The Peruvian Coastal Desert - Nazca, Paracas & Huacachina

17 - 20 April

Nazca

The overnight bus left Cusco at 4pm on the 16th and arrived in Nazca almost 15 hours later, at 6.45am on the 17th. The trip was pretty boring - mostly in the dark - but they had 2 movies in Spanish with English subtitles and a decent dinner, and I managed a good sleep on the full cama seat/bed.

Someone from the hostel met me at the bus station and they let me into my room, at 7am in the morning. Then I headed to the airport for a flight over the famous Nazca Lines. I got shuffled into a little Cessna 206 with one other tourist, a pilot and a co-pilot and off we went!

The patterns were pretty incredible, and somewhat unbelievable. There's also a lot of straight lines, some of which go for a long way, all perfectly straight, between patterns. The views of the township and across the desert were also pretty impressive.

Our little plane just before we took off

The Astronaut (in the far left of the dark hills)

The Monkey (upper left, with a big curly tail) and some other lines

The Hummingbird, on the plateau in the foreground, with the background view 

The flight was pretty uncomfortable, with some tight turns to look at the patterns better and a bit of turbulence to boot.

One last tight turn to land back at the airport

All in all, it was pretty expensive but still kinda worth it - although it only lasted just over half an hour!

I explored the town a bit for the rest of the morning - it was a pretty small, dusty place really, though there were lots of locals going about their business. In the afternoon I went on a tour of a couple of other historical places. First were the Cantayoc Aqueducts, constructed by the ancient Nazcans before the Incan empire in about 500 AD. They passed water (and still do) from the underground aquifers for agriculture, since the coastal desert gets just 2 cm of rain per year. They consist of a number of stone spiral holes used to aerate the water.

Down inside a Canayoc Aqueduct spiral

After that we visited a viewpoint of a couple of other symbols drawn in the earth, and the Paredones ruins. That night, I visited the Maria Reiche Planetorium, named after the German woman who dedicated her life to the study of the Nazca Lines. They had a very interesting presentation about the potential meanings of the lines, and also let us use their telescope, which got us cool views of Jupiter and Saturn, but in particular of the half-full moon...

A photo of the moon taken through the telescope

Paracas

The next day I'd wanted to go to the desert oasis of Huacachina, but the hostel a few friends had recommended was full, so I booked for the next night and went instead to Paracas. My very helpful hostel owner in Nazca described for me how to get there on the local transport - two buses, a collectivo and then another bus and I eventually arrived in Paracas, seeing the sea for the first time in almost 3 months.

Paracas beachfront

I managed to find a cheapish hostel with an empty dormitory with a sea view, and got myself a beer on the rooftop balcony to watch the sunset. Being by the sea, I thought I should eat fish, so tried ceviche, a Peruvian specialty consisting of raw fish and a lot of lemon juice. While it was nice to try, I didn't enjoy it much... I enjoyed more having a drink in an empty bar and talking to the barman - in Spanish - for about an hour about the vagaries of the world!

The next morning I joined the hoard of tourists doing just about the only thing there is to do in Paracas - a tour of the Islas Ballestas. Considered one of the best places in the world to see marine birdlife, it's absolutely covered in guana (ie. bird poop!) and literally thousands and thousands of birds, and a few sea lions. It all seemed a bit touristy, but was quite interesting with an informative guide.

Massive rock arches covered in birds (and bird poop)

A mother sea lion teaching her new-born to swim

Birds everywhere

A lazy sea lion with a bird-covered islet behind

In the afternoon I did the only other thing to do in Paracas - a tour of Reserva Paracas. For some reason - I think there were only just too many people for one bus - I ended up in a private car for the tour with 2 others and a Spanish-speaking guide. He talked slowly for me and I managed to understand most of it! There wasn't too much to see - a lot of sand dunes, a few fossils and some interesting coastal cliff formations. Lunch was at a tiny overpriced fishing village, where the Peruvian pelicans were the star highlight.

The road in the desert stretching off into the distance

Peruvian pelicans and a couple of other birds perched on a guana-covered rock

Huacachina

After the tour I backtracked my way to Huacachina. Centred around a tiny lake, this desert oasis, 5 minutes out of Ica, is all hotels, hostels, restaurants, tour agencies and souvenir shops. However, it was an awesome place to chill for a few days, reading in a hammock, drinking a beer by the pool and just relaxing.

The stunning desert oasis of Huacachina

The second day, later in the evening when it was a bit cooler, I joined a dune buggy trip up into the sand dunes. They're huge and stretch on for ever...

Dusk on the sand dunes

The dune buggy trip in itself was pretty exciting. As the driver dropped it down steep slopes it felt almost like a rollercoaster ride - a couple of girls in the back screaming like it was one! The also brought some sandboards and everyone had a turn at hurtling down massive sandy slopes on a bit of wood...

I never did try snowboarding...

As we came back we got some stunning views of the sunset. The colours in the sky with the foreground of massive sand dunes was quite impressive.

I didn't really want to leave the next morning - the pool was so inviting - but had decided to spend a few days in Lima before my next big adventure, a flight to Iquitos and the Amazon jungle. So I headed back into Ica, from where I caught a local bus from a company called Soyuz to Lima. They have so many people taking this route, or part of it, that they have a 60-seater bus leaving on the 6-hour route every seven minutes during the day! I'll be posting about Lima and Iquitos in a few days.