Monday, Jan 28th, Lima, Peru

Greetings!

We just met our guide, Pablo, who will be accompanying us for the rest of our Peru adventure, as well as Bolivia.  At dinner here at the hotel in Lima, he explained that we'll be joined by 12 Canadians for our stay in the highlands around Cuzco, and then most of them will be departing to the Galapagos.  Three of our group will travel with us to Bolivia, and then on to Quito in Ecuador.  We'll meet a new guide, for the remainder of the trip to southern Ecuador, the Amazon, and Galapagos.

The finish of our visit to the Nazca lines included seeing the Ballestas Islands, and the Paracas National Reserve.  The low tourist season meant we weren't fighting crowds at either place, and they were well worth the effort.  We were treated to yet one more Nasca line on a large sand dune on the Paracas Peninsula (the Candelabro), dating to 200 B.C.  An alternative theory is that it was altered by San Martin, a Mason and the guy who declared Peru Independent in 1822, because of the similarities in their graphic designs.  I'm thinking early sandboarders.

The mass of bird and seal colonies at Ballestas were pretty impressive, and the surprise were the penguins.  It was very cute when they four of them descended the cliffs from their rocky perch to leap into the surf.  I'm sorry the photos of the moms and pup seals didn't turn out, as we couldn't get very close and I'm still wrestling with my camera's focus options at mid distance.  Our captain maneuvered our launch to quite a few key points around the islands, and we were able to take it all in for over an hour.

The National Reserve also provided us with a clear demonstration of how Paracas got it's name.  "Para" means rain, and "cad" means sand in the local Quechua language.  And this peninsula's sandscape is immense.  The wind has sculpted beautiful designs, and its colors are gorgeous.

We were also treated to a geology lesson, observing 40 million year-old sea shell and petrified wood fossils in the sand, and some awesome beaches.  Paracas culture is one of the earliest in Peru, and many sites are being preserved here in the Reserve.  All in all, a great adventure on the way back to Lima.

To see all of the photos taken today (actually, there's a lot more, but I can't subject you to my indecisions over deleting them), click on Paracas and Ballestas Islands.   

Sunday, Jan 27th, Ika, Peru

The photographers amongst you will recognize the phenomenon when the automatic focus wants to focus on the window between you and what you really want to focus on.  That's the reason that there are too few good photos of the wonderful Nazca lines we flew over this morning.

The Astronaut

Don't get me wrong, I should have taken it off of autofocus, set it for infinity, and just took the shots.  It's a learning experience.  The ride was great, and we were completely blown away by how many figures and designs there were to see.  Our pilot was very talented, and our guide extremely knowledgeable.  The area we covered was huge, sighting figures on mountain sides and flatlands.

Afterwards, we visited a museum founded by an Italian (there all over here) containing more Nazca pottery, and then drove to a Bodega to learn how they make Pisco ( a popular brandy drunk everywhere, and made from distilled wine (we're in a plentiful grape region).

We drove to Huacachina, a public oasis surrounded by some gigantic sand dunes full of dune buggies, sand boarders, and tourists having fun.  Families and lots of young people in love were oblivious to two old people also in love.  Thank another Italian lady who promoted the resort, and helped it become a pubic treasure.

Finally, our driver (Romero) and guide (Marco) drove us across lots of uninspiring desert to the province capital city of Ika, and to Las Dunas Resort.  It's a destination resort in an upscale neighborhood in Ika, containing most everything the aspiring Peruvian family wants for the summer.  I got to play golf on a short 7-hole course, slide down an awsomely twisting water slide, and we've had two well-prepared meals.  Our room overlooks the pool and restaurant, and our deck could be reached from the first tee (if we weren't using pitching wedges, and pulled the ball). 

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Ika, Peru. 

Saturday, Jan 26th, Nazca, Peru

Greetings!

The desert south of Lima is the northern stretch of the Atacama desert found in northern Chile.  So if you were to find the adventure we took to Chile and Argentina two years ago, you'd see scenes that look very much like what we saw today.  This place gets about 30 minutes of rain a year, and it's hard to imagine it could support a dozen civilizations spanning at least 5,000 years.

Our bus ride took seven hours from Lima, and it's the first time the we've been on a bus which contained a urine-only toilet.  Boy, was I happy to arrive in Nazca province.  On our afternoon tour,  Brady guided us through the remnants of the occupation of Nazca by five civilizations.  We had seen the beautiful pottery found at the main mountain ceremonial site, but walking it with Brady was particularly inspiring.  It's walls demonstrated mud-brick, river rock and mud, and clay-brick (without forms - fingerprints were found on them) levels.  In addition to 600-year old pottery shards, original corn stalks and cotton could be found along the path.  

But what impressed us the most were the innovative underground wells and aqueducts introduced a thousand years earlier by the Paracas which still nourish the Nazca agricultural and urban area from their 34 wells.  Designed to tap into the runoff from the valley's surrounding mountains, the knowledge needed to incorporate both advanced recycling systems and elevation protection measures is mind-blowing.  They are truly the lifespring of Nazca.  On the way back to the hotel, we got to meet Don Roberto Calle Benevides, the premiere Nazca potter, who still uses the traditional non-wheel techniques, and whose father pioneered archeology research into pottery development in the early 20th century,

This evening, we attended a very impressive presentation at the Maria Riesch Planetarium, describing her life-long work on the Nazca lines, and bringing us closer to understanding the who and why of what we'll see tomorrow.  We're going up at 9am in a two-passenger plane to look around, and I'm including here some photos I took at an exhibit which stood outside the Planetarium.  What may surprise you (it did us) is how many of these lines are not the well-known figures (monkey, hummingbird, astronaut), but straight lines and geometric figures.  

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Nazca.

Friday afternoon, Jan 25th, Lima, Peru

Greetings!

Today, we almost made it to two good museums.  We actually did get to two museums, but one of them sucked.   Don’t believe a word of what is written on page 61 of the Footprint Handbook on Peru, Bolivia &Ecuador, by Ben Box, and Robert and Daisy Kunstaetter.  The Museo de la Nacion is a large waste of time (and I’d say money if it wasn’t free).  I hope someone got the number of the truck that packed up all of its collection and left.

We did get to see a great parade out in front.  Very well done dance numbers and costumes.

Across town, the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Argueologia, and Historia is spectacular.  A little hard to find, but once you’re there, you never want to leave.  I thought I understood the span of design in this region’s pottery.  But from 2628 BC to 1500 A.D., groups of coastal and highland potters created almost every known vessel – decorated with every animal and scene.  A not just carved into the side of the pot.  They integrated the animal or object into the pottery. And the technique survived over two thousand years.

That’s amazing.  Most pottery schools last a couple hundred years, about the lives of most civilizations.  But one can’t help but admire the quality and consistency of the pottery on display at the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Argueologia, and Historia in Lima Peru.   

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Lima Museums

Gregory

Friday Morning, January 25th, Lima

Greetings!

Walking through the park on a warm summer evening, kids playing on swings and climbing structures, parents socializing, and teenagers sneaking kisses on benches, it’s clear that Peruvians are interested in having fun.  And it’s not even the weekend yet. 

Cafes, restaurants, theaters, and night clubs line the park boundaries in Miraflores, the upscale tourist district in Lima.  An almost full moon hangs just above the Cathedral, and the sounds of a choir echo from the entrance.  A double decker tour bus, parked in front, is just leaving for the 7pm City at Night run. 

We find our way to pizza street, a moniker denoting a collection of restaurants satisfying a very western crowd’s comfort needs.  Ours advertizes Peruvian food, and we order seafood plates with too little shrimp and whitefish, and too many potatoes and french fries.  But the local beer is great, and we watch Australian Open tennis highlights and Barcelona soccer on the surrounding big screens, while pan flutes and guitars serenade our ears.

Our first night in the capital goes well, and we’re very glad to be able to enjoy a slow pace in a friendly neighborhood.  If the tour which begins tomorrow is similar to others from Adventures Abroad, it’ll not be a vacation, but a well-designed educational immersion, leaving little time for rest.

Thursday, January 24th, Lima, Peru

Greetings!

It's 8:30am on Thursday in Lima, Peru.  We're in Room 312 of the San Agustin Exclusive Hotel in Miraflores, preparing to catch up on the sleep we missed out on last night.  The photo to the left is southern Utah on our way to Miami, where we watched endless re-runs of Hillary Clinton getting angry at some Republican Senator while waiting for the flight to here.  I am constantly amazed at how there aren't more bizarre outbreaks of cabin-fever on long flights.  I was certainly close to going bonkers.

We'll rest, and then probably see some of the town.  Our tour doesn't start until tomorrow, and we flew in early to make sure flight delays wouldn't impact getting started.

One of the lessons we learned about travels is to plan to leave the day before you actually leave.  That usually gives you a day to remember all the things you forgot to do or bring, and makes your departure go a whole lot better.

Tomorrow morning, we leave for Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.  So today was such a free day.  Our travel skills are improving, so we got to spend part of it touring three programs of an agency on which Pat is a member of the Board of Directors, as well as the Treasurer.  It's Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County.  Few rewards are greater than being able to see and talk with the people whose lives are being assisted by programs you help bring about.    Here are three are particularly successful, and should be expanded to serve more children and parents.