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Published: December 28th 2006
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a close shave
Ross bought head shavers in mexico that work at 110V. excellent in central america but no use in south america where everywhere uses 220V. so he went for a shave in Nasca... Claire:
The town of Pisco is kinda famous in peru because it has these tiny islands just off the coast called the Ballestas Islands that have millions of birds and sealions and stuff and some people say they are better to see than the Galapagos because of how much easier and cheaper it is to see them. This might be going a bit far but the sealions were cool, posing for the cameras and the smell of all the bird crap was incredible. Our guide told us that the guano generated by the birds on these islands was one of perus main and most profitable exports to Europe. Lovely.
Pisco is also the name of a famous and much loved brandy type drink. The most famous way to drink it is as a pisco sour. if you were looking for a way to get blasted in a single drink you would add 4 measures of pisco to 2 measure fresh lime juice and one egg white. Add sugar and shake then strain into a glass and add a little angastori bitters. If made right they are absolutely delicious but man do they knock me sideways!
We stayed the night
after a close shave
smooth! dont know what the posing is all about but he was as hairless as he was going to get. in pisco and the next day took a bus to Nasca to fly over the Nasca Lines. This bus was where Ross got his camera nicked but he can tell you about that.... One camera and all our pisco pictures down we headed for the tiny 5 seater plane that was to fly us over the lines. I had been worried about how bumpy the plane would be because the pilot dips and swerves so that people on both sides of the plane can see all of the lines but I took a motion sickness pill and I thought the whole thing was pretty excellent. The huge straight lines across the desert were so clear and wide and long that I found them a bit bizarre. The drawing of the lines were pretty cool and some of them were pretty clear but some of them were pretty small and hard to make out. I think I was expecting flashing neon drawings of monkeys and stuff. The tour we took to fly across the lines included a tour of a pre-inca cemetery and a tiny gold production factory. Basically lots of weird skeletons and some people trying to sell us their
plane 1
our little sky chariot gold. It was great. Having done pretty much all there was to do in Nasca our next plan was a night bus inland to Arequipa.
Ross is right about the buses here, they’re amazing! They have reclining bed seats, meals, coca tea, films and even bus bingo where you can win you’re ticket cost back. We are still confused by the bus bingo because our numbers in Spanish above 50 suck but its fun anyway.
Ross:
Tickets secured, another comfy bus ride and we were in Pisco. Again, Claire was in none too good a mood and all but scared of the flock of touts that surrounded us when the bus dropped us off. We headed off to our hotel and some much needed sleep. Pisco is a nice enough place as long as you don’t stray more than a couple of blocks away from the main square not really much to say about Pisco apart from our trip out the Ballestas Islands although this would have been cooler if we had the photos to back it up and you seem to be able to get a better Pisco sour every where apart from in Pisco.
We couldn’t get
a cruz del sur bus to Nasca so we settled for an Ormeño bus which was none too great.
This is the bus were I got my camera stolen. Not to go into too much detail: basically I was a complete mug and had I been a bit less hot, a bit less tired I might have had enough wits about me to tell the helpful Peruvian that put my bag up on the overhead shelf where to go.
Very annoyed at myself and blinded by the sun as we arrive in Nasca I also realised my sunglasses had departed along with my camera. This probably annoyed me more than losing the camera. Still no point complaning, we had the lines the next day to look forward too. Jumping into the tiny Cessna that would fly us over the lines and trying to reassure Claire that these things are probably more safe than the big airliners we’d been on to get here we, took off for a 45min tour of the lines. The whole plain is pretty cool but it looks like a lot of stuff has been obliterated by the meger rain that falls on the area (as a
nasca lines overview
a drawing they gave us so we knew what the lines should look like and when we'd see them. lot of it is covered in gullies and rivulttes). The main attractrions are still visible, but they don’t seem as big as you expect them to be (they’re a couple of hundeed feet across but still don’t seem that big) .... and can someone find out what kind of animal or thing an alcatraz is? (and not smart crap about the prison)
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Craig Webster
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The only Alcatraz I can find is the prison island - can't find anything about a creature or anything called an Alcatraz. Maybe some sort of myth? Rocks look ace for climbing - how high was that?