Lima - Pisco - Nazca

We started our GAP tour in Lima and arrived ok into the hotel and met our group, only 7 of us compared to China it was quite small but cool- couple from Galway, a couple from england and one girl called becky a yoga instructor!
We had the day then to walk about Lima and Mira Flores, not really that much to see and do so, big city lots of shops etc etc, so we were happy enough just to chill out and eat some junk food for the day!
The following morning we were up early though and on a bus south to a town called Pisco where the famous Pisco sour drink originated and yes of course we headed out that night to try some!!... pure rocket fuel! bit like the south american version of potcheen.. but this little place was well cool we were staying in a hotel just off the main square but inside it just looked like a small castle and after hostels it was luxury!

We left Pisco the following morning for the Ballestas islands which is just like a small version of the Galapagos so myself and Ger opted for the extra 2 hours lie in bed instead and met the others later that morning. We drove south to a place called Ica ( incidently this is where the epicentre of the recent earthquake was and by all accounts what we saw and did there is now no longer there... very sad), in Ica we got to visit a vineyard called El Catador, well nice place where we got the tour and where told all about the processes and the huge botejas that housed the wine...and yes again a spot of wine tasting and more pisco sour, the lads over here really love the stuff, and for me even a sniff has me wobbly!

We stayed here for lunch and they had musicians and the whole lot it was well nice and obviously we didnt want to leave!

In the afternoon we arrived at a place called Huacahina and had the next few hours booked for some sand buggying and sand boarding. This was completely brilliant, huge big dunes and you got into a big sand buggy and just raced up and down them and then if you wanted you got a sand board and we were able to go sand boarding down them instead, it was well cool, no pics though unfortunately as sand in our camera wasnt a risk we wanted to take!
We got back to base late afternoon and lay by the pool for a bit and had more pisco sours before we heading south again to Nasca to our accomodation for the next few days. We even meet a friendly bird at the pool who chatted away to me!

We arrived oin Nasca that evening and after dinner just relaxed as the following morning was another early start! We got picked up at 8 by out guide Suzi and taken first to the Chauchilla cemetery which was in the middle of a desert but which was mad as it was famous for its preserved mummies, their hair clothes everything...

from the cemetery we went to the Nasca airport. I was looking forward to this part of the day as we were going up in cessna planes - 5 to a plane, to look at the famous Nasca lines. These lines were designs of like monkeys, spiders, an astronaut, birds but huge drwawings that could only be seen from the sky properly.

Unfortunately though some people didnt take to the small planes bobbing about so much in the air, and becky in our group in particular left the plane with no less than 7 small bags with her breakfast in them! was quite funny really as all me and ger could hear from the back was ´more sick bags.... more sick bags´ ah well we enjoyed it anyhow!

We had a chilled out evening then in our hotel as the following day we were headed fro Arequipa on a night bus...