I have quite a bit of catching up to do as we were gone to Ica until last night. Seven of us left after lunch to drive to the coast with our wonderful guide. The trip took about six and a half hours with roughly four of those ours spent on windy roads. The ride to Ica itself would have been enough to make for an amazing trip. We left Ayacucho at 9,000 feet and headed even higher up into the Andes. Our highest point was at 15,000 feet which we all could attest to with our shortness of breath and dizzying headaches. As we drove, the city slipped away and we found ourselves gazing alternately at sheer rock walls and tiny hovels perched precariously on the edges of cliffs. Llamas, alpacas, burros, pigs, sheep, and cows sparsely populated the mountainsides, grazing in places that looked impossible for them to get to. The huts in the area were made of mud brick, some roofed with corrugated tin while others were still attached with what my urbanite eyes assume to be straw.
The sheer immensity of the Andean highlands is difficult to describe. We went from forested areas to scrub brush, to bare rocks-some covered with snow. We passed waterfalls and mudslides, even going over one which had apparently just occurred hours before. The area we drove through seems untouched by time, something left over from the Incas. The ride was made all the more exciting by our guide' s desire to make up time. Evidently, traffic rules in Peru are quite a bit looser than in the States. For example, divider lines are mere suggestions rather than a device to insure one is not killed in a head-on collision with a semi on a 12,000 foot cliff. And our guide was one of the much more cautious drivers. An astonishing number of miniature concrete mausoleums exist on the sides of the highway, marking where people have been killed by motor accidents.
Our first stop on our coast trip was in Huacachina, a literal oasis in the middle of towering sand dunes. We arrived fairly late in the evening so after (oh so luxurious!) hot showers, we bedded down for the night. As it had been dark when we arrived, the next morning I was awed by the massive dunes rising 100s of feet tall in a circle all around our hotel. We ate breakfast where I confirmed that Peruvians do indeed "drink" their breakfast, and then we headed out to the dunes. Our vehicle of choice was a nine-seat red and yellow dune buggy which took off on a crazy ride through the dunes. Skidding over and around and sideways on the dunes made me lose all sense of what was up or down, but it was wicked fun. At various points, we stopped and our driver pulled out sandboards (really just pieces of wood with velcro attached) and we suicidally slid down near vertical slopes. The first time our driver stopped, I couldn't believe that he expected us to ride down the dune he was pointing to....and on our stomachs, head-first no less! But I irrationally figured that 1000s of people did this each year and I certainly wouldn't be the one to kill herself, right? Just to be on the safe side, I told the kids how much I loved them, much to their embarrassment, before I went. In fact, though it seemed like we were going down the dune at mach three, the bottom of the dune was a gentle slope . After I realized my neck wasn't going to be broken on landing, it was on. Sandboarding definitely ranks as one of the most exciting and fun activities I have done.
Other highlights of our packed weekend included a trip to a winery where we learned how Pisco is made. This Peruvian liquor is made into the famous Pisco sour which tasted vaguely like a really fantastic margarita (in my opinion). Of course we had to purchase some as well as several bottles of the local sweet wines. How to safely get these goodies home remains a mystery but they were too good to leave behind.
The next day took us to Nazca where we boarded an itty-bitty plane with seven seats for a 35 minute ride over the Nazca lines. The lines were discovered in the early 1900s when a crop duster was flying over the area. Estimated to have been etched into the ground by the Nazca peoples 1500 years ago, no one has yet come up with a completely satisfactory reason why they exist. The lines form geometrical shapes as well as various objects with significance to the Nazca people: monkey, falcon, spider, hummingbird, tree, and whale among others. The objects are generally several hundred feet across and they are only etched about twenty centimeters in to the sand. Our tiny plane took us over the lines, banking far right and left to give us good views below. Prudently, our guide had advised us all against eating before the trip so the plastic bags provided to all passengers remained mercifully unused.
A trip to a Nazca ceramic maker, one of only a handful that still practices the traditional form of pottery, a visit to the Witches' Village where we all had our cards read by a shaman, and a stop at Plaza Vea, the Peruvian equivalent of Wal-Mart, rounded out the day. Our last day on the coast took us on a boat ride to Islas Ballestas. The islands, off the coast of Paracas, are home to thousands of birds and sea lions. The birds produce copious amounts of guano (bird shit) high in nitrogen and therefore an excellent natural fertilizer. Every five to seven years, companies are allowed to harvest the guano from the islands and consequently, it is one of Peru's largest exports.
After all our fun on the coast, the ride home was a bit rough. By then, three people had been struck by the dreaded travelers' diarrhea and Wyatt had a juicy cold. As the bathrooms along the way are of the no-toilet-paper-no-toilet-seat-generally-no-flushing type, having an upset stomach was particularly unpleasant. Seven long hours and many bathroom stops later, we collapsed into our beds, grateful to be "home".
No comments:
Post a Comment