Blogs from Ica, Peru, South America - page 76

Went on a tour to the Nazca lines today. After the tour, the guide asked if we would like to visit the school where he teaches English. Since we have nothing to do in the evening while waiting for the bus to Arequipa, we decided to go check out how the schools here look like. We were dragged to the front of the class when we arrived. We played temp English cum Geography teacher, introducing ourselves in English and showing where Singapore is on the world map. And then we were made to teach them pronounciation of numbers, making the students who are all teenages and adults, read after us. It was kinda strange, like teaching kindergarten kids. But it was really fun to answer their questions about ourselves and about Singapore. A really fun way ... read more

In a few days we visited Nazca and Ica. In this exiting days we flew over the Nazca lines with a cessna. this was an incredible experience, i felt like visiting an attractionpark by airplane, only the attraction wasn't the airplane, but the figures on the ground made by the Inca's. We visited also the nationpark of paracas, where we drove through a desulated area of sea (the pacific) and dry dessert (the national park). ... read more

We left Lima on a 4 hour bus ride down South to Ica. A few kilometres away is a oasis town (Huacachina) know for its huge sand dunes which you can sand-board down. The town was tiny with a few places to stay and not much to do but play in the sand. We booked on a tour that promised a thrilling adventure, and they delivered. We drove out over the dunes in a 5 seater dune buggy at great speeds. We got taken to a "small" dune for a bit of practise which proved that we would not be gliding over the dunes at great speed very soon. We had to walk back up the practise dune if we wanted to practise more..... so we did not practise much. After that we got taken to ... read more

It was just a brief visit to the town which shares its name with the locally produced, white-grape brandy drink which is commonly knocked up into a refreshing Pisco Sour cocktail in this region. The name Pisco actually means "birds" in the local language of Quechua and was named as such because the area is host to millions of the feathery creatures. Pisco itself is fairly non-descript, it´s pretty small, not particularly attractive and primarily serves as a base for discovering the nearby nature reserve at Paracas and the wonderful inhabitants of the small islands called Islas Ballestas (sometimes referred to as the poor man´s Galapagos). Pisco Sour Ingredients *pisco brandy *sugar *lime juice *egg white Whisk and serve over ice The Islas Ballestas, which can be toured in a morning by speedboat, host flocks of ... read more

Unless you were hiding behind a rock for the last 20 years you will have heard of the Nazca lines. For all those of you who were hiding behind a rock the Nazca lines are a set of gigantic geoglyphs in the Nazca desert. The figures are up to 300 meters long and include animals (such as hummingbirds, dogs, spiders and monkeys), geometrical figures (such as trapezoids, arrows) and other like the astronaut. The lines were done by the (surprise) Nazca culture between 200 Ad and 600 BC. The lines were created by removing small rocks and rubble which lay strain all over the Nazca desert. By doing this they exposed the slightly lighter coloured soil. Why they did this is still not completely clear. The theories range from ... read more