Lima to Arequipa

Back on the road after some time in Lima, we found ourselves back in the sand and dust. The desert goes along the coast and so does the Panamerican Highway. The first leg took us to Ica, a city famous for the Huacachina oasis. We were surprised to find an oasis in Peru, and it was very nice. Standing there by the water and vegetation with the sand dunes high all around, it was easy to imagine the relief of somebody who made it through the desert to have a rest. Many tourists go to Huacachina to ski or board down the sand dunes. Ica was otherwise similar to all the other cities in Latin America, messy and busy.

The second drive went to Nazca, famous for the Nazca lines and geoglyphs in the desert. Best seen from a small airplane, we decided to stay for a couple of nights so we could book a flight. Along the road we found a mirador, where we could see a few of the Nazca lines after climbing up a tower. It is amazing that they are still there, how does it work to preserve lines in an environment as changeable as a desert?

We did the flight, too. And it was a small plane. We managed to take photos of some of the patterns (the last two photos are the whale and the monkey), but neither of us found it a comfortable experience.

Along the way from Ica to Nazca, we saw areas with vegetation of different kinds. A taxi driver in Nazca explained that the Nazcas built aqueducts from the mountains under the ground to direct water so that they could create an irrigation system. The Nazca culture certainly made a lot of interesting things!

Further on the way to Arequipa, we spent a night by the beach in Puerto Inka close to Chala. The desert is impressive, and the beach is very pretty. No point to try to go for a swim, the water was too wild, but it was nice to hear the waves and see the beauty of nature.

Next to the hotel were some Inca ruins. We learned that this was a working fishing port, with a lot of different kinds of storage space. The Incas caught fish in the bay, and then it was passed from person to person in a chain all the way to Cusco, where the ruler got his fresh fish for lunch each day. Exactly how this chain worked is obviously not clear, but the ruins were impressive and people are still catching fish for commercial use in the bay. We watched them in their small boats moving from end to end in the bay during the day, and late afternoon a truck came to pick the catch up.

The following leg took us further through the desert, up and down mountains, along valleys where people had organised irrigation systems to grow all sorts of food stuffs, like olives and citrus, and through mountains green of copper and red of iron. A lot of the drive was along the coast, where the fog was dense over the water and the sand was blown up on the mountains by the strong wind from the Pacific. Peru certainly offers variety and surprises, it is beautiful. We stopped in Arequipa for a couple of nights to prepare for the last section towards the border to Bolivia.