From Arequipa we made our way back to Lima, en route we spent a night in Nasca and 3 nights in Huacachina, both in the Peruvian desert.
We stopped in Nasca to fly over the Nasca lines, mysterious lines in the desert made by the Nasca people between 200BC and 700AD. These lines were only recently discovered, and no one is sure of their purpose. It is generally accepted that they were for worship. Interesting info is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines
We organised a flight over the lines, in a lttle 6 seater plane. Our pilot was an ex airoforce man, which made me feel a bit better (after some of the bus rides that we´ve been on, I was worried about flying!). The lines were pretty cool, although I have to wonder about the authenticity of one called "the Astronaught". The´lines are amazing, my photos do not do them justice, mainly becuase I found it very difficult to get a decent picture of the lines, especially as every thime the pilot banked to circle the image, I felt like I would loose my brekky!
Our flight lasted about half an hour before we headed back to the airport. The piolot, perhaps missing some of the adrenaline rushes from his airforce days decided to give us a little excitement in our lives. Everyone else was keen, so although the only thing that I wanted to do was land, I kept quiet.
The pilot pulled the throttle back and we went into a steep climb - I actually thought that we were going to do a "loop-the-loop", but at the last second he pushed the throttle forward putting us into a steep descent. So we were doing a big wavy S in the sky. I was vaguely aware that others in the plane were screaming, but all I could focus on was not throwing up: tearing shreds out of Petes leg and tears streaming out of my eyes. I think that my attempt to remove a section of Petes leg alerted him to the fact that all was not well in Pennys seat, and he told the pilot to stop. While I was embarrased at ruining everyone elses fun, I was so relieved to be flying in a straight, level, flat line again.
I was still a little wobbly when we landed, so I behaved like a dog on a ute, and spent the taxi ride into town with head hanguing out of the window, tongue flapping in the breeze! Pete has since admitted that he was a litle wobbly as well!!!
After that little adventure we caught the bus to Ica, from where we headed to the little oasis of Huacachina about 4km away. The taxi ride from Ica was fantastic, skirting huge sand dunes, some of which are being ineffectually held back from the road by tall cement walls. Huacachina is exactly what I imaging an oasis to look like, complete with dodgy green pong, palm trees and sand dunes! While we were here we tried sandboarding, supposedly easier than snow boardning. Well I cant snow board, so my sandboarding skills were a little, ok a lot, lacking! We also did a tour of a winery to see how Pisco (traditional grape brandy) was made. We were lucky because the winery that we chose was a small family run "artesanal winery" so we got to see the traditional method of production. The grapes are still crushed by foot, and the have an old wooden press that they use to squeeze the juice out of the cruched grapes. It was cool!
From Ica we made for Lima, then Miami (where we were almost involved in a rioting crowd due to the fact that our plane was delayed for 24 hours! It was great fun! Interesting to see how people behave when the normal parameters of behaviour are removed... We did score a free return flight, so I am pretty happy with that!). We eventually arrived in London a day late and a few dollars short...
