Last Sunday I happily left Lima to move south to an equally uninspiring dusty concrete mess called Ica for a few days. The city of 125,000 was to serve as my base for a few days of exploring the area. The region is a draw for tourists for a number of reasons primary of which are the Nazca Lines, its reputation as the premiere wine growing area in Peru, and for the vast sand dunes just outside the city.
First up was a fly over of the Nazca Lines. The lines are made up of 800 square lines, 300 geometric figures, and 70 animal figures. They were created by the Nazca people between 900 BC and 600 AD. The great mystery of the lines and shapes is that they can only be seen and appreciated from the air. The theory is that they were created for religious and ceremonial purposes. I’ve seen numerous documentaries on TV about these lines and figures over the years and so could not pass up a chance to see them for myself as they seemed to magical on the screen.
Four of us went up in a tiny little plane with our 2 pilots for a 35 minute pass over some of the most visible animal figures. In total was saw about 12 animals and numerous geometric shapes. As we flew over each animal the plane would circle once tilting to the right and then would tilt left and go around again so we could all see as well as possible. In the end some of the shapes were pretty faint and it was hard to make them out. I had a hard time figuring it out on my pictures afterwards! You may need to click the pictures to make them bigger to see.
Our tiny plane
The dry sandy plane where most of the figures are bisected by the Panamerican Highway
The astronaut figure – thought to represent a god
The astronaut as he appeared with out zoom – he is on the front side of the left most hill
The spider
The condor
The tree and hands – the only figures visible from the viewing platform by the highway
It was a good thing it was a short flight so that I could head back to bed. On Sunday I came down with a bug that has knocked me pretty flat this week so I have had lots of down time. Also all the plane flipping back and forth isn’t much fun when you are hazy with fever!
The next day was another busy day with a private tour of two vineyards and wine tasting. Peru is not known for its wines particularly but in reading my Lonely Planet it promised that some of the malbecs produced in this area are set to rival Argentina in a few years. I’m not sure what that was based on, as I definitely didn’t get to drink them! In general the wines were either very bad or very very sweet! One of the wineries though is an artesenal winery which here means they use the same methods as the 16th century when grapes and wine were introduced by the Spanish. Grapes are crushed by stomping with feet and fermentation is done in clay jars in the sun. Sadly I didn’t get to stomp even though the grape harvest is on.
“Promising” malbec
Grapes post stomping – so tempting to jump in
Clay jars full of juice fermenting
Sampling the wines in my tiny little glass
Last stop was some adventure sport. Outside Ica is an oasis, Huacachina, surrounding a natural little lake. This is a tourist mecca (which I didn’t realize until going there and which explained the lack of tourists and tourist services in Ica proper) as it is a lovely spot surrounded by towering sand dunes. Besides being a great place to relax for the afternoon, it is known for dunebuggy rides and sandboarding on the dunes. Both of which I had wanted to give a try.
The lake and dunes behind
Huacachina from the dunes
For the many young and young-at-heart who do the dunebuggy ride, the fun is in the crazy driving plunging up and down and around the dunes. In theory this sounds like fun, but turns out to be torture and a really really bad idea for someone like me who hates hates hates rollercoasters. Nothing for it though but to strap in, brace myself, and close my eyes. I survived.
Our dunebuggy
The dunes
Racing through the sand
As for the sandboarding part of it, I thought it not a good idea as I was running a fever and none to steady on my feet especially after the dune rollercoaster ride. The rest of our group did it and it looked like fun. Some tried to actually do snowboard style standing up and others sat or lay on the board like a sled. No injuries and lots of big smiles at the end!
Prepping the sandboards with wax
Trying to stand and snowboard on the bunny slope
Using it as a sled on the big hill
The jaunt was topped off by watching the sun set over the oasis and the dunes. Not a bad ending and I was happy to have done it and survived!
Watching the sunset
People climbing the dune to watch the sunset and sandboard down
After the day of excitement I dumped myself on a luxury overnight bus for the 17 hour ride up to Cusco. I just want to mention these buses. Most of the spots that people want to get to are separated by high mountains and big distances. The only option besides expensive flying is the slightly cheaper bus. There is a class of luxury bus service that provides nice big comfy seats (think business class) that almost fully recline. There is event a “Land Host” who provides meals at intervals and in-seat entertainment system. Not too bad a way to travel if you must!