Day 1: Travel
We started our first day off right ... with proper Peruvian coffee. Oh and breakfast but that's not as important. Coffee > food. Our private driver picked us up from the hotel and we drove into the middle of Lima (I think) to go into the highway to Ica. Also every driver has put on like 60s soft rock in English for the ride. I've heard more Frank Sinatra and Pump Up the Jam in Peru than I have in the rest of my life. After about two hours of awesome hits of the past, we asked for his choice in music and then it turned into pretty neat Spanish techno. Much better.
It's interesting to see along the highway that they've built houses right into sand which seems so dangerous and unstable. It's sand dunes on the non-water side and marshes/slums right on the water. I sometimes can't tell if it's a shanty town or just houses with rehbarb sticking out of the top for a reason. It also goes from pure sand to arid land lush with vegetation in a blink of an eye multiple times. Closer to Ica, it's like pure white sand dunes.
Kallipa - massive factory.
There's four types of cars here - gasoline premium, gasoline regular, diesel, and natural gas running cars. Premium Gasoline is 16 soles per gallon. Regular is 12 soles per gallon. Natural gas is 1.48 soles per litre. Diesel is 10 soles per gallon. Some of the taxis in Lima run on both gasoline and natural gas so they have a propane tank in the trunk.
Day 2: sand boarding and my 26th birthday
Today was super cool not going to lie. We went sand boarding through the dunes and dune bugging. These drivers can just rip around these sand dunes. They've shift from two to four wheel drive on the fly while shifting gears. It's a riot and way easier to sand board than snow board. I'm glad we rented snow boards. I'm a much better sand boarder than snow boarder surprisingly.
Oh I also turned 26 today.
Day 3: Nasca Lines
The lines are spread over 500 sq km of arid rock strewn plains. They comprise of over 800 straight lines, 300 geographic figures and 70 animal and plant drawings. The lines were made by the simple process of removing the dark sun baked stones and piling them up on either side of the lines. They were thought to have been made in 900BC (holy man!). Some thought these were for astronomical or calendar purposes but more recently people have thought they were as a sign of worship, only to be seen by the gods.
This morning we learned that it is pronounced Wacka-china not how it looks phonetically. On our drive to the flight, special forces were in Huacachina which made me a little uneasy. This oasis only has 75 permanent residents and maybe 15 accommodation places. It's not a big area. Our driver today played my favorite game in a car - frogger between lanes.
They aren't kidding when they say to take gravol before this flight. It does sharp turns around all of the sites. Not sure this was worth it. They aren't as impressive as they seem online and in the books. Also, they put a highway in the middle of one of the ruins. Not cool.
The mountains around here are rock covered in sand. I'm shocked the sand doesn't blow away to be honest. It's such fine sand that the wind should pick it up. It goes from flat to super mountainous real quick.
AFN
AFN
No comments:
Post a Comment