The first morning, waking at a respectable time, we wandered round the new commercial area where our hotel was located – Miraflores. Part of the walk took in small bits of green (parques), busy roads and a seaside promenade looking out onto the Pacific Ocean (with an outdoor shopping mall).
After our group introductory meeting where we met our fellow travellers – our guide Holga (pronounced Olha, Olly for short), two other Brits (though of South African and Slovak origin), two Americans, two Canadians, two Irish lads and two French Canadian sisters.
The afternoon visit was to the historic centre of the city including the main square with its Cathedral, Archbishops Palace and Presidential Palace, the square dedicated to one of Peru's liberators, (Jose de San Martin) and a tour of the Franciscan Monastery and its underground catacombs containing lots and lots of bones. Many of the poor in the city were buried here in chambers clothed then covered in sand for the next one to be buried on top. A few mausoleum-type chambers existed for specifically wealthy families who had been benefactors to the monastery. My first dinner was Lomo Saltardo – Stir-fried fillet of beef with onions, tomatoes, chips & rice; Andy had Taco Taco Seafood, a rather orangey coloured sauce with seafood served with rice.
Day 2 was a 4am start for the 3.5-4 hour trip to Paracus town and nearby Pisco Port, the gateway to the Ballestras Islands (pronounced Bayestras). Pisco shares its name with one of the national drinks, which I'll come to shortly. Known as "The Poor Man's Galapagos" or "Peru's Galapagos", the Ballestras Islands are home to the Peruvian Booby, Turkey Vulture, South American Sea lion (known also locally as 'common sea wolf'), Humboldt Penguin, Guanay Cormorant, Red-legged Cormorant and Peruvian Pelican. It consists of 22 islands, islets & groups of dung islands and 11 coastal guano concentrations which are all protected. On the outward boat journey, we also saw a three-pronged "Candelabra geoglyph" 150m high and 50m wide, a taster of what exists at Nazca.
Via Bodega El Catador where we had a tour of a vineyard, showing the traditional way of making wine and pisco, followed by tastings of pisco sour, local wine, pisco shots, Peruvian baileys and different jams made using pisco (the national alcoholic beverage made with grapebrandy ), we headed to Huacachina (pronounced whatchachena), an oasis in desert for lunch. It had a large picturesque if smelly lagoon surrounded by towering sand `dunes. My lunch was "Arroz con pollo", green rice with chicken. Here we also tried Inca Kola, a national non-alcoholic drink drunk instead of Coca Cola. It has a nuclear waste yellow colour but with a taste that resembles bubble gum. Andy & I both really like it, but some of the group don't.
Back on the Pan-American Highway, we stopped at a lookout near Palpa to view the Palpa Lines and a second lookout 20km north of Nazca to view some of the Nazca Lines (tree, hands and bisected lizard – cut in half by the highway before the lines were "discovered"). The Nazca Lines, made into a World Heritage site in 1994, contains 800 straight lines, 300 geometric shapes and 70 animal, plant and humanoid figures or glyphs. There are a number of theories on whom, what and why, which we listened to at the Planetarium Maria Reiche in Nazca. Whilst we were there we also got the opportunity to view the moon and Saturn through one of their telescopes. Some of the moons craters and seas could be clearly seen while Saturn along with its rings and moon Titan was visible.
The day was wound up with dinner of "Chicharron de Pescado" - Peruvian Fish & chips for me and Chilli Chicken with potato & rice for Andy. One of the others had goat which I also tried. The meal came with complimentary Pisco Sour and we also sampled some Cerveza Premium (local beer).
Yesterday we started the day with a visit to the local fruit and "super" markets in Nazca for some fruit, snacks and water before an excellent visit to the Chauchilla cemetery. The cemetery dates back to pre-Inca civilisations of Wari & Ica-Chincha cultures (around 1000AD). Mummies, some a little grotesque, can be seen arranged in a dozen or so tombs. However, the history and archaeological finds to date were fascinating and it is a shame that they have little funds to do more in-depth work such as DNA analysis etc. A lot of the tombs were damaged or destroyed by grave robbers so there are numerous bits of bone debris spread out along the landscape.
From there, we drove to Puerto Inka or Puerto Inca (lit. Inca Port). Just two minutes' walk from the hotel was an archaeological site from where (fresh & dried) fish were sent to Cuzco during the Inca Empire. Runners used an Inca highway to carry messages and goods. Although Incas are the best known cultures in Peru prior to the Spanish Invasion and one of the greatest empires that has existed, the Empire period was a mere 85-100 years and some of the Pre-Inca civilisations including Paracas, Nazca, Wari and Ica-Chincha are emerging to be a lot more fascinating. That said Machu Picchu is on our itinerary so I may not think that at the end of the trip.
The Hotel Puerto Inka was set into the hillside overlooking a very pretty horseshoe shaped bay. Accommodation was on several levels / terraces overlooking the bay. Dinner consisted of "Pescado al Ajo" – Fish with garlic sauce served with arroz (rice), papas fritas (chips) and ensalada (veg consisting of beans, carrots and broccoli) - for me and "Pescado a la Chorrillana" – fish with onions, peppers, sweet corn – for Andy, washed down with the now obligatory glass of Pisco Sour. We went to sleep with the sound of very large waves crashing against the shore.
We awoke early this morning again to the sound of these waves and wandered around the hotel & ruins site watching the sunrise and taking photos before breakfast. Then we set off on one of the longest drives of the trip from Puerto Inka to Arequipa.
As I type this, we are travelling along the Pan-American Highway. The road has ranged from long straight drives to winding roads clinging to vertiginous mountain edges, long expanses of coast, beach and lofty sand dunes to vast plains of dry arid terrain as far as the eye could see, snaking through small villages, townships and communities to large cuttings in the Andean hillsides. The 38,000km Pan-American Highway stretches all the way from Alaska in the north of the Americas to Chile in the South, a journey that would take around four months to complete top to bottom. However, we are leaving it at Arequipa, where I hopefully will be sending this from.
Arequipa, at an elevation of around 2,300m, is where we may feel some symptoms of altitude sickness before we acclimatise. Fortunately we were prepped at the beginning of the trip so we know what to expect and how to deal with it, so hopefully not too many problems there
Anyway, I say Adios for now and will write later when we've had further adventures.
Mundo de viaje (I think that's how you say it!)
Kath & Andy
PS Made it to Arequipa OK. Had a quick walk round then found a nice restaurant round the corner from our hotel. I enjoyed a lovely meal of Alpaca Lomo Saltado – stir fried alpaca with onions & tomatoes, served with papas frites and arroz (chips and rice).
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