Peru 2017: May 15, 2017-LIMA CITY TOURS to Paracas/Ballestas Islands and the Nazca lines; El Porton

Our tour pick up time is 4:30 AM so too early for breakfast at the hotel. Even the TAMBO store across the street isn't open. So I paced 2 bottles of water and some snacks in my backpack. Today we're having a tour to Paracas/Ballestas and the Nazca lines with Lima City Tours. www.limacitytravel.com Our contact person has been Jhony Quinones. He has been very good about responding to my questions via e-mail. We're doing this because my husband had expressed an interest in flying over the Nazca lines. On the website it states that the length of this tour is 17 hours. It's going to be a very long day. We are picked up on time. There's just the driver but as we are driving out of Lima he stops by the side of a road to pick up our guide. Our driver is Jorge and our guide is Enrique. The car is small and my husband's legs are not. This is going to be interesting. Something is also going on with the car as every so often we stopped several times for Jorge to put water in the radiator. One time as we were parked by the side of the road and Jorge was putting water into the radiator a police car stopped but then left. Suppose they wanted to make sure we didn't need any help? Paracas is 150 miles south of Lima. In the 19th century the guano from all the birds was used to make fertilizer. General San Martin landed here in 1820 to secure Peru's independence from Spain. We arrived on time for the 8:00 AM boat tour of the Ballestas Islands. There's no time to check out the museum or if there's a place that sells coffee, etc. We are taken straight to the jetty/marina area where we are in a line for the boat. There are lots of boats, lots of people. Each boat appears to hold 30-40 passengers. The boat is open to the elements-hot sun, rain, whatever. This place is known as the poor man's Galapagos. The day is overcast. Interestingly on the left side of the pier we see mainly boats used for hauling caro or for fishing. On the right side is all the tour boats. We see lots of sea birds, pelicans. Our first stop is a geoglyph called the Candelabra. It's very easy to see. Then it's more sea birds like the Peruvian blue footed booby and the Inca tern. We spot a few sea lions but I never saw any Humboldt penguins. On one of the island I saw a large building and 2 men carrying pails but I don't think we were told anything about them. Lots of wave action so the boat does rock quite a bit. If you are prone to sea sickness you may want to think twice about this or take some sort of precaution whether it's medicine or a wristband to help offset the sea sickness. There's also a sea lion with 2 babies on the beach of one of the islands. We're told it's called Maternity Beach as that's where the sea lions give birth?? Interesting rock formations but that's about it. The boat tour lasted about 2 hours and was pleasant. I wasn't that impressed as I guess I had been expecting way more sea life. Per the web site description of this tour we were supposed to have time to explore the town of Paracas but there's really not much to see. I would have liked to check out the museum though.

Leaving Lima before the sun is up!

Marina for the Ballestas Islands boat tour

Waiting in line

First stop is the Candelabra geoglyph

Inca terns

Peruvian blue footed boobies

Sleeping sea lion

Nice waterfall

Interesting rock formations

Peruvian blue footed boobies

Another sea lion

Sea lion

Large building on one of the islands

This is called "maternity beach" and pictured here is a mother sea lion with 2 babies

Floating sign

One of the tour boats

Returning to the marina

This may be a hotel in Paracas right by the marina but I'm not sure

Maybe the San Agustin Hotel

Returning

Museum

Back in the car we continue driving and arrive at Nazca at around 2:30 PM. Maria Reiche Airport. She had something to do with the discovery and research of the lines which were first noticed from air in 1927. Believed to have been etched from 500 BC-500 AD. UNESCO World Heritage Site. The figures are thought to be etched by 3 groups-Paracas, Nazcas, Huari. May represent astronomical pre Inca calendar. Figures that signify the worship of water and fertility? I thought we'd stop for lunch first per the tour's website description but we went directly to the airport. Maybe they wanted to make sure we'd get to fly before the weather says we can't? We check in at the Aero Paracas counter inside the airport. There are lots of flight companies here. My husband and I both get weighed holding what we will take on the plane-particularly my camera. I asked for and got the Nazca stamp in our passports. You must bring your passport with you for Nazca. Our airport guide says we have to wait for 2 other passengers as the planes take 4 up. A pilot, co pilot and 4 passengers. A large tour group is expected so we'll have to wait for them to arrive before flying. This guide explains the plane's route and what we will see. We get a card that shows the route and the names of the images/lines in order. Whale, trapezoids, astronaut (really looks like an old man), monkey-divine being with 9 fingers may have been made to mark the equinoxes, dog, hummingbird-believed to be messenger between worlds of men and the gods, condor, spider-symbol of rain and fertility represents soothsayers who used them to predict the future, heron bird, parrot, tree, hands. After a wait of about 1 hour the tour group has arrived and 2 Canadians from that group will be flying with us. We walk outside to the plane and are told where to sit. My husband and I are sitting in the row directly behind the pilot and co pilot. The plane is a CESSNA with a window for every passenger. The co pilot explains that we will fly to the right, then to the left of each figure so all will see the images. He says to look for the images directly below the plane's wings. Some of the images were very hard to see but others were easy to spot. Not so easy to take and get good pictures with the sun of the afternoon. It was a very smooth flight and we gave a tip to be divided. There was a sign hanging that said "tips are welcome" in English and 4 other languages! I saw all the figures mentioned on the card except for the dog. I saw the monkey better through my husband's window than mine. I should have taken my picture then. I also saw the reptile/lizard and concentric circles/aqueducts that were not mentioned to us as being part of the itinerary. The plane ride was around 35 minutes. Our guide Enrique is in a hurry to leave so I have no time to look at the items in the airport. I should have done that while we waited. From what I remember there were postcards and books for sale. There are several stands adjacent to the airport selling souvenirs. I told Enrique I wanted to buy some postcards so he walked with us to one of the vendors and I was able to buy a few. It's now a little past 4:00 PM.

Pretty scenery on the way to Nazca

Almost there

One of the road side Nazca lines viewing platforms

Our flight is with Aero Paracas

Getting ready to board our plane

Tips sign

Whale

Astronaut

Hummingbird

Condor

Spider

Heron Bird

Parrot

Tree, hands

Lizard/reptile

Aqueducts

Getting ready to land

I am really hungry and it doesn't appear that we are stopping for the lunch we're supposed to have. I mentioned that I want to stop to Enrique so we stop at El Porton. Our driver and guide will wait for us. It's then that I notice that we forgot to go back inside the airport to get our signed certificates of our flight over the Nazca lines. No problem. Jorge and Enrique will go back (not even 10 minutes) to get them for us while we have our late lunch. The place is cute and very clean. Not too busy. My husband decides to order the personal size mushroom cheese pizza and I get the grilled chicken which comes with a choice of potato, rice, or salad. I chose rice but when my order comes to the table there's fries instead. They tasted great so no complaints. However, that pizza was a different story. Lots of cheese and mushrooms but no pizza sauce like we're used to having at home. I gave my husband half of my chicken as it was such a large piece of all white meat. The sauce it's been gilled in is so yummy. I definitely made the better choice. Cost was 51 soles without tip.

Menu-chicken

Menu-pizzas

Mushroom cheese pizza

Grilled chicken

Very nice

We return to the car and I mention about visiting the Nazca ceramic house as indicated in tour details but we are told that the house/shop is closed. I'm disappointed and was looking forward to learning more about the lovely Nazca ceramics. Wish we had done this instead of sitting and waiting at the airport. We are about 270 miles from Lima so lots of driving to do and it's now around 5:30 PM. It gets dark and I hate driving in the dark but Jorge is a good driver. No stopping for the radiator. We do make a restroom/stretch your legs/get some gas break. There's more traffic that I expected. Lots of trucks. We dropped off Enrique and arrived back to our hotel at exactly 11:36 PM. We are so tired. Our legs are so cramped. Doing this as a day tour was not our cup of tea. The website does say this tour takes 17 hours but that includes time for walking around the town of Paracas, stop for lunch, visit to Nazca ceramic house. How can you possibly do all that in 17 hours? We have been gone 19 hours and didn't get to do all those things! In hindsight given that we are older-in our 70s-we would not do this as a day trip. Maybe it would have been better to see if this company could have provided an overnight trip just for Nazca for the lines and the ceramic house. I could have missed Ballestas-no problem. But we did survive this very long day with so much time riding in the car! Of course way too late for dinner. Definitely time for bed for these 2 seniors and thank goodness we can sleep in tomorrow if we want!