Friday, May 18, 2012

Peru 2012 Phase 2: Lima to Nazca

The past couple of days have been a blur at best. With our arrival in Lima on Tuesday night, Wednesday was full of experiences in Lima. We began the morning with a trip to the Larco Museum, and then had a brief lunch break and the Mirabus tour of Miraflores. After the Mirabus tour, I took the group to Petit Thouars, the souvenir street and encouraged everyone to get an idea of what they would like to look for as we travel through the country. Prices are okay on Petit Thouars, but we'll see all the same stuff everywhere else in the country for usually a lot cheaper. Of course, it's almost impossible to visit a handicraft mall without spending any money, so most everyone ended up getting something.
Wednesday night took us to the Parque Mágico de Aguas, where there are several lighted, dancing fountains. The high point of the evening is the laser light show projected on a water screen. It's definitely worth the price of admission.
Thursday morning was our scheduled trip to colonial Lima, the Plaza de San Martin, Plaza de Armas, Banco de la Reserva (another museum), and the Saint Francis cathedral and monastery and a trip into the catacombs. This excursion is always popular, as catacombs are not something we have in the US. Traffic in Lima was horrible, and we ended up losing a lot of time in transit. We closed our day with an evening excursion to Barranco to see the Puente de Suspiros and the vibrant night life there.
Today began at 5:45am with a bus ride to Nasca. We arrived in Nasca at 2:30 and checked into the hotel and went straight to the flyover. Weather has been pretty crummy in the mornings for the past several days, and rather than wait around at the airport all morning for the fog to lift, we decided to fly this evening when the weather was good. I didn't fly this time, as the Nazca Lines haven't changed in more than 1000 years, so the pictures I took last year are still good. Everyone enjoyed the flight, and nobody got sick. I think it was also helpful that we hadn't eaten lunch, so nobody had anything to upset their stomach. I hope to remember that for the next time around.
Everyone went their own way for dinner, and I enjoyed a quiet meal by myself at my favorite Nazca restaurant, La Encantada. Once again I had Palta Rellena and Lomo Saltado. I chased it with an Inka Cola, and went back to the hotel, where I am currently enjoying an early evening.
This post is quite boring, so I won't prolong the agony of anyone who may be reading. Tomorrow we have a morning tour of the cemetery and the precolumbian mummies, then an afternoon bus on to Arequipa.

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