The bus journey started very well. We were all overawed by the quality of the bus we were travelling on. It was more like business class in an aeroplane than a bus. That said it would turn out to be the worst bus journey of the whole trip. Not due to the bumpy road, we arrived on schedule and even the food they served us was palatable. No, we had on our bus the Peruvian snoring champion decided to showcase his ability for the whole 11hours. I have never ever ever heard a human make those sounds, and I hope you never experience such pain as we all went through on that bus. The one positive that came fromthat sleepless journey, was that I was awake to see the first glimpse of the pacific. It was around 3am, and looking out the window, the waves glistened in the moonlight. It brought home exactly how much travelling we had done over the last two months, crossing from the atlantic, to the pacific side of the continent twice! We arrived sutiably groggy in Nazca, but managed to catch a couple hours sleep before starting our day. The main attraction of Nazca is the mysterious Nazca lines. According to Wikipedia, the Nazca lines are a series of Geoglyphs located on a high arid plateu, that stretches for more than 50 miles. They are believed to have been created by the Nazca civilization, between 200bc and 700ad. There are hundreds of individual figures ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, llamas, lizards and more. The purpose of the lines is somewhat of a mystery but the most commonly held view is that they were used as agricultural calendars. Conspiracy theories, say they are a tourist trap invented by the government. The only real way to see the lines is on a half hour 'scenic flight' overthem. With no official record of the numbers of crashes, injuries or fatalities, and having heard of a French group that died a few weeks prior to us being there, I opted out. Those that went were generally pretty disappointed. The multitude of the different engravings in the desert is amazing, but everyone thought they would be much bigger than they were. I enjoyed a documentary of the lines, from the comfort and safety of the airport lounge. Thankfully everyone returned safely. We made a brief stop at a pottery museum, and were all thanful for the briefness of the stop, before heading to a pre inca cemetry. This consisted of a collection of pits, with mumified remains in. The dryness of the desert has preserved them so well. Interesting as they were, once you have seen one mumified skeleton......

Following these excursions, we purchased some food for a bbq lunch and enjoyed the warm weather relaxing round the hotel pool.