Adventures in Peru and Bolivia: Lima and Nasca Lines

On Sunday 5th, it was with a very heavy heart,that I left Viv in Pisac and headed for Cusco, with the rest of our group, where we caught our connection to Lima, dropping 11,000 ft to sea level in 45 minutes. My impression of Lima this time, was quite different, as we stayed in the heart of the city at a very nice hotel. Lima was the jewel of the Colonial Americas, and its churches, convents and mansions in the Historic Centre attest to the richness of that time. Lima is a city that lives and breathes by the sea - it is modern, entertaining and boasts wonderful walking malls with great shopping and resturants. We spent the afternoon taking in the sights, had an early dinner and early night, in preparation for our early bus ride to Nasca the following morning.

The bus ride took us for 5 hours along the coast through desert areas, agricultural fields and little rural villages... At lunch time we arrived in the town of Isca. We did a tour of the little town, where we were shown churches & buildings, which were devated in the 2007 earth quake in Peru. We also visited the local museum, with incredible specimens of mummies and artifacts, dug up in the Naca Lines area, dating back some 2,000 years. Our Hotel was a very old homestead on an oasis, surrounded by massive sand dunes. The following morning, was another early start, to head another 2 hours into the Nasca desert, where we boarded a small aircraft and flew over the Nasca Lines. These are 'geopglyphs, which date back to 2000 BC and were laid out using stones on the sandy soil of the Nazca desert. They depict plants, birds, lizards, dogs and a monkey.Theories around the 'geoglyphs, is that they were intended for their gods, or another is that they may have functioned as an astronomical calender. It is incrdible, bearing in mind the size of them, that they were able to get the proportions of the drawing so exact working only at ground level. The day ended in a 7 hour bus trip back to Lima, arriving at 23.00, in time to pack and catch 3 hours sleep, before leaving for Lima airport at 4.30, to catch our flight back to Johannesburg via Buenos Aires & Cape Town. It was wonderful to touch down on South African soil, with all the memories of the past few weeks adventures in Peru still so fresh in my mind. What an incredible opportunity, and I thank my wonderful husband for a "gift of a lifetime!".