on... turns out it is quite cold here at night! We ended up getting to Hotel ... read more

Even though it was almost midnight when we finally arrived in Nazca there was still one of the guys at the bus station who tries to sell overpriced tours and Nazca lines flight tickets. We hadn´t booked a hostel so when he offered to show us to one that was in one of our guidebooks we took him up on it, he thought we´d then buy his tour - wrong !!! we let him sort out the hostel for us then told him we´d sort out our own tickets. We´re now playing these guys at their own game which is a smart move as his ticket price was US$80 but we paid US$50 at the airport :-) The morning was bright and mostly clear but a bit misty which delayed our take off for a few ... read more

26th April 2009 After a 10 hour bus ride from Arequipa we arrived in Nazca at the crack of dawn. After dropping off our bags and having a much needed shower, we braved the desert heat to investigate prices to fly over the Nazca lines. With no particular success we decided to buy them from the airport the next day. For the rest of the day we chilled out on top the amazing roof terrace in our hostel. After heading out for a cheap chicken dinner with Sarah, a girl staying in our dorm, we returned with some beer for some more relaxation on top of the terrace. The owner of the hostel, Nagen, joined us with his friend, Jeffery and they persuaded us to try some Pisco. Before we knew it everyone else was ... read more

Pisco & The Ballestas Islands What can be said about the town of Pisco? Weeelllll!!! Not much really (Granted the town had been heavily destroyed by an earthquake in 2007). Nevertheless, we were only using it as our overnight base to visit the nearby Ballestas Islands, otherwise known as the ‘Poor Man’s Galapagos’. We caught our early morning boat from the port of Paracas and we subsequently herded into 24-seat speed boats that would cover the journey across to the Islands in super fast speeds. Our first visit en-route was to see the three-pronged candelabra, etched into the sand hills on one of the nearby islands - then it was out into the open sea for the very bumpy journey to the islands themselves. The islands were made famous for their guano producing birds (otherwise ... read more