Along Less Interesting Lines

I can remember hearing about or seeing articles and television programs about the Nazca lines ever since I was little. It was a pretty exciting prospect to fly over them...

After hearing some frightening tall tales of bus travel in Peru from Katia, Ericka, and friends, I was a bit trepidatious about jumping on a bus that stops on the highway at night for people who flag it down. Nevertheless, I had to get from Playa Asia to Ica to meet up with Matt, Jason, and Shawn. After a somewhat cramped and toasty three hour ride, I met Matt & co. at Discoteca The Who, where I had one or two Machu Picchus (yes, I managed to have Pisco, even after the events of three days prior) and a bit of dancing and people watching.

The next morning the four of us headed off by hired car to Nazca, where we were to get on a wee avioneta to fly over the famous Nazca lines. If forced to say so, I’d have to confess that flying over the Nazca lines was not as incredible an experience as I might have liked, considering how into such things I used to be. If you’ve seen a Discovery Channel or National Geographic special about the lines, then you’re good to go. In retrospect, while on the ground you don’t really get an idea of the size of the drawings or even know you might be in the middle of one (if you were allowed to be in the middle of one), from the sky you don’t really get a sense of how big they are, except that they’re visible as identifiable objects. Basically, it’s a problem of perspective. It might have been nice to spend a bit of time that day studying the history and mystery of the lines and their discovery.

On the way back to Ica, we stopped for lunch and a vineyard/pisquería tour at Tres Generaciones vineyard & distillery, which is also the home of La Olla de Juanita. YUM! Ordered chicharrón, ensalada de pallares, encebollado, seco de cordero with morusa de pallares. We tasted about three different qualities/types of pisco before two gave up and headed back to the table to see if our order was ready. Here we also had for the first time tuna: no, not the fishy, sashimi grade or hockey-puck dry cooked fish or squishy canned stuff - the prickly pear kind that makes a tasty juice. We headed back to Ica, to Matt’s cousin’s apartment, with Taxioke (or Carioke) en route. Our bus for Arequipa was to leave at 8:30. Gentlemen, please repack and prepare for departure!