Nazco

After spending a day meeting quite a few characters who have "got lost" in Peru decided that we needed a bit of a tourist hit. decided to fly over the desert to see the Nazco lines. We didn't really know what to expect. There were at least a dozen options which had been touted to us by many of the tourist operators in Paracas. In the end Miguel from the hotel got it all sussed.

He would organise a taxi to the airport in Pisco - mmm didn't know that they had one! Fly over the desert, take a quick tour of Pisco and then back to the hotel for dinner. Now my Spanish is lousy but I did realise that he was telling me something important about the price.

It wasn't until we got to the airport though that I realised what it was. No credit card payment! Mmm could we pay in dollars - sure. Only problem was that every dollar had to be absolutely pristine! The dollars we had were straight from US and had tiny tears, fold marks and marks. No possiblo! Ok what to do now. Give me half and your driver will take you to ATM at end of flight. Then through security. Basically we had to put anything metal into a container and then we were scanned before going through the gate. They then handed back to us everything in the container that had not been scanned! interesting. Gradually the other 10 people arrived who were sharing the flight with us. We chatted with a Japanese couple. He was extremely nervous about flying but she was full of enthusiasm. The airport was sparklingly new, the previous one having been flattened by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Outside the vast windows we looked across rubble and mess as far as we could see. Looked like something from Spike Miilligan. Out of the dust and chaos came two pilots, meticulously dressed looking for the way into the airport - I kid you not!

In Paracas we had been aware of the wonderful busy port but behind the hotel was a desert where occasionally women in traditional costume wandered out to the road, or we saw a lone figure walking off into the distance. What was out there? It fascinated us. We wandered out to the plane across the debris. Brand new plane, zappy looking young pilots greeted us and gave us the lowdown on the flight and brand new plane. Off we went , it was amazing, out in the desert were huge irrigated oasis with grand houses with swimming pools, surrounded by long sand dunes - and always people and animals somehow surviving in this desolate landscape...and then we were over the lines... the pilot swooped down... below us even smaller planes shot down into the valleys only to to swing out of the dive at the very last minute. Our pilot, keen to make sure that everyone got a good view would go into a stomach wrenching turn first to the left and then to the right and then down, down, down to get a better view and up once more and on to the next spectacular view. Our Japanese friend Miko was decidedly green by this stage while her boyfriend was positively enjoying it. The rest of us were all really quiet!!!

It was a stunning flight though and we just loved it. You can check out this sight to get an idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlp1frj_thM.

On our return to the airport we were met by two grim officials who would not accept our dollars and who insisted that we go to the bank to change more dollars. Evenutually they let us leave when we promised to pay the hotel. When we got to the hotel we just handed over the old crumpled dollars and they were happy as!

What a day... tomorrow 4hr bus trip back to Lima and flight to Arequippa... Should be a long but interesting day!