We woke up in the sand dunes just as the sun was coming out. It's hot in the day but cold at night so all our sleeping bags had a layer of dew on them. We dried them in the sun for a while before packing up and heading back to Huacachina for breakfast, a pretty little town based around a small lagoon.
After breakfast we headed to Nazca, first though stopping at a supermarket for some food supplies. We have been split into four groups for meal preparations and given a budget to stick to from our kitty money. Each group only has a couple of meals to prepare during this first section of our trip to Cuzco, the rest of the time we eat out or food is provided.
Nazca is home to the famous Nazca Lines, enormous designs inscribed in the Desert on the arid high plateau between Nazca and Palpa. Many of the lines depict animals such as llamas, monkeys, sharks and spiders, trees and other designs. Archaeologists believe the lines were created between 200BC and 700AD by three successive, different civilisations. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in1994. We stopped to view some of the lines from a viewing tower on the roadside. We had the option of flying over the lines for a high fee, we didn't take it, some from our group did and said it was a good experience, but also that we didn't miss too much.
We had a nice relaxing afternoon in hammocks in the sun at a hotel complex in Nazca town where our group are camping in the grounds for the night. Cook group one made a nice chilli for dinner.
Day 4 - a sightseeing morning with a local archeologist/anthropologist guide, Jenson, near Nazca. Off road dirt tracks took us on our morning tour. We visited a two thousand year old water well/aqueduct system still working today. An amazing archeological pyramid dig, discovered in 1980, an ongoing restoration project, they believe there are about thirty more pyramids hidden under the sand to be discovered. Finally we visited another very interesting site, a Chauchilla Indian cemetery which had various mummy's on display.
After lunch, it was my cook teams turn to prepare breakfast and lunch today, we had a three hour drive to Puerto Inca on the Peruvian coast to a lovely little bay in the middle of nowhere. It was once the Inca port that supplied fish to Cusco. We had use of the hotel facilities there but camped on the beach. Nigel's cook team prepared us a great BBQ for dinner then we had birthday cake, it was Nina's 19th birthday, a lovely girl from Denmark, the youngest person on our trip. Our large group are all bonding now, we're very lucky and have a lovely group of people and two good crew, Vikki and Smithy. A good mix of ages from 18 to 70's, you never know with trips like these who you'll be travelling with - we've finally remembered everyone's name! Interestingly there are two other older couples also on twelve month plus travel adventures.
Day 5 - a big driving day today, we drove along a coast road for a few hours with fantastic and dramatic sea and mountain views. We had a couple of toilet/snack stops. After a lunch stop on the beach we headed into the mountains to Arequipa, situated on the Peruvian Altiplano. Arequipa sits at around 2300 meters above sea level, is the second largest city Peru and is set against the stunning backdrop of the snow-covered volcano"El Misti".
In the evening Vikki had booked a local restaurant, Zigzag, for us all. We were served fantastic food. Most of us tried a trilogy of meats, alpaca, beef and pork served on a sizzling hot stone. We were all given paper bibs to wear to stop the spitting fat getting on our clothes.
