I woke up about 10 minutes before the wake-up call and had time to slowly get myself out of bed, dressed and down to the lobby to wait for my ride to the bus station at 5:45. Past 6 am and still no lift. The lady working the Ibis reception desk called the travel agency for me and found out that they had a problem with their driver. They asked if the hotel could provide me a ride to the bus station and the company would refund. By this time there was only 20 minutes left before the bus left the station. Needless to say I was not impressed with Tika Tours, not only for not attempting to reach me at the hotel since they obviously knew where I was staying, but I was wondering what I had gotten myself into! Ibis Hotel staff however were EXCELLENT ! They sent their own car and driver to take me to the south end “Cruz del Sur” bus station. This guy got me there in time; he could easily be a professional race car driver. He drove fast, but he drove safely.
From then on however, everything that had been arranged by Tika Tours was great. Someone to meet me at each destination and drive me where I needed to be next.
The road followed the coast from Lima all the way down to Paracas. Again, very arid landscape, interspersed with small agricultural areas. Sand dunes / mountains all along the way. From Paracas to Ica to Nazca the sand became more of a stony area, but just as arid. Strangely enough, again, interspersed with agricultural fields.
There was someone waiting for me at the bus terminal in Nasca at 1:30 to take me to the Airport for my fly over. I had to wait about 45 minutes for my flight and had not eaten since the snack on the bus at 8 am so I was quite hungry but did not date to eat anything as I had been warned by a number of people not to do so. Small 6 passenger twin propeller plane, which I did not think to take a picture of ! The ride had been described as being 1 hour or 45 minutes (Tika Tour info or brochures) but turned out to be about 25 minutes. Still, it was GREAT. There are so many lines visible from the air that it is hard to distinguish even the most obvious ones. I was filming and trying to take pictures as well. Haven’t checked the filming yet, but of all the photos I took, only 1 figure is really clear, and that’s the spider. But the scenery itself was beautiful as well. So it was well worth the 7 hour bus ride !
Owl-man / Astronaut (35 meters)
The dog (50 meters) Bottom right hand corner
The Spider (46 meters)
Lots of other lines and patterns
Views from the plane
Road that runs through las lineas NazcaHad time to eat a banana and a tangerine after the flight. Someone else picked me up from the airport at 4 pm to drive me back to the bus station for my 4:30 bus to Ica, where I would be spending the night. It was a long ride back. There was a driver at the station to take me to my hotel, but he was expecting people on the next bus and asked if I minded the wait. Oh well, why not. It would save this guy some time and his work would be over for the day. It was close to 7 pm by then and I was REALLY hungry. Turned out the people he was waiting for were not on the next bus, or the one after that. Waited about half an hour before we finally left for the hotel, but the driver made sure I was the first one dropped off. The Hotel Jasmin in Ica was a little gem ! Take note if you are ever in the area.
As I checked-in I asked if they had a restaurant (because we were quite off the beaten track) and I was informed that not only did they have one, but that I could order from the front desk, go drop off my stuff in my room, freshen up and by the time I came back to the restaurant my meal would be ready ! LOVE IT ! I’ve been trying to eat local food for most of my trip, but I was really in need of some comfort food, and they had pasta on the menu, so spaghetti bolonese it was, with a nice glass of red wine.
Early to bed, because it is another early morning to rise. They are picking me up at 6:45 for the drive to Paracas.
No comments:
Post a Comment