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We were up later than usual this morning... 6am!
We showered and went to sit outside in the courtyard to listen to the birds and for me to dry my hair in the sun (my natural hairdryer).
It was so warm, compared to last night anyways. I suppose that's what happens in the desert though, it gets cold in the nights and unbearably hot in the day! We were listening to the birds, and much to my surprise there were two humming birds! We couldn't get close enough to take a photo because they were in amongst the banana trees and flying around but we kept catching glimpses of them. We did have a very photogenic red breasted bird which was rather beautiful!
8.30am couldn't come fast enough, we were starving. Time for some more bread... this time we had scrambled eggs, ham and apples and oranges! Fruit... yes, finally!
We had a 9am pick up so rush to brush our teeth and the minibus was waiting for us to go and see the Nazca lines, only 8 out of 14 did the plan ride so we dropped Renzo and the others off in town and they caught the bus to the observatory tower to see a few of the lines.
We got to the airport, the planes were a lot smaller than I thought! I thought flying over the Grand Canyon in a plane of 10-15 people was bad, but these planes were just about carrying 5 people - barely.
We weren't as long as expected waiting for our flight, we handed in our passports and got weighed to decided where we fit on the plane.
We went through some sort of security process and away we went with our sort of English speaking co-pilot with a mono tone voice, he wasn't quite sure why we were laughing at his tone of voice, he genuinely sounded as though he didn't want to be there.
We had some photos around the plane (precisely 3 minutes) and then we had to tackle getting in the plane now, and that was not an easy task! And I'm guessing not a very pretty sight from behind either!
The flight was insane! It wasn't as bumpy as I thought and the take off was smooth and easy, we flew for around five minutes before we arrived at the most unexplained mysteries of the archeological world, ever! It was incredible, you see it all on the television and they blow these lines up and make the colour stand out, it's nothing like that. They are faint but you can definitely still see them! They have been there for hundreds of years and were only identified when the Peruvians were building he great pan-America road through Nasca. There were all sorts of lines making shapes of humming birds, lizards, hands, trees, spiders, birds, an astronaut (which looked like a little alien), parallel lines and a whale. They see it as the great agricultural calendar that's never been solved or understood fully.
The pilots asked if we wanted to feel zero gravity.... yeah! Sure, why not?
Holy s***, now I know how it feels like to be in a plane crash! The pilot accelerated and just loosed go of the controls so everything and everyone floated in the air it was such a major thrill! He did it another two times but I failed to capture it well on GoPro which I am kicking myself about!
I get well until this point and now having lost my guts in mid air and being in a very small confined space in the desert heat was not great for the travel sickness! Wow, we all felt ruff! But just kept swallowing and gulping to try and get rid of the sick at the back of our throats!
It was fun though and very interesting! We even got a stamp for the passport!!
We arrived back earlier than the other group so we went and sat by what we found was a POOL! In the desert... may I add! It was so refreshing just to dip my legs in! I didn't go all the way like Scott and this Canadian guy Rob. We all had a nice chat by the pool and then went and got ready for 2pm which was the next excursion!
2pm we were all by the reception area, then two huge dune buggies arrived! We split up - half and half and off we went, by god they were fast and he wasn't afraid to use that steering wheel! Bloody nutter.
We were off on the cemetery tour and the sand boarding tour, so excited for both!
We headed it of town to the mountains, we got to the first area which was a huge spiral well and what they called a 'paracas' which was dug by the Inca's hundreds of years ago to allow underground water from the mountains to flow down to the town and villages for the crops and people to live off, they built it spirally and layer because it prevented it from collapsing when there was an earthquake or rain to course landslides.
We also went passed loads of cactus fields which we weren't sure were for, the guide told us that they are for putting little sorts of beetles on them which grow due to eating the cactus juice, they grow bigger and bigger and produce white powder all over the cactus, the farmers then pull the beetles off very carefully and their blood produces a thick red 'goo' this is used for very expensive and popular red lipstick around the world. They are making a killing of this stuff! It's incredible the amount of blood comes out of one little tiny beetle let alone a big one!
Also, we spotted a humongous mountain in the distance behind us, this of course was not a mountain but a sand dune - holy s***! I've never seen anything like it, that's because it's one of two highest sand dunes in the world! At around 2500-3000metres above sea level (probably a lot more)
We moved on to the ancient ruins of the pyramids from the early Peruvian incas, they were proper pyramids and lots of maze type walls everywhere. The place was called 'ka-wah-chi' built in the 1500s they think. It was awesome! Another site we visited was the cemetery, it was in the middle of the desert in amongst the sand dunes, just tonnes of bones and hair, pottery and teeth. I though the killing fields were bad but my god there were bones and hair everywhere! We were all a little creeped out that there were 700 year old skulls rotting away on a pile of sand. With teeth and everything!
After the history lessons and being creeped out entirely by the end, it was time we had a bit of fun and went sand boarding! We couldn't see music and at first just lots of rocks and stones. However, boy were we wrong!! We literally went around the corner and there were these huge sand Dunes!
They were incredible! The driver had to let his tyres down to drive on the thick sand, we got half way up the hill and started to roll back down, at first we thought this was correct but turns out it wasn't so we sort of had to go with it, the driver almost tipped the buggy it felt like. We all got a little panicky but the second try worked well and we kept climbing higher and higher! We couldn't believe how much sand there was! The very top we reached felt as though we were going to tip over backwards! We reached the top and had a few photos, this time when we got in the buggy we got told to hold on tight....
My god was this safe!? We were driving over sand dunes in these huge buggies, almost on two wheels at some point aswell. It was so much fun!! We absolutely loved every minute of it. Even though it was a little nerve racking!
We parked up on top of a sand dune and did some sand boarding, it was so much fun!! The least fun part was trying to walk in 6 inch sand up the hill to have another go! Scott had a go at standing up and going San boarding as though he was snow boarding, what an absolutely epic fail that was haha! He rolled down the hills about 3 times to get to the place he was at the end. Haha!
After around 2 hours we were off on our way again, a thrilling ride through the dunes and back through the rocky desert to Nasca. Then.... bang! I thought I felt a puncture but we carried on going for a while until he gave up and stopped, then got pumped up with the help of the other buggy. I could see the city and it was so cold now because the sun was just about going down. This puncture couldn't have come at a worse of time!
It was 6.40pm by the time we got back to the hotel after the driver stopped to change the tyre. We were cold, sandy and grubby now! With only 20 minutes to get ready for food at 7pm met and Scott rushed to get showered and cleaned up because we could bare to be minging whilst eating food. I'm pretty sure a lot of us had the same idea though because there was very little power in the shower and the hot water was dribbling out by the end! I suppose it was better than nothing!
We were having pachamanca for tea tonight, it was a traditional Peruvian tea that they cooked under ground, like some sort of under ground microwave that took two hours to cook every thing!
They put volcanic stones, hot stones and coal and then the place leaves and Banana leaves down, after that they place the food, potatoes were in their loose, sweet corn, pork, chicken and beef and some sort of corn bread that was super spicy!
We had to thank the gods before digging it all up and giving them panchamanca a god mother and father, two people from the group volunteered and the male poured juice over the mud in a cross shape whilst the female sprinkles cocoa leaves all over the heap of mud.
It's awesome to see how they used to cook it, I'm expecting it took them forever to plan and cook meals for the entire family or village.
Food was delicious and we all went up for seconds.
We had around 1 and 1/2 hours spare the pack our things and get out of the room. So of course we were entitled to a small nap!
But first was to tackle the scorpion that found a house underneath my rucksack on the floor, delightful! It was only tiny but still it had claws and his bottom wiggling ready to pounce on us!
Surprisingly though he didn't move for a while and the spider that went passed it creeped along the wall/skirting board - such a p**** I thought they were going to battle it out! :(
We got to the bus station at around 9.45pm - oh boy! I needed the toilet! Not in like five minutes but in like five seconds! Oh god I hate this feeling! I hope I'm not having a funny moment not now - 30 minutes before I board an overnight bus for 10 hours that I can only do number one on and that doesn't stop! IMODIUM, quick! Of all nights I had to feel bad :( Renzo went across the road and bought some antibiotics just in case I started having sweats and a fever, I got some Coca Cola to have flat to settle the stomach too.
Let's hope this feeling goes!!
Renzo said not to expect first class again, well it wasn't too shabby let me tell you that now! All that was different was a plastic cover over the seat rest and thinner arm rests! We had blankets, pillows and a snack - I kept mine for Scott in the morning! I couldn't stomach anything.
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