Pisco/Paracas/Nazca Peru

January 28, 2024 Pisco/Paracas/Nazca

We arrived in Pisco in the morning. This time entry was a little more complicated because everyone had to present their passport and sea pass to the immigration officers who came on board. My appointment for this was at 7:15 a.m.! Afterwards I was able to have breakfast in peace, as we didn't continue until 9:30 a.m.

I had agreed to the suggestion of two fellow travelers to take a flight with them into the desert to the mysterious 2,000 year old "Nazca Lines". After meeting, we left the ship and were met by our driver Oscar.

He drove us through a desert-like, rather unsightly area, past run-down buildings and lots of rubbish.

The airport, on the other hand, seemed new, modern and almost deserted. At some point we received our "boarding passes", which looked more like receipts and had the seat numbers handwritten on them.

But then we boarded the plane, which could hold twelve passengers, and took off. After about an hour of flying we reached our destination, the area around Nazca. On the stony plains and on some rock faces, kilometers of dead-straight lines and symbols could be seen again and again: spirals, people, animals. Despite instructions from the pilot, these geoglyphs were not easy to spot and even more difficult to photograph. I find my yield of photos rather disappointing.

Three hours after departure we were back at the airport and were picked up by Oscar. We were hungry by now, so we stopped on the way back to the ship in Paracas. Paracas is a very busy fishing and tourist village and has many restaurants, one of which Oscar recommended to us. We invited Oscar to lunch with us, drank pisco sours and enjoyed wonderful fish dishes. Afterwards we said goodbye to Oscar because there was a shuttle bus ready for the last route to the ship.

I only ate a little something for dinner. Later that evening I watched Derrick Cameron's comedy show, which I found only moderately funny this time.