Nasca, Peru
Friday, March 18, 2016
Where are we heading today?
South and Nasca of course, but first - a little trip a few miles north of Ica to a Pisco distillery just to get us in the mood - this day is just getting better and better!
Yes Peru is the home of Pisco and this is where your Pisco sour comes from.
We tried 6 different Piscos they made here and Maurice taught us a traditional toast in Peru which we don't have the correct words for; it roughly translates as;
to the condor (hold your glass up)
to the snake (hold your glass down)
to the puma (hold your glass straight out in front)
to the human (hold your glass to your chest)
drink
toasting Pisco
or the short version but with the same actions;
up, down, front, down the hatch
So all positively glowing now, we hopped back on the Big Red Bus of Adventure and set off to Nasca.
Nasca - famous for it's ancient lines cut into the desert rock, was somewhere Jody had really wanted to visit on her first trip to Peru over 10 years ago but didn't get the chance.
As we approached the desert outside Nasca we could see a viewing tower and here the bus stopped and let us all off.
For just 3 soles each (60p) we could climb to the top and look down on a couple of the shapes close by - The Tree and The Hands.
Lines as seen from the tower
This stop is perfect for people not that interested in the Nasca lines but happy to pay the small fee to have a look at what they are missing!
From the top of this tower by the side of the PanAmerican Highway, you can easily see 'The Hands' and 'The Tree'. Further up - but cut in half by the Pan Am during the 1970's, is The Alligator' which isn't so easy to see.
After a 30 minute stopover at the tower, it was onto the town itself. For us, a 30 minute stop-over had not been enough and this is where we hopped off.
We were the only ones!
Incredibly, everyone else was sailing straight through it to Arequipa (Peru's 2nd largest city).
I see them
We waved goodbye to everyone else on the bus and to Maurice and were met 100 yards down the road from our hostel for the night by the lovely owner - Joshua.
We hadn't even stepped foot in the door when Joshua took a phone call and said i had to go back as we had left stuff on the bus. A bit baffled as to what that could be, Jody went back to the bus accompanied by Joshua whilst Bryan checked in.
It turns out, Per and Natasha had spread themselves out onto our seats when we got off and noticed Jody had left her diary and all our paperwork in the seat pocket.
That would have been disastrous if she had lost that. Her diary we mean not the paperwork!
Thank goodness they had spotted it immediately and we were able to recover it. Thank you again Natasha & Per if you are reading this.
Well all's well that ends well and we settled down into our new digs already planning our next adventure.
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