I can’t believe it has been a little over a month since my Sweetie and I ventured to Peru for our “adventure of a lifetime”. Actually the adventure began before we left Columbus on May15th. Our flight was supposed to leave around 2:30 Friday afternoon and we would fly through Atlanta and then on to Lima with an ETA Saturday morning. While waiting in Port Columbus we learned that a member of the flight crew refused to work our flight which caused a cancellation. We were then re-routed to Cincinnati and then on to JFK in New York where we would then fly on to Lima. To make a long story short, we had one heck of an adventure getting to JFK where our 12:30 am flight was delayed until around 2:30 am. We finally boarded our LAN Chile flight and arrived late, but safely, in Lima Saturday afternoon. The LAN flight and crew were great! The service and food we received (2 meals – dinner and lunch!) were well above average. We received two flight vouchers from Delta for the cancelled flight and these will come in handy for our next adventure.
Our plan after arriving in Lima was to travel south to Ica where we would enjoy sand boarding and sand buggying on the dunes before traveling on to see the Nazca Lines. The flight delay prevented us from enjoying the sand dunes since we did not arrive in Ica until late Saturday evening. The hotel where stayed in Ica was really great and they offered a nice breakfast which included lots of local fruits like mango, papaya, cactus and my very favorite fruit: grenadilla.
After an early breakfast we were picked up at our hotel for the ride to Nazca which took about 1 ½ hours. The area between Ica and Nazca is mostly dessert but the scenery is still pretty interesting with a variety of plant life and rocky terrain. In Nazca we drove to the airport where we took a 45 minute plane ride to see the Nazca Lines – mysterious stone carvings in the desert floor. The carvings included various animals and designs and no one knows for sure how they came to be. While we were flying a girl in our plane became air sick due to all the sharp maneuvers our pilot took to allow passengers on both sides of the plane to see the different designs. My stomach survived the flight but I think another 20 minutes of swerving around the sky above Nazca may have taken its toll on me.
After our flight was over we were given a ride into Nazca where we had some time to walk around the town, check out some local markets, and then visit the Nazca museum before catching a quick lunch. The museum was pretty cool with lots of history and artifacts from the ancient Nazca civilization that once inhabited the area. Included in the artifacts were mummies, skulls and tombs – definitely some pretty cool stuff! After lunch it was time to catch our double decker bus for the long ride back to Lima where we arrived late that evening.
We arrived in Lima that evening where we were picked up at the bus station by our tour company and then taken to our hotel in Miraflora. Upon arrival at our hotel we learned that they did not have our reservation or an available room. After showing the hotel clerk a copy of the confirmation of our hotel reservation, he grabbed our bags and walked us down the street to a neighboring hotel where we were able to secure comfortable lodging for the evening. After a comfortable night’s sleep we would have time the next morning to tour Miraflora before meeting up with the rest of our tour group for our upcoming excursion to Cuzco, The Sacred Valley, The Inca Trail and then on to the Amazon Jungle.
Coming up…Cuzco and the Inca Trail.
Tripping to Peru (Part 2)
Tripping to Peru (Part 3)
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