Land of the Incas

Day Nine – 7 October 2011

Weather: sunny, warm

In daylight, this is a nice hotel. It’s like a mini-Mykonos with a lot of activities for kids. Water slides, pools, golf etc. The grounds are beautiful. My room is huge.

It has two single beds but room for two king sized beds easily. The sinks were in the next room and the bathroom another room. I never did look outside my window where apparently there is a balcony. Never thought of it. D’oh.

It had a bar fridge, TV, safe, hairdryer and the wifi is free. In fact, I have yet to spend a cent on internet access in Peru.

Miami airport is another matter.

Wake up call was at 4:30 and like any other wake up call at 4:30, they have to wake you ten minutes early. I had my alarm set for 5 cause I don’t usually need that much time in the morning if I need the sleep more, but it was so confusing checking in the night before (we were all tired, of course) that I didn’t want to rock the boat. I figured I got about 3 hours sleep.

Breakfast was basic at that hour, but they brought out scrambled eggs to go with cut meats, fruit (if you don’t like papaya, you’ll spend a few seconds at the fruit section trying to figure out the difference between papaya and cantaloupe. I saw a lot more of the former) and breads with tea and coffee.

I had 2 Inca Kolas to get me going as well.

From Ica, it is an hour and a quarter to the airport in Paracas for our Nazca Lines flight.

We picked up one of the airline’s employees in Ica, so we were assured of getting the 6:45 timing. As we left the hotel, we were a little concerned about the cloud cover and some fog, but the sun had burned it off by the time we got to Paracas. The airport is located on a military base. The Nazca airline has its own little terminal and treats the flight like a regular flight at any airport.

Except they don’t weigh luggage.

The moment of truth for everyone. Course, when one is wearing 10 lbs….no….20 lbs of clothes, it can be disconcerting. I don’t think the Inca Kola has added any weight to me. Cesar made sure we all visited the washroom first.

No, this is not Ryan Air.

The group had been divided into 4 groups, leaving three of us solos to wait to take the next flight after the other three groups go on the first three planes. We were told that the airline employee had chosen who went in each group based on couples and weight.

Having to wait, we asked them to assure us of a window seat and they said no problem. We had heard of one couple who boarded the flight with a bunch of strangers and ended up in the middle seat on the one plane that has the three seats across and that when the plane banked (and oh, does it bank!) the person in the window seat would hog the window and the people in the middle seat saw nothing. With that in mind, and the fact that we couldn’t go with our group, they promised us window seats.

Bless their little hearts.

The flight is almost 2 hours long, so instead of sitting around the airport, Cesar brought us to Paracas Bay down the road to spend a half hour. There was a promenade and a great view beyond the beach and boats etc.

We shopped a little and then returned to the airport where other tour buses had shown up. A group of Japanese women were getting weighed for their flight.

A couple of Brit couples were also there and they were a bit pushy. When I walked ahead to join my tourmate at the head of the line, they whined something about me cutting in line. We said we had been waiting for hours. They said they were there first.

Sorry, guys. We were there when they opened the airport.

Seriously, people, relax.

After security, we were loaded onto a mini-bus and when we got off at the plane, the Brits rushed ahead of us so that they could board first. Fine with us. It’s the pilots who decide where we sit on the plane after all, and having done some research on the flight, I knew they would load the front as per normal but that those seats were next to the struts so that the view was obscured.

Guess who got seated by the struts?

Going by the online advice, I held back the other two solos and we got the seats at the back and even better, I got an empty seat across from me so that I got a clear view through both windows.

You see, patience pays off.

The aircraft is a Grand Cherokee, 12 seater with six seats on either side. There was no middle seat on this plane so everyone got their own window.

Promise kept.

The ride was a hoot.

We took off and it takes about a half hour to reach the lines. Great views.

The sun had burned off all the clouds and mist. As we approached the first figure, the pilot announced it and descended. There is a fair bit of turbulence.

Then he banked. Enough to look straight down and see the shadow of the plane. WOOHOO!!!

The pilot said the whale was below us.

Where?

Ahhh. Okay. Maybe.

Luckily, I did the one thing that I recommend everyone do – even if you can’t make out the Line, start snapping. I didn’t see the Whale, but my pictures caught it. There are a lot of lines on the ground. Roads and dry river beds etc can make it hard to pick it out. He spent a fair amount of time banking then announced it was under the wing.

I highly recommend burst mode on a camera. You only get a matter of seconds – 10-20 or so – to get the picture at most, so when the pilot says it’s there, just start taking the pic. As it stands, the Whale was the only one I couldn’t find right away. The rest were easier to find once I figured out how they hid among the other markings on the ground.

Next, we moved over some trapezoids.

Or rather, alien runways.

Very clear on the ground.

Then it was the astronaut. Be warned that this one is on the side of a hill, not on the ground. Plain as day once you catch sight of it.

From there we moved on to the parrot, hummingbird, alcatraz, monkey and spider. The spider was especially clear.

All this time, the pilots must be having a great time. They’re allowed to make banking maneuvers that would otherwise stop your heart in a regular plane. And it’s turbulent as well. They’d make two circles of the figures so that both sides got a look.

This is a video of one banking maneuver and if you look hard enough, you can see one of the Lines below. In this video, you can catch a glimpse of the hummingbird in the distance near the end. It’s on a darker plateau and gets covered by the wing just before the video ends.

One thing to note about all those other markings is that many are trails, roads and parking areas. Recently, there was outrage over Greenpeace putting up a sign near the hummingbird and the Peruvian government was up in arms. Odd, I thought, given that the guides in Peru told us the government does little to protect the Lines from locals, tourists or industry. Plants are being built near the Lines where trucks run over them without a problem. Tourists pull off the road and walk the Lines and both locals and tourists drive over the Lines as indicated in this photo of the dog.

So, while Greenpeace wasn’t in the right, they simply didn’t do anything that the government doesn’t allow. There are no fences, no security, nothing to prevent people from destroying the Lines.

After about 40 minutes over the Lines, the plane straightened and climbed and it was about 30 minutes to the airport where we landed safely. Yes, that was a concern when I booked the trip after having heard of two tourist planes crashing on the Nazca Lines tour.

But we had our three things go wrong yesterday.

If the bus had not broken down (#3) we would have been a little uneasy getting on those planes. LOL

But in all seriousness, the planes were modern and in good shape. The two pilots were young but professional. Not that I mind them having a snack of chips on the dashboard.

Just another day on the job.

We got back onto the van for the short drive to the terminal where Cesar showed up with the bus to take us back to pick up everyone else. They got over an hour on the promenade. Lunch was provided at a beautiful resort hotel on the beach.

The La Hacienda served a lima bean appetizer (finally, I had lima beans in Peru) and the main course was beef tenderloin. Amazing chunks of beef, but they were served rare for the most part.

I ate the outside sections that were a little closer to medium. It was delicious. All they had to do was cook it a little longer and it would have been incredible. Dessert was fruit.

After lunch, Cesar gave us a few minutes to walk on the beach and take pictures.

We reboarded the bus around 1 for our drive back to Ica. Given the late hour the night before, Cesar gave anyone who wanted to go back to the hotel a chance to go as it was on the way. We dropped off about a dozen people then carried on to the wine tasting where we got a short tour on how they make their wine (called Pisco).

Then the important part.

The tasting of the chocolates after the Pisco.

I tried some pisco, but stopped once it started to hit me. I didn’t want to be helped back on to the bus like in Helsinki.

We were given a chance to buy Pisco and chocolates. I decided to risk a bottle for my brother in law. Something different.

I got 3 coconut chocolates for myself.

From the wine tasting, we went on to the Ica Museum. It was a small museum where it costs 5 Soles to take pictures. Cesar said we could decide for ourselves if there was anything worth taking pictures of and pay later.

The museum shows artifacts, weavings, weapons and pottery from the cultures of Peru going back more than 2000 years. Very interesting stuff. Then we moved into a wing where they had a warning that the exhibit contained human remains.

Everyone started digging for 5 Soles.

There was a discovery of mummies near Paracas some years ago and there are several on display. They were all in the fetal position, mummified and left with food and weapons for their travels to the afterlife.

Where have I heard that before?

Oh, yes. My tour in Egypt.

There was also a display of skulls that had been operated on – hundreds of years before anesthesia.

Ouch.

And another display of skulls that had been shaped from infancy to look….well….to look alien. The skull becomes elongated after it has been wrapped a certain way.

I have no doubt that the first person finding that got quite the shock. Especially if they’re an X-Files fan.

Well, no, in that case, it would have given them a stroke.

The process was quite human.

After taking a few shots, I paid my 5 Soles. The guard knew exactly who to send to the cashier.

We return to the hotel and got our first chance to see it in daylight. Gorgeous. manicured grounds, bridges over water etc.

I started to get my luggage sorted since I’m flying out tomorrow night. I wrapped the Pisco in dirty laundry, jeans and a fleece. It won’t break unless the plane runs it over.

Cesar had arranged for a drink before dinner and we had a choice of Pisco Sour or lemonade. I had no wish to turn the restaurant into a spinning one, so I opted for the lemonade. They make that well here.

Cesar thanked everyone for coming to his country and asked if a representative from each country wanted to say anything. It was a matter of rock/paper/scissors for the Canadians.

Some spoke and said how much they enjoyed what we had seen and thanked Cesar. Despite the anger issues of one tourmate, I think he was appreciated by all.

After the drink, we moved into the restaurant for an amazing buffet. Since there are so many kids, there was a kid’s selection of food off to the side.

Guess where we went?

One of the waitresses tried to tell us something in Spanish and we finally figured out that she was telling us to go to the adult selections.

No way, Jose. I’m getting chicken nuggets and French fries. LOL

The food was delicious. In fact, all the food in this country has been great. Box lunches were unavoidable in some cases, but they were fine. Some of the meals were definitely in the Gordon Ramsey category.

We sat and ate and chatted for a couple hours. Desserts kept coming and because of the bus breakdown, Cesar had given everyone a choice of red or white wine. I asked for Inca Kola.

Everyone appreciated the sentiment. And the wine.

At 8:30, the speakers came on and kids started filling up the tables around us for bingo.

Our cue to move on.

I escorted the others back to ours rooms (it is a bit of a maze).

Within an hour, the three hours of sleep started to catch up to me. Barely had time to down load my pictures.