Nazca - Mancora: 25 August - 7 September.

From Arequipa we caught the bus to Nazca. It felt like we'd been in the mountains for weeks and it was a bit of a surprise when we suddenly saw the sea again. The scenery hadn't changed too much though, it was still very barren, the mountains having given way to the coastal desert. With the Andes, the desert and the jungle, it struck us that Peru is home to some pretty extreme climates - something we knew before, but it really hit home as we drove through the parched landscape and dusty towns.

The 6-7 hour bus journey was fine and we arrived in Nazca in the mid-afternoon for what would be a short 2-night visit. The town itself is something like 60km inland and is a dusty desert town where the main industry is mining, although tourism can't be too far behind and there were lots of eateries dotted around the town centre. It's really dry, the nearby river valley is sandy and, apparently, the fields are fed water by an underground Inca aqueduct that is still in use.

We were up bright and early for our flight with Aeroparacas and as per the advice in the guidebooks, skipped breakfast in anticipation of the short but bouncy flight ahead. We were picked up at the nice little B&B we were staying at and driven to the small airport which, unfortunately, was closed for reasons that never really became clear to us. As a result, the flights were backed up and we were facing a couple of hours of delays. We took up an offer of a tour out to the Chauchilla Cemetery to fill the time, the only other site around Nazca that we were interested in seeing.

The cemetery is an odd place, roughly 30km outside of the town, it was recently rediscovered beneath the desert and some of the thousands of underground tombs have been opened up and organized for visitors. Within them sit the remains of mummies, all facing east towards the rising sun. Apparently the mummies are all genuine, their remains preserved by the dry desert air, but a comparison with the care taken over the Juanita mummy back in Arequipa (which is maintained at -25C in the dark, behind 3 sets of glass) makes you wonder.

We had just left the cemetery when our driver received word that the airport had opened, so we hustled back and mooched around the souvenir stalls while waiting for our flight. Presently we were called forward and were led out onto the tarmac to our small 7-seater plane - 5 passengers and 2 pilots. We were allocated seats based on our weight and Sue ended up with the single seat at the back, having to slump down so as not to bang her head on the ceiling.

We were given diagrams of the lines that we would be flying over so that we knew what we were looking out for and the pilot was able to talk to us through our headphones to point out the different drawings and shapes. The weather was clear and the flight was great and there were only a couple of stomach in the mouth moments. The pilot would fly over one set of lines with the left wingtip pointing downwards, then bank around and fly back the other way with the right wing pointing down so that everyone had a good view. The drawings felt quite close together as well, so it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride as we banked and tipped from one set of lines to the next.

It was an impressive experience, although it was sometimes difficult to appreciate the scale of the drawings we were looking at. Some of them were more obvious than others and more clearly defined; some of them were quite difficult to make out. It was a good experience though and our half hour flew by and we landed safe and sound. We left the airport and finished the tour we had started in the morning, before finally we managed to get something to eat! A big meal that turned out to be breakfast, lunch and dinner in one!

Our stay in Nazca was soured a little by the realisation that the cash card for our travel account had been cloned somewhere along the way and that mysterious cash-withdrawals were disappearing out of cash-points across Lima. A few long distance phone calls seem to have sorted it out though and we're confident that everything will be refunded.

We were back on the road the next afternoon, on the Pan-American Highway that would eventually take us across the border into Ecuador, some 1500km north. Our first destination on our journey north was only two hours away though, at the town of Ica, on the outskirts of which is the small desert oasis of Huacachina, surrounded by towering sand dunes and the home to all sorts of dune-related activities.

We arrived after dark, checked in and headed out to a nearby bar where a few beers were called for. Time passed quickly and by the time we left, the food places all seemed to have closed. Back at the hotel and feeling rather hungry, we spotted a crowded bar in the hotel grounds and made our way over, enquiring as to whether they were still serving food and drink. It was only after we had 'ordered' that we realised it was a private BBQ party and that there was a large group of Peruvians looking at us somewhat quizzically. They were a welcoming bunch though and a couple of them spoke good English and it wasn't long before we were being plied with some Pisco (the local spirit) and being put to work on the BBQ. We woke up feeling a little hazy the following morning, but were greeted at breakfast by lots of friendly 'hola's which was nice, so we obviously didn't embarrass ourselves too much the night before!

Feeling better after lunch, we booked ourselves into a late afternoon dune buggy session and bagged the front seats. We were out for a couple of fun-filled hours as the buggy roared across the dunes, throwing us from side to side and up and down the steep dunes. We also got to try sand-boarding on a couple of the dunes, without too much success - lying on the board like a toboggan was definitely the most successful method! We watched the sunset over the picturesque desert and headed back to town, our hair, clothes and mouths filled with sand, but with big smiles on our faces!

Back on the road, our next stop up the coast was Lima, about 5 hours away. We weren't too keen on stopping in Lima, but all buses terminate there, so we booked a night in a hotel near the centre that would give us a full day to look around before catching an overnight bus further north.

The centre of Lima was surprisingly attractive and we had a much better time than when we stayed out in the Miraflores suburb on our previous visit. The centre of the city is very grand, with the palace and cathedral on the main square. It was a public holiday (in honour of Saint Rose of Lima) while we were there and there was a massive crowd in the square celebrating. There were mounted ceremonial guards, a brass band and a statue of the saint being paraded around the square.

We also visited the fascinating San Francisco Monastery, where a small group of monks still live. The monastery was home to the only cemetery in Lima for a number of years, the monks burying people in mass tombs in the catacombs beneath the church. The catacombs were unsealed in the 1950s and the remains of an estimated 50,000 people discovered.

Our first overnight South American bus journey was beckoning and we boarded at 10pm for the 8-9 hour journey north to the city of Trujillo. The bus was really comfortable with huge seats that reclined 160 degrees. We were given pillows, blankets and a late supper before lights-out. We slept really quite well considering and arrived in Trujillo at 6:30am the following morning. Rather than stay in the city itself, we caught a cab out to the nearby seaside town of Huanchaco, a small fishing village turned seaside resort, where we found a place for breakfast and a really nice guesthouse with sea-views for a couple of nights.

The weather was getting warmer as we headed north, but it wasn't quite warm enough for hitting the beach yet. It didn't take long to explore the small town, the beach front lined with tortora-reed canoes which the fishermen have used for generations (although they seem to be more for decoration these days). It was out of season, so the town was quiet; fortunately most of the restaurants were open, so we had no shortage of places to eat.

The main tourist attractions in the area are the Temples of the Sun and Moon to the south of Trujillo and the remains of the adobe city of Chan Chan to the north. Both were built by different pre-Inca civilisations. We visited the Temple of the Moon first, built by the Moche people, whose civilisation was at its peak between 400 and 600 AD. Until 20 years ago, the temples were buried beneath the sands of the desert, resembling big sand dunes, while funds were raised to start their excavation which is ongoing today. Only the Temple of the Moon is open to the public and was a fascinating visit. Successive generations built their temples around and over the previous one, getting progressively bigger and sealing the older temple inside, leaving layers of ruins within ruins. A lot of the intricate carvings and colours can be seen on the excavated sections.

Whereas the temples were ignored by the Incas when they arrived, the city of Chan Chan that was part of the Chimu Empire and dates to approx 1100 AD, was conquered and absorbed into the Inca Empire and was still a major city when the Spanish arrived four hundred years later. The entry tickets include four sites that are spread out, a small museum and the ruins of two temples in Trujillo and the remains of the Nik An Palace in the sprawling remains of the Chan Chan city proper. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any guides at any of the sites that spoke English, so we just wandered around and admired the scale of the place and the remains of the mud walls and carvings in the middle of the desert.

Our final stop in Peru was another overnight bus ride north, at Mancora, a beach resort 80-100km short of the border with Ecuador. The bus left Trujillo at midnight which meant a long day of sitting around after we had checked out of our guesthouse. We slept well again though and stepped off the bus in Mancora at 7:30am to be immediately hit with a wall of heat and a wall of eager tuk-tuk drivers keen to take us to some hotel or other.

We drove to a hotel that sounded promising in the guidebook, but upon arrival looked a bit like a prison camp. Fortunately, the place next door was really nice and we secured a room literally on the beach, with sun loungers a few steps from our door. It was definitely sunbathing weather here and we settled in for five days of lying around, the longest time we've spent at the beach since leaving Goa all those months ago. It was really nice to relax for a bit and enjoy the good food in the nearby restaurants - it felt a lot like being on holiday!!

And so that's all from Peru, next stop Ecuador! You'll be pleased to hear that we've extended our trip until early December, so we can continue inundating you with photos and blogs for a while yet!

Hope you are all well,
Dan & Sue