Peru - Five Years In The Making!!

 

25 Sep 25:  And We're Off!!

(Randy) Well, after multiple attempts and failures, we are actually on our way to Peru; a trip 5 years in the making!  All the false starts, cancellations, and frustrations I have incurred.  Wait, I really didn’t do anything – I must have been thinking of Beanie.

Today is a real snoozer day.  We just flew to Dallas to stage for travel to Lima on Friday.  The Phoenix airport was a complete zoo!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that crowded.  It was a quick 3-hour flight with no issues, a short shuttle ride from DFW to the Marriott, and we checked into one of the quirkiest rooms ever.  It was labeled as a corner suite which was technically true, but it was shaped like a big checkmark. You walked down a long hallway, about 12’, but long for a hotel, hung a 270 degree right turn into a quasi-room they called a suite.  The bathroom was another 270 degree turn off the same hallway that was so skinny two people couldn’t be in there at the same time.  Yep, just a wee quirky!

We hit the bar for happy hour, nice venue, marginal service so we thought we’d just grab our drinks and have a light dinner in the M Lounge.  Another bust.  They had a  choice of two “entrees”, and I use the term entrée very loosely!  LOL!.  Mac & cheese, tater tots or pepperoni empanadas.  Back to the bar!  We settled on shrimp tacos and fries.  Well, the fries were pretty good!    Highlight of the night – Hopadillo IPA!!  It’s a dry-hopped Texas India Pale Ale brewed by Karbach Brewing Co out of Houston,  pretty good stuff!

We called it a night as tomorrow is a big travel day.

(Kathy) First of all, what a wonderful year of travel for us.  We realized our dreams of going to Antarctic and Peru and threw in Alaska for good measure! 

Secondly, the "suite" at the DFW Marriott only had one chair, the desk chair.  It did have a great view of the runway, but the door to the balcony was so hard to open and close we only opened it once.  

26 Sep 25:

(Randy) Up at the crack of 0630, quick brush and clean and off to DFW Airport for our flight to Miami and then on to Lima, Peru.  We’ve had three gate changes by 8:00.  We’ll see how it goes.

We made it to the airport without any complications, AA finally decided on a departure time that was less than an hour later than our original schedule, and the pilot was able to make up the lost time en route, so all in all, no harm – no foul!  The flight was pretty smooth, food was good.  I went healthy with the beef sliders and fries and Beanie pigged out with short ribs with mac and cheese.  A decent Goose Island IPA topped it off and life is good.  

We had a three hour layover in Miami so we sauntered to the Admiral’s Lounge and hunkered down.  I watched the Ryder Cup for as long as I could stand it!  I stopped so I wasn’t the guy that screamed out “What The F@ck” in the middle of a crowded lounge!  Okay, I might take my golf a little too seriously even if I’m not the one playing!  The lounge in MIA is one of the best we’ve experienced in our travels.  It has great food, good bar, lots of seating, good views of the runway and good service.  The fact that it is collocated with an America Airline Flagship Lounge, which is the best of the AA clubs, probably helps.

(Kathy)  It was a nice flight from DFW to Miami.  Very good service.  I’ve noticed in the last year or so American Airline’s service is improving.  Though it was only a 3 hour flight they served drinks and warm nuts followed by a hot lunch.  Randy’s sliders and my short ribs were both quite good.  And heart healthy too!  I was seated next to the window and we flew over Alligator Alcatraz.  It had to be it because it had a runway and several long white buildings and was in the middle of the Everglades and nothing but swamp in sight.  What are the chances we would pass over it and I would be looking out the window at that exact minute?  The AA Lounge in Miami was excellent as usual.  I'm not a fan of the Miami Airport but do love the AA Lounge there.  Our flight to Lima was good too.  We had dinner but can’t remember what we had.  I think I was still in shock that they served us lunch from DFW to Miami!

(Randy) Our departure to Lima was delayed due to late arrival of the incoming flight, but once again a really good job of turning the plane in less than 45 minutes and we were southbound and down.  More good service and too much food.  One of us put away two desserts, which was noticed by the folks sitting across the aisle from us.  I won’t say who it was, but . . . .  .

(Kathy)  I must've blocked that out!

(Randy)  The Lima airport is brand new, just opened in June.  Very nice, no customs to speak of, and Immigration was well organized and friendly.  Our contact, Rocio, met us just outside the gate, we made our way to the van, and we’re off.  Not so fast!!  The traffic in Peru is “challenging” to say the least, but getting out of the new airport is an absolute CLUSTER!  The parking lot was huge and emptied into a two lane “road” that was really a gap between two more rows of parking spaces.  It took about 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot onto a 6 lane highway that moved just a little quicker than the parking lot.  Lane discipline was clearly optional, lane changes we prioritized by a combo of either the largest cajónes or the worse vision.  Any gap larger than a shoe box was justification for changing lanes, making a turn, etc.  I couldn’t decide if I was watching the best or the worst drivers in the world.  On a positive note, no one seemed to get too excited, no road rage, finger flipping – just more horn blowing that I have heard in my life to date accumulated!  The highway took us along the Pacific Ocean.  According to Rocio, surfing has become the rage in recent years. After 30 minutes or so, traffic thinned a bit and shortly after that we arrived in Mira Flores, the area of Lima that our hotel is in. We got to the hotel, checked in, and unpacked as little as required for the moment.  The room was pretty good, very functional, with a comfy bed. Hitting the sheets baby!

(Kathy)  We arrived at the Lima airport at 10:30pm.  It was well after midnight before we got to the hotel and about 1:00am before we got in bed.  Slept great!

27 Sep 25: Hello Lima!!

(Randy) What a great night’s sleep!  We cleaned up a bit and since breakfast was included, had breakfast in the hotel.  Nice spread, buffet style, with a good South American slant.  We were scheduled to meet Jason for lunch later that day.  Jason is the gentleman that Beanie has been working with for the past 5 years to make all this happen.  He’s an Irishman married to a Peruvian woman.

We had a bit of time to kill so we headed out on a walkabout.  We didn’t realize just how big Lima is – current population estimates hover around 13 million.   Peru has experienced huge immigration, especially from Venezuela.  Chile, to Peru’s south, has closed immigration from Venezuela. 

The weather was a little cooler, lower 60s, and felt pretty good after the valley.  First stop – find a Starbucks.  Little did we know how easy that was going to be.  We were happy to stumble across one within a few minutes of leaving the hotel, but found at least three more within 15 minutes of the hotel.  We wandered along until we got to Kennedy Park, named after John F. Kennedy.  The park is in the middle of town and offers many things.  There’s a huge children’s playground.

(Kathy) Our hotel is the the Marriott Courtyard in Mira Flores, one of the upscale municipalities of Lima.  The location is perfect for walking and we would certainly take advantage of that.  The hotel is certainly nicer in most ways than a typical Courtyard in the US, the bed was VERY comfortable, breakfast was included, and the price was right.  Oh and we had a chair and a sofa!  Those things make up for the fact that there was a view of rooftops from our room and the lighting in the room was horrible.  The bad lighting will become a theme as the blog progresses.  We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary earlier this year (you may recall from our Antarctica and Alaska blogs) but I'm still getting traction from that in some of the hotels on this trip.  Is that wrong? 

This was clearly not housekeeping's idea

Nice touch!

(Kathy) The weather in Lima today was low 60s and overcast - this will also become a theme of our stays in Lima during the trip, very consistent.  It was quite pleasant once we knew what to expect and the sun would come and go so not too dreary.  We were up around 8 and headed out for coffee and to find Parque de Kennedy (Kennedy Park).  I've read about this park and it was definitely on our must visit list.  The park is known for it's large cat population that have made it their home as well as the beautiful cathedral that borders one end of it. There's a large banner with a picture of the new Pope on the front of it.  Pope Leo XIV is revered by Peruvian Catholics.  Although he is American he was appointed Bishop of Chiclava, Peru, in 2014, promoted to archbishop in 2023, and then cardinal in 2024.  So he has lived in Peru for over 40 years.  We were in luck as there was a big flower festival going on in the park and a contest for the best floral display and a wedding at the cathedral.  There were already quite a few people but not nearly as many as when we returned later in the day.  The cats all looked healthy and were friendly for the most part with a few shy ones in the mix.  They are fed every day by ladies that come to the park with food in the morning and evening.  They have kitty condos for sleeping and staying warm.  Talk about getting a kitty fix on this trip!

Flower Festival day

Universal truth - if boxes are available, cats will find them. You'll see this kitty again.

Most cats preferred the cardboard boxes over the kitty condos

Truly a community effort for permanent and temporary "housing". Check out the yellow eyes.

Couldn't swing a dead cat without seeing a cat.  Particularly this cat.

Kitties were just waiting - they knew the time and location.  Here he is again!

Strong ties to Pope Leo in Peru.

A truly beautiful church.

All part of the flower festival

Have to wonder how long this will last.

Going out on a limb - this is a rich girl's wedding.

(Randy) We headed back to the room to clean up before meeting Jason.  I tried to find the Ryder Cup on the local cable, but no joy -  probably a blessing!  We met Jason for lunch at a local Irish pub called Molly's, good food, good beer and good conversation.  Before we knew it 3 hours had gone by.  Bean and I followed that with a second walk about for a couple more hours.

Night time is when Lima comes to life, especially on the weekend.  Families, multigenerations, gather in the parks, the restaurants are buzzing, and the streets are full.  We stopped for a late night (9:00) snack and a nightcap at Haiti Restaurant and back to the room.  Another good nights sleep.

(Kathy) We had a fun lunch with Jason.  It was great to finally meet him after 5 years of emails and phone calls putting this trip together.  I felt like I already knew him.  He's got a large personality and fun sense of humor and over the years we've shared thoughts on everything from philosophy to music to politics.  Every year we had to cancel for one reason or another and every year we would tweak the itinerary a bit until it finally happened this year.  Obviously he has a lot of patience! I can't believe we didn't get a picture of the three of us at Molly's.  Rats!

After another walk about, we headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit and get jackets for the evening.  Then back out for a light dinner at one of the many restaurants bordering the park.  It was a warm enough evening to eat outside on the patio and people watch.  We had jackets on.  Wearing jackets at meals would also become a theme of the trip.  Most of the places we visited in Peru were in the 50s in the early mornings and after the sun went down.  Peruvians don't typically heat their homes or restaurants and wearing a jacket at the dining table, whether inside or outside, is the norm.  We got used to it.  It occurred to me that if we lived in Peru I would have a better assortment of light jackets!

28 Sep 25: 

(Kathy)  We walked to Starbucks for our coffee fix and then back to the hotel for breakfast. We never eat a big breakfast at home but we tend to on trips. We ask the gals at the front desk to call the golf course I had found online a couple of years ago for a tee time for Randy.  Alas, they are a private course now.  Not wanting to research golf courses, we went with our back-up plan.  The pyramid Huaca Puellana, is smack in the middle of downtown Lima.  People of the pre-Inca culture of Lima built it and it was only in 1981 that excavation and preservation began on the site and it's still continuing today.  Prior to that it was a huge mound of dirt, surrounded by the city, with bike paths over it for motorcycles. Isn't that amazing?! This would be our first visit to a Peruvian pyramid.  Exciting!

With map in hand we headed out.  Since we would pass by Parque de Kennedy we stopped to see the kitties, of course.  It was maybe 2 miles from there to the pyramid site. It was a nice walk through housing areas and small shops as well as a large, upscale grocery store.  We enjoyed walking through the store and checking out prices.  You could only tour the pyramid with a guide so we joined up with about 15 other people for the tour.  The guide gave us a lot of good info that we would've missed out on without him.  I kept thinking "when do we climb up to the top"?  When the tour was over I pulled the guide aside and ask him if we could go to the top.  He said no one was allowed up there today because they were doing excavations.  I pointed out that people were going up now.  He said he would check and came back, apologized, and said to give him 5 minutes and he'd take us up.  Hey, our own private tour!  So up we went.  We got some good views of the city surrounding the site as well as a better perspective of how big the site was.  It was a good introduction to pre-Inca ruins in Peru. The construction is unique to Peru, as they made it from millions of adobe bricks lined up like books on library shelves.  The bricks do not just form the pyramid walls, they fill the entire space within the pyramid.  This is why as hundreds and hundreds of years went by, the pyramid gradually became just a huge mound of dirt but dig down far enough and you would uncover the adobe bricks that had not been decomposed.

You can see why it was a popular dirt bike track. Who knew it hid a pyramid? They are still excavating.

You can see the adobe brick lined up like a library books throughout these pictures.

Next couple pics provide a good perspective of how this pyramid was in the middle of town.

Books on a shelf

Pretty bird

These are not part of the pyramid but connected to it.  Used for food storage and worker housing.

More storage and housing

An open tomb for display

Mummified human remains within a tomb

(Kathy)  We talked about Peruvian birds with our guide and he told us about a park not far from there that has a lot of birds - Parque El Olivar de San Isidro.  The municipality of San Isidro is next to Mira Flores where our hotel is.  Mira Flores is upscale but San Isidro is where the old money is. We decided to go to the park and our guide pointed out the general way to go.  It was a beautiful park surrounded by really nice, older homes but it was too late in the afternoon to see many birds.  Lots of people though, enjoying their Sunday afternoon.  We had a couple miles to cover to get back to the hotel so after getting an ice cream from one of the many stands at the park we headed back.  We stopped for a beer at a nice brewpub and then guess what we did - yep, we walked through Kennedy Park to see the kitties again.  We got a bonus because there was some kind of beauty pageant going on in the park.  When did platform shoes come back in?!  Like I would have a clue.  It's nice to see some originality in the dresses instead of just designer gowns.  I have no doubt that some these dresses were made by their proud mothers.

Looks like contestants 2 and 3 were pissed off when they realized they were wearing the same shoes

Finally got a smile.........and a look of disdain

Make up your own funny caption. The winner gets to have his or her name taken off our blog distribution list. 

(Randy) Jumped out of the rack at the crack of 0900, walked to Starbucks for our morning fix and back to the hotel for breakfast  Today we're going to walk to the pyramids.  I know nothing about it so it will be a good learning day.  Sunday is definitely family day.  The weather was just about perfect.  Many of the streets are closed on Sunday so kids are on bikes, very light traffic, people are walking the streets and the parks are jammed with family, everybody out and about.

Beanie covered the travel highlights of the day other than our stop for a beer at Beerlits, catchy name.  Good local craft beer, yet another walk thru Cat Park.  We headed back to the room for a hot shower, dinner in the hotel, and a little SNF (who would have guessed, Broncos won – yea Mr. Connors!) then crashed. 

Kinda weird to be crashing at a later time zone when body time should be keeping you up later.

29 Sep 25:  Welcome to Paracas

(Randy)  Our driver picked us up at the hotel for the transfer to the bus terminal for the 3 ½ hour ride to Paracas.  Though the terminal was quite busy, it was pretty well organized and our travel rep made life a bit easier.  The bus was double-decker, modern, A/C, WiFi, and very comfortable.  The trip took us south out of Lima, along the coast; good roads all the way.  We got to the Hotel Paracas (I know, pretty catchy name) right on time, checked into a really nice room.  I suspect Beanie had something to do with that.  The grounds are truly impeccable.  On the water, multiple large heated pools, three restaurants, spa, gym, you know, all that crap we never use!!

We dumped our stuff and headed out for a get acquainted walkabout.  Paracas is a very nice town.  Incredible number of restaurants, especially along the water.  It has a little more of a Mexican feel to it than Lima, but with a good vibe.  Folks are friendly, folks are hawking their wares and businesses, but not in an aggressive manner.  There are dogs everywhere.  We didn’t see any of them fighting and little to no barking. 

(Kathy)  The bus was comfortable with large recliner type chairs.  It was an interesting ride along the coast of Peru to Paracas.  As always it took a long time to get out of the city because of the traffic.  The further away we got from the city center, the less attractive the city became.  Eventually the city turned into desert, small poor towns and mostly industrial parks.  One thing that made it particularly unattractive was all the trash.  But gradually it turned into farmland and it was pretty and not so trashy.  We got to the Paracas bus station and it was a short drive to our hotel, the Marriott Hotel Paracas, just on the outskirts of the town.  It is a gorgeous 5 star property.  Surprising to see this in such a small town.  We were upgraded to a water front suite with two bathrooms and a small kitchen area.  The view from all three balconies (yes, three!) was beautiful.  And they gave us a nice anniversary gift of champagne and chocolate.  I won't even comment on the poor lighting because that would just be silly considering all the other good stuff.

Upper deck is Casa de Cross.  Comes with a personal balcony model!!

Well laid out and functional living room. Beanie can attest to the comfort of the sofa as she fell asleep for several hours with her head on my lap.

More mooched goodies from Beanie's 50th Anniversary scam.

Master BR - Good thing these pics are captioned eh??

Bath

Balcony - one of three.

More Balcony - Ocean view.

More balcony cause you really can't get too much! Note the hotel's private pier.  

Beautiful Pool - not that we used it.  

Even looks better lit up at night.

(Kathy) Paracas is primarily a fishing village but also a big Peruvian tourist destination with a smattering of international tourists as well.  The draw is the sunny and warm weather, the beaches, the seafood and more importantly for us, Ballestas Islands, the Candelabra and the Nazca Lines.  We hope to see all three in the next two days.    

We got settled in and walked into town.  It was nice to be getting some exercise after the long bus ride and the sun felt great after two overcast days in Lima.  We walked by numerous shops, homes and restaurants.  There is a nice town square with playground equipment for kids and also a mural of Ballestas Islands.  The town, especially the waterfront area, reminded us of Cozumel, Mexico, before the influx of tourists. This is off season here for tourists so nothing was crowded - sweet!  Though the beach was clean not many people were swimming due to the very cold Humboldt current and the amount of seaweed.  Stopped at a little cafe and had a beer and and then walked back to the hotel along the water.  Our plans were to go on the hotel boat tomorrow morning to see the Candelabra and Ballestas Islands (Humboldt penguins baby!) but as of today the boat isn't scheduled to go because not enough people.  If we wanted to pay for the whole boat, then we could go.  I don't think so!  We had an early dinner at one of the hotel restaurants.  Good but grossly overpriced.  When we got back to the room there was a message on our phone - the boat trip to the Ballestas Islands was a go for tomorrow morning.  Yay!!

Not sure what the official Peruvian name might be - we went with Tuk Tuk!!

This was our Plan B for a picture should our effort to see Humboldt Penguins fail!

Shocking - another kitty fix!

The walkway (malecon) along the beach, well laid out, many good restaurants for locals and tourists.

A lost and abandoned old white dude - hoping someone claims him before closing.

30 Sep 25: 

(Kathy) It was a beautiful, sunny morning but it was also very windy, so once we got out of the bay the water was choppy, which made for a bumpy speedboat ride and taking pictures was definitely a challenge. Wow, that was  along sentence! On the way to the Ballastas Islands we saw the mysterious geoglyph, similar to the Nazca Lines, that was carved into the face of a cliff over 1,000 years ago. This symbol is called The Candelabra, and it remains the source of much speculation and debate. It likely was created by the Paracas tribe living on the coast at that time.  It's so large you can see it from 12 miles at sea.  Stay tuned for the Nazca Lines tomorrow - if the weather permits.  Now it's on to the Ballestas Islands. These rocky islands are a wildlife sanctuary filled with birds and mammals, including seals, sea lions, and endangered Humboldt penguins. It's not the best time of year to see the penguins but we got lucky. With the boat rocking like crazy and the fact that we couldn't get close to the islands because of the currents, the pictures are pretty lame.  But we have now seen 7 penguin species - 1 in the Falklands, 6 in Antarctica and now one in Peru.  Lori and Steve, did you see the Humboldts in South Africa?  I'm not sure they're even there.  The islands are beautiful and look like sculptures with their caves and arches.  Seals, sea lions, and sea birds are everywhere.  Unfortunately it's the wrong time of year to see whales.  The bird population is way down because of the bird flu (especially the cormorant population) but there are still a lot of birds!  We saw cormorants, gulls, boobies, terns and, yay, penguins.  We felt like we were far, far away from land but it was only a 45 minute speedboat ride from Paracas.  I'll let Randy do the blow by blow.

(Randy) Good day today – nice way to close out the fiscal year.  We’re taking a boat tour of the area.  There is quite a bit to see to include sea birds, sea lions, some geoglyphs, and most importantly, Humboldt Penguins!  Yes, boys and girls, we just did not get enough penguin time during the Antarctica exploration.  It's also another penguin species we have not seen. We caught the boat right at the hotel pier, did a quick Coast Guard check, and by quick, I mean we motored by a Coast Guard vessel.

Not sure how many different CG ships we've seen from how many countries!  But it's nice to see them.

Cormorants hanging out on the fishing ships.

Speedboat service to the outer islands.

The bay waters were pretty calm and much like Shackleton himself, we headed out on our adventure on the sea.  Our first exciting stop was at a navigation buoy.  Clearly, we spared no expense.  Here was our first wildlife sighting, several female seals taking a siesta.

This is where all the "cool" seals hang out.

Of course there is always room for one more.

From there we headed toward the open sea, not to it, but towards it.  There is a geoglyph in the bay that is known as The Candelabra.  It’s about 560’ x 200’.  Most, well some, smart people think it goes back to prehistoric times.  Some of the local pottery carbon dates to 200 B.C. It’s also interesting because it depicts things that are not indigenous to the area.  For example, you can see cactus that are nowhere in the area. 

The Candelarbra

A closer shot for our seniors!

From there we headed to Ballestas Islands to see the Humboldts, not to be confused with the Huxtables.  It was nothing like South Georgia Island as we could not land or get close.  We could see them pretty well with the binoculars, but our photo opportunities were weak at best.  That being said, we’ll share what we have.  We won't be sending any of these to National Geographic.

Well at least we don't have to use the picture of Beanie and the mural

Sadly, this is the "better" pic.

Short video to give a feel for the area and if you don't blink you'll see the penguins.

This is a quickie - look to the right for penguins on the move.

There were also mucho (I’m practically fluent in Spanish after spending 3 weeks in Peru) other things to see; more sea lions, Peruvian boobies (no Wednesday Golf League – not college girls!!) cormorants, etc.

The islands were really pretty cool geology wise.  Lots of arches, steep cliffs with lots of nesting birds, and narrow waterway “paths” to weave through.

Known to the locals as the "Arch of Dweebs"!

Gets a little choppy or as we Antarctic vets call it - sporty!!

Good shot - note all the birdlife on the top of the rock.

Just pretty

A well framed sea bird pic.

The Cove of the Three Arches - okay, I just made that up.

The white on the rocks is so pretty, you know, for bird guano!!

Sea Lion Siesta!!

Couple short videos to capture the area.

While boating in the area we had an unexpected sighting - the Peruvian Diva Bird.  It’s easy to identify by the bright markings, overt display, and extravagant mating behavior!

(Kathy)  What a fun morning!  Back to the hotel for a shower and quick lunch and then we headed out on foot. Our goal was to find a little museum I had read about but also explore a bit further out of the main part of town.  We picked up a little home drawn map at the front desk and they gave us directions.  It didn't look very far but as we soon found out was not drawn to scale.  We walked through a community of beautiful homes.  I'm guessing vacation homes for the rich and famous in Lima.  After about 2 miles we figured we had probably made a wrong turn so headed back but this time along the waterfront walkway in front of more beautiful homes.  Randy spotted a hawk that caught a pigeon mid-air - video below, kind of gory.  There's also pictures of some of the other birds we've seen on our walkabouts here. 

This is how he looks normally.

When challenged, it turns into a Bad Hair Day!!

Nothing exotic - just a nice looking bird hanging out at the pool!

(Kathy) We continued walking into town and stopped for a beer at the same place on the malecon as yesterday and watched the families enjoying their day on the beach. 

Very pleased with the local beer selections.

 

(Kathy)  Back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then back to town for dinner at a restaurant I had read about.  Nope, closed - no sign, nothing, just closed.  We got turned around a few times but finally found our way back to the malecon and had dinner at one of the many restaurants there. My two favorite Peruvian dishes are Lomo Saltado (a Peruvian take on steak stir fry with onions and tomato) and Aji de Gallina (a creamy slightly spicy chicken stew served with white rice, potatoes, black olives and sliced hard boiled eggs).  This restaurant had excellent Lomo Saltado.     

1 Oct 25: 

(Randy) Well today got off to a roaring start.  Checked email this morning and had a message from our travel company, Totally Latin America (TLA), advising that our flight to Chachapoyas in two days was canceled. There's only one flight a day.  Time for a minor panic mode as that is one of the “biggies” for the Bean.  Very few Peruvians, let alone Americans make it there.  TLA discussed a possible solution with us and we agreed.  

In the meantime we’re scheduled to catch a sightseeing flight to see the Nazca Lines.  No worries, I had no idea what they were either, but "you know who" knew about it.  They are geoglyph “drawings” on the earth, most of which can only be seen from very high up.  The best way to see them is from a plane but you can see some of them from mountain tops. In the area that we'll be flying over there are about 20 of them and they depict a wide variety of things. Their age is debatable, some say thousands of years old.  It’s hard to carbon date because it only reveals how old the material used to make them is versus the actual event. We caught a small, single prop plane, maybe 8 or 10 passenger capacity and we were off.  It was a 40-minute flight out, 30 minutes on site, and 40 minutes back. 

(Kathy) As Randy said, there was a hiccup in our plans due to a flight cancellation. TLA was going to try and get us on an afternoon flight today to Lima, then catch a flight tomorrow morning to Chachapoyas.  So we would have one less night here but an extra night in Chachapoyas.  It was all contingent on whether or not seats were available on the flights and we could make some changes to the hotels.  This is when working with a good travel company comes in handy!  We could continue on with our morning plans while TLA did the heavy lifting.  We threw a few things in the suitcases in case we would be heading back to Lima this afternoon, as there would be little time to pack when we got back from the Nazca Lines. 

Now the good stuff.  We made it in time for our flight.  These  tour planes leave out of the small but very nice Pisco Airport.  Though the Nazca Lines was not at the top of the list of things we wanted to see in Peru, but I'm so glad we did!  Pretty amazing when you realize how old they are.  They're situated in a high desert region near the small town of Nazca.  We were extremely lucky to see all of the most famous petroglyphs.  However our pictures don't do them justice.  It was difficult to take pictures from the small plane as we were constantly circling and banking and the petroglyphs were hard to find with a camera. It's not certain who made them or exactly how old they are.  There are hundreds of them and more are being found even today. Very, very cool.   

Very tidy and well organized local airport.

Was kinda hoping we would be hitching a ride on this tail dragger!  But no!

This is our, as Mr. Connors would say, "Big Beauty"

Luckily we had First Class - all the extra leg room!

I told Beanie I spent extra for a window seat - yep, all window seats!!

Here's a crappy little video taken just after take off showing the coastline and desert area.

Much like AZ, if you can get water to it you can grow anything!!

Great contrast of what irrigation can do.

And now the Nazca Lines near the town of Nazca.  We've included a cheat sheet.  The lines are situated on the ground as shown. You can see why we were circling and banking the whole time. See how many of the lines you can identify by name.   Winner gets to take care of our cats for three weeks while we're on our next trip!!

Hint:  Not the last group of the Wednesday Golf Group!

Keep looking - you are getting very, very sleepy!

Nothing here!  Just wanted to see if we could make you look!

Little Miss Muffet . . . .   come on, you know the words!

This one may or may not be on the clue sheet!  Nobody really knows!

Easier than a Jo Momma gimie!!

Think the weird guy at the family reunion.

Depends on your perspective.

You probably fell asleep and don't remember.

One of my personal favorites.

Turn your computer screen 90 degrees.  Won't help, just wanted to see if I could make you do it!

The tower to the right is huge - gives a good perspective on how big these can be.

Now you can check out this link and see what good pictures and narratives have to say about the Nazca Lines,   Nazca Lines.

(Randy) When we got back to the hotel a solution for the canceled flight was at hand.  We would leave Paracas today, a day early, which was unfortunate as this is a very nice place. Get to Lima tonight and catch an O dark thirty flight to Chachapoyas tomorrow, and spend an extra day there.  Also, they don’t have a golf course – something about the oldest ruins in Peru, tallest waterfall in South America, blah blah blah.  Anyway, when we got back from the Nazca Lines we scrambled around, finished packing up and caught the 3:40 bus to Lima to catch our flight to Chachapoyas tomorrow.  BTW, the bus service we’ve experienced has been exceptional.  If Beanie had told me we’d be taking a few several hour bus rides (she’s smarter than that) she would have heard some pretty serious whining!!  The bus ride back was as good the the ride down.  Weather was a little more sunny and we had the same good seat assignments.  We arrived at the Lima bus station around 9:00 PM, were met by our car/driver to the hotel and checked into the Wyndham Grand Hotel around 11:30 PM.  Yep, you read that right, it took 2 ½ hours to drive around 25 miles from the bus station to the airport hotel.  Bad traffic.   The hotel was brand new, just opening in June of this year.  Nice room.  It is literally within walking distance to the airport, with a 200’ or so walkway from the hotel to our terminal. I made my way down to the bar using the cover story I needed to get smaller Sols (Peruvian dollars) for our travel.  We split the beer, grabbed a shower and called it a day.

(Kathy) Whew, what a whirlwind of a day. I'm so glad TLA was able to get everything changed in time to make it all happen. Even though I had booked the Wyndham Airport Hotel, TLA was able to make the change with them, so the only thing I had to do was make the change with the Paracas Marriott hotel we were staying at.  TLA also booked an additional night at the hotel near Chachapoyas for us and even offered to pay for the extra night.  We told them no because this was in no way their fault.  It was a very long day but, as it turned out, we would be so happy to have that additional day in Chachapoyas.  Oh, and by the way, the lighting in the room at the Wyndham Airport hotel was horrible but who cares, we were in bed within an hour.  The hotel has a wonderful breakfast buffet.  

Here's the final picture of the day taken on the bus on the way to Lima: 

(RC)  The trip to Lima was smooth until we got to the bus station.  Our driver met us there and began the two hour ride to the airport.  Very frustrating after a long day that it takes that long to drive 15 miles.  Such is life.  As the airport is new, so are the airport hotels and the Wyndam was very good. We checked in around 10:00 PM, got organized for the next morning and I went down to the bar to get us two very well deserved cervezas. Excellent call!  Shower and good night!