Nazca and Northward

We boarded the Cruz Del Sur night bus to Nazca at the Arequipa bus depot. The nine hour bus ride was daunting, but the seats reclined so we stayed optimistic. Unfortunately optimism wasn't enough as the seats, like many other things in Peru, are designed for people maximing out at 5ft 6in. Sleep was attained, but none of it was good.

We arrived in Nazca, a rocky desert landscape laced with brown and red mountains, about 7AM. The region is know for a series of enormous petroglyphs that can only be viewed from the air. Archaeologists believe these glyphs are the remnants of open-air temples of the Nazca people. The simple goal was to board an airplane, check out the Nazca Lines, and head out to Ica. After a bit of unsuccessful haggling we hopped a van to the airport. We were in the air in a plane the size of an escalade within an hour.

I had seen these things on the internet many times. I never truly understood the scale and complexity of the entire landscape - crisscrossing roads, trapezoids stretching hundreds of meters across then desert, and a few strange animal glyphs -

From Nazca we hopped a bus to Ica, home of sand dunes and Pisco. The place to stay in Ica is about 10minutes outside of town in a tiny desert oasis called Huacachina. It's more or less a tiny hippy hideout with paddleboats and dune buggies. A couple days there is almost too much unless you are really good at doing nothing. Day 1 was nothing but food. Day 2 we hopped a cab to the Museo Regional de Ica, home of desiccated mummies and elongated skulls, but were sidetracked by an offer to drink Pisco.

Marco the driver brought us first to Bodega Lazo, where he proceeded to get us hammered on every wine and pisco available. Pisco distillation is a simple, single pot distillation of fermented grape juice. The liquor is stored in clay jars to rest, but typically is not aged like a whiskey or rum. Approximately 5kg grapes go into each liter of product. I don't know why Pisco isn't more widely known. The stuff is delicious.

 

We continued our tour to another distillery, El Catador, and were fed more drinks. Drunk and hungry, we got our cab driver to bring us to a food spot, but the guy backed his car into a pole and decided to drop us at the museum instead. Seeing as we were too far gone to properly enjoy the museum, we wandered to a mall down the road, got some KFC and Pizza Hut, and caught a cab back to Huacachina. Our next task - Dune Buggy and sandboarding.

Not much to explain here other than holy crap is it awesome. Here are some pictures:

 

We moved on to the beach town of Paracas the next day, where we did little but eat and relax. We then hopped a bus back Lima, where I am currently writing this. Tomorrow we leave for Puno on shore of Lake Titicaca, from which we will cross into Bolivia.

A few Days of Planning

Now that we are here and situated, planning has become the task at hand. We've already become used to the fact that leaving the house for an extended period of time before about 4pm is a bad idea. It's pretty much always 80+ and sunny in Lima (except today - it's oddly foggy) and that equator sun cooks like Jack Dejohnette. So we've spent a lot of time planning, sitting on hold with the slowest customer service agents on earth, and watching Arrested Development in Spanish.

Groceries have been the name of the game, as we have been drinking too much beer to save much on eating out. Don't be concerned, the drinking is to keep down body temperature... yeah. Anyway... the grocery store. Honestly I wanted to write a post consisting only of a grocery list, but decided there is no need to brag. Maybe just a little bragging. We been eating cheap! Bread might as well be free here, and fresh veggies are about the same.  This leads to the obvious result of fresh guacamole with eggs, bread, and homemade hot sauce every day. Though my hot sauce recipe needs a lot of work.

Homemade queso fresco taquenos, guacamole, and hot sauce. And a Mango. 

Onward! To things other than food.

More tidbits about Lima
- Most houses and apartments are gated with some sort of doorman or security guard. Pretty cool
- The doorman spend much of their day talking to the thousands of city security (not police), street cleaners, and ice cream venders that roll by. It's interesting how many people are employed solely to keep Lima nice. Yes I am including ice cream venders in the group, even though I assume they are not employed by the city. Like I said - it's hot!
- Trash is picked up multiple times per day, so most people throw out only small amount at a time. Very convenient considering toilet paper can not go in the toilet.
- Lima's second ever artisanal beer fest was yesterday, which consisted of 11 breweries and maybe 100 people packed into what would be used as a broom closet at any beer fest in America. Many beers were good, some were bad, and all were Peruvian. A very good time at what appears to be the spores of an excellent beer scene
- Pisco is an interesting beverage. I expected aromatic vodka, what we got was more akin to tequila with white grape undertones. It is more or less a white brandy. Goes great with Peruvian citrus drink.

The cheap stuff

Santa Semana, the week leading up to Easter, is coming, so we are attempting to make our way to Arequipa for the festivities. Arequipa is a city about 13 hours southeast of Lima. We had plane tickets, then we didn't, then we did, now we don't, but might be getting them still! Never fly Avianca! Travel is the one thing that is not much cheaper here. Although those plane tickets were a REALLY good deal, I'm talking $45 per ticket, they seem to be an anomaly that lead us to customer service hotline hell. I'm about ready to buy a car, as our options are dwindling. If you want us to get a nice car, send your donations! Or your cars! While you are writing the checks, please excuse me so I can make some breakfast.