Nazca

We were up decently early for our tour around some of the sights of Nazca. We had been convinced to wake up an hour earlier in order to go to see the Nazca lines from the ground and from a rickety metal tower that has been erected by the freeway near two of the smaller designs, just in case we didn't get the flight that afternoon.

El Arbol, from the viewing platform

For those unaware of the Nazca lines, they are a series of lines and geography (or pictures) that stretch across the Nazca desert for about 50 miles. They are believed to have been made by the Nazcas starting around 400 AD. The more famous ones are images, but there are also a ton of geometric shapes as well as simple lines. There are a number of theories of why the Nazcas might have made these miles-long lines, the leading ones being that they were writing messages to their Gods, that they used the lines to walk on for worship ceremonies, and lastly, that the lines are an astrometric calendar and the shapes are constellations in the sky.

It was actually really neat to be able to walk up to a line and take a good look. There doesn't seem to be that much to them, in that all is done is removing the red rock from the area of the line to reveal the white ground underneath. Maria Reich, a German who moved to Peru and studied the lines for most of her life, was an instrumental figure in preserving and cleaning the lines, so they could be seen again with greater clarity. The lines are actually mostly self-cleaning, seeing how it doesn't really rain and the wind tends to blow away the small stuff in the afternoon.  That seems to be why they've lasted this long.

We went up on a nearby hill that intersects a few of the lines and our guide showed us the solstice lines, the lines that point to where the sun will set on the days of the summer solstice (June 21st) and the winter solstice (December 21st). The sun still sets there, perfectly in line according to our guide.

After, we went to the tower where we saw the outline of the tree (el arbol) and another strange one which is called the hand (el mano). It actually kind of looked like a heart with hands. But the hands only had nine fingers, which apparently could have several meanings. Perhaps it's the nine months a woman is pregnant, or perhaps it has to do with the nine months of drought in the Nazca desert--they only have water January through March, which is why many people only get an hour of water a day, despite the ancient aqueducts that still pump water from afar.

The mummies of Chauchilla Cemetery

After the lines, we went out to Chauchilla Cemetery, which is apparently an important place for the locals. It contains the desecrated graves of many Nazcas who were buried starting in 200 AD. Many years ago, the site was found by grave robbers, who dug up many of the bodies and stole the treasures they were buried with for use in the afterlife. The somewhat mummified remains were left on the surface, but have now been placed back inside the graves for people to wander around and see. However, there are specific white stones that you must walk in between, as there are still random bones scattered around the desert and other untouched graves underneath.

Every now and then along the roughly circular trail is a pit where the original grave was, with stones built into the ground to house them. A woven roof protects the bodies from the sun, but nothing else. You can see the skeletons, sitting up in the fetal position with their clothes on and most of them still had their hair. It was kind of surreal, definitely something you can only see in another country.

After that bit of graveness, we went a bit lighter and visited a pottery shop whose owner told us about the ancient way of painting and firing the clay. He also showed us the various items that were used to make the colors, which was neat to see. Then it was off to the hotel to see if there was word about the flight.

There was word, but it wasn't good. We wandered around town for a bit before going back to hear if they were going to be able to squeeze in a flight after all and were told no. After a large bit of drama and crossed wires, the airline called back and said they had been given clearance for a late flight and a car was on the way to pick us up. We jumped in!

The monkey.  See the spiral tail?

After a short wait, we strapped in to a six seater and smoothly took off. The pilot gave us bags, just in case, but I didn't think much of it until we reached the first glyph and he banked the plane so that our eye level windows were parallel to the ground and circled. It wasn't too bad, but we were definitely pulling a few gs! We then proceeded to do this twice with nearly everything, once on the left and once on the right so everyone could see.

It was pretty amazing having seen the lines on the ground but being unable to make out the images because of the sheer size of them, and then to fly above and see the whole picture. A lot of the picture ones were harder to see, because a lot of the lines overlap as they stretch across the desert. But I think I snapped them all!

Despite the drama, it sounded like we were luckier than the early morning flight, who got the at 7am and had to wait for their flight clearance until 1:30. At least we had the morning to explore!

Nazca Planetarium

We're catching the night bus to Arequipa tonight, but we had the chance to go to a planetarium here in Nazca, which is near the bus station.  It was a pretty cool show, mostly about the stars and the Nazca lines.  I was amused to find that their planetarium stars were created by a lamp and a closed up shade that had the star patterns punched out of it.  A little less sophisticated than my planetarium.  But afterward, we took a look at Saturn and the moon and such with a telescope outside.  It was neat to be able to see alpha and beta Centauri, our closest neighbor stars which can only be seen from the southern hemisphere, as well as the southern cross.

That's pretty much it for today.  I think the bus going to be more comfortable than the plane by a long shot, seeing how far back the seats reclined last time. And hopefully there will be movies!

Colca Canyon

Adding to a very unrestful night's sleep was this morning's call time of 6am. I decided that it was probably a combination of altitude sickness, which JS says often hits harder around bedtime, and maybe the milk from the hot chocolate. I must admit to not being sure what kind of animal it came from, and I'm sure I'll get some grief from the family about that. But authentic street market! Worth it.

Despite the lack of sleep, it was a fine day for viewing the Colca Canyon, which was our main destination for today. From Chivay, it was a bumpy few hours' ride, half of the way on an unpaved road. We stopped every now and then to choke on the dust and to take in the panorama that surrounded us.

Part of the amazing view has to do with these, which are called stepped terraces. They're basically rock walls built up so crops could grow on these steep Andes Mountains. The most fascinating thing about them in my book is that they were originally made in pre-Incan times, making them over eight centuries old. And the farmers still use them today! The most impressive part can't even be seen from this one photo--these rock walls continue on across the entire valley. They had to take forever to make.

At every stop we made, there were women dressed in the traditional Pervian garb of skirts with embroidery and the special hats they wear, selling the same scarves and hats and gloves. I bet they made a killing in the freezing cold morning. And people still bought things in the afternoon. I did enjoy our first stop, where we got to try some tuna, which is not fish but a fruit that grows on the cactus in Peru. It looks like a kiwi on the inside, but is very sour. They use it to make Colca Sours, which is similar to Pisco Sours but using the tuna instead of tart limes. Both will make you pucker!

Our guide talked a bit along the way about the history of the region and the terraces, and the other really interesting thing he mentioned in association with the women and their hats. There were a couple little tribes living in the mountains in the Inca time, and each one had a specific mountain that they considered holy. To honor this, they shaped the skulls of their children into the outline of these two mountains, one of which was kind of a flat topped mountain and the other which was very peaked. It made me a bit squirmy to think about this, so I won't go into any more detail, but when the Spanish came around they forbid this practice and instead allowed the natives to create flat and peaked hats to worship their mountains with. Which are the same sort of hats you see them wearing today! When in traditional garb, that is.

Something else that strikes me as kind of funny is how often we walk around and see a local wearing what I would consider tourist garb. A lot of people have jackets that say Peru on them, and they also wear the cute beanie hats that say where they are from and have little alpacas on them. I'm not sure if it's advertising, national pride, or just that the tourist stuff isn't too pricy to buy.

We finally arrived at the Canyon itself, and it was all right. Yes, it's two times as deep as the Grand Canyon, but the colors are definitely monotone in comparison. The cooler part was definitely seeing the condors that made the canyon their home. You could really tell how deep the canyon was when they would come wheeling over your head and then soar down to the bottom, becoming nearly invisible in their tininess.  Our guide kept talking about the Flight of the Condors and JS and I were having trouble not referring to it as the Flight of the Concords.

But the condors were cool. There weren't any flying around at first, so we were worried it was going to be a dud, but they came out after a bit and kindly flew over our heads for pictures. They have a huge wingspan and look so smooth gliding in the sky, but when they get in close and you can see their turkey heads, they really aren't that pretty. But boy can they fly!

It was a long drive all the way back to Arequipa. I might have slept. But I was happy to be back in a lower elevation city with a few hours to wander around the shops. Wish me luck for tomorrow with the even higher elevation Puno!

Paracas

Animals, animals, everywhere!

Candelabra

Bundled up in both my jackets, I was ready for the boat. We walked out to a misty dock and after some boat confusion, ended up in one called the Milsy. Significance? Not sure. But we went straight out into the water, and spotted a few dolphin pods straight out. Awesome!

As we were skimming along the shore, the boat slowed to show us my first geogliph, Paracas's Candelabra. It's nearly 600 feet tall and can be seen from 12 miles away at sea, apparently. But not in the fog. Pottery fragments nearby date it to 200 BCE, but they have no idea as to its purpose or message. Something I'll probably be hearing more about in Nazca with the lines. Anyway, it was pretty cool to see it etched in the sand.

Then we broke away from the shore and headed out to the Ballestas Islands, a wildlife refuge or bird poop central as we later learned. There were a bunch of little islands that we went around, seeing the different kinds of birds (including penguins!) as well as getting super close to the sea lions on the rocks jutting up.

Huacachina

Sandboarding!

After our foray into the wild, we got on a bus headed for Ica and the small desert oasis of Huacachina. This was easily the best part of the trip so far. We took a sand buggy out into the real desert and were riding up and down the sand dunes. We had roll bars because believe me, it's happened to our driver at a couple points. But he took us up to the top of one of the dunes and instead of dropping down it, he stops the buggy and pulls out some boards. I've seen a couple actual snowboards for rent that you can use for sand boarding, but these were more just heavy boards with velcro straps for your feet. I was actually the only one who tried real sand boarding--everyone else just slid down the mountain at crazy fast speeds. And it was definitely easier that way. With sand boarding, you're supposed to keep your weight at the back so you keep moving downward, which is the opposite of snowboarding. Tough.

After, we had lunch and wandered around the oasis for a bit. I thought about going swimming in it, but in the end settled for a chocolate milkshake which didn't actually taste a whole lot like chocolate. It was cool, though. Nice and icy.

Then the time came to catch another bus to Nazca. We thought we had already reserved a flight to see the Nazca lines, but apparently not. And with the airport strikes going on in Lima, the flight company said they're not sure how many flights they'll be able to get out. We're supposed to check in with them tomorrow at noon so...fingers crossed!

Miraflores

We decided to sleep in a bit, but still managed to wake up in time to wander. We started to walk toward the Miraflores district of Lima, though we had already realized it would probably take too long to walk there and back by the time we had to catch our bus for Paracas. We walked a couple of blocks before deciding to be daring and trying to take one of the local buses.

Now understand, these are not city buses in the normal sense. They're refitted vans which are privately owned, usually by the driver, and they come in all sizes and conditions, from new-looking to totally run down. I managed to flag one of the ones going our direction down, and we rode it to Miraflores without any problems. They're definitely cheaper than a taxi, and just as fast. Perhaps safer as well, considering their size?

Regardless, we walked around Miraflores a bit, finding a great park where lots of cats liked to lounge and shoe shiners liked to..shine shoes. Again, lots of locals and only a few people with cameras. An older gentleman who spoke excellent English also struck up a conversation with me about his city and what we'd seen so far. Everyone keeps talking about Cusco, so I'm glad we have a day there to explore.

We also saw some people protesting horn honking. It's pretty superfluous throughout the city, either because cars are cutting people off, about to crash into them, or because pedestrians are in their way. That was one thing we were warned about first thing when we arrived--Lima is not a pedestrian has right of way kind of city. The autos rule the streets. Taxis also honk to get your attention while walking, and if you turn around, they think you're hailing them. I had to start forcing myself not to look at the double tap.

Catching a bus back was also relatively easy (and we actually got seats in a nicer one for the ride) and we made it back in time to catch our four hour bus to Paracas. Which costed 5 nuevos soles, or about $2.50. Almost cheaper than  the bus at home. And this was a really nice travel bus, more like an airplane with the service. There were tvs showing movies and they even gave us lunch. Which actually would make it nicer than most airlines these days. I even ate the sushi! Though I would barely consider it sushi, considering the meat inside seemed to be chicken. Baby steps.

The views along the way were amazing, at least for me who has never seen a real desert before. I'm talking sand dunes and bantha tracks with sand people hiding over the rise. Very cool. And most of the drive was along the coast, the Pacific stretching the whole way. There were also a lot of shells of abandon buildings all along the way. Some people did have stalls set up along the freeway, where you could stop for food or to shop a bit too. But most of the buildings were empty, with only sand to fill it.

When we got to Paracas, we found a bus station that seemed to be made mostly of wood and straw. The three little pigs wouldn't last long here!

The bus station was pretty much the only thing on the first street, and there are really only two other streets that make up the city; the one our hotel is on and the one next to the ocean where the dock and all the seafood restaurants are. So yes, we had seafood. JS actually enjoys seafood and took a risk, getting the ceviche mixto, which is a mishmash of a bunch of different raw seafood like clams, octopus, shrimp, and fish in an acidic bath of lemon lime juice. I did try a few bites; the juice kind of burned the tongue, but was good. I think I'm just not so down with the texture of the various sealife. I did have fish filete, which was fried enough not to be too fishy. But I won't be too sad if this is our last port of call for seafood.

While Lima seemed to have an over abundance of cats, Paracas seems to have the same of dogs. And seeing how I'm hearing the dogs barking out my window even now, I have a feeling I'm going to prefer the silent cats.

Looking forward to going out on the boat tomorrow to the wildlife preserve. Hopefully we'll see a lot of animals!

Lima

 So begins another journey.

JS and I took the the redeye to Peru Monday night, the day directly after the fair closed. I did manage to sleep for most of the flight, but I think that taking off right after the fair was the same mistake I made last year leaving for Europe. You definitely need a few days to decompress.

But once here, I perked up pretty fast. Lima is a crazy city, intensely populated and not with that many tourists, I'd say. JS and I got here pretty early, but it was around noon before we got out of the hotel to explore downtown. There were very few people walking around with cameras. Instead, it looked like the locals actually enjoyed sitting around their public squares, reading the newspaper or having their coffee. A big change from Spain, where the locals dress up as cartoon characters for the tourists. I definitely liked it.

One thing I could do without, however, was the crazy traffic. It's definitely dangerous out there, and I've been saying that I had the most dangerous taxi ride of my life now, which beat out the NY taxi going half a mile down a one way street backwards. It looked as if collisions were eminent several times before brakes were slammed or the steering wheel was swerved. Often, two lanes became three as people squeezed through. I think the drivers of Lima are a lot more alert than our American drivers. But then again, their cars are also a lot more scraped up. JS said it wasn't the most dangerous taxi ride he'd ever had (the dubious pleasure went to a drive in Egypt) and he was the one whose seatbelt was broken. But the driver spoke a little English and enjoyed talking to us about the city in between near collisions and shaking the car apart. It was definitely an education.

Governmental Palace

Another interesting thing about the driving is that whenever you hit a significant stoplight, people selling snacks and sodas swarm the cars. There are a lot of window transactions and people with portable trays of goods specifically stake out certain lights with long waits. It's a much faster way to get through customers.

The downtown area had a lot of older buildings, including the Governmental Palace, which had a changing of the guard ceremony similar to that in Prague, though their uniforms were red like the English. They weren't as well trained as either though -- scratching your nose seemed to be okay for these still sword-wielders.

Pigeons of San Francisco Cathedral

There were also a couple cathedrals, one of which we took a tour of and was named San Francisco, the same saint named for our California city. There were lots of old murals of his life and other pictures painted by local artists as well as catacombs under the church, which we were able to visit. It wasn't as cool as the catacombs in France, but the bones were stacked and there were a lot of grinning skulls staring back at us.  Aside from that, my favorite room was definitely the library, which looked like it could be straight out of Harry Potter with spiral staircases and bookshelves galore.

After returning to the hotel for a quick nap, we were disappointed to find that the restaurants we'd wanted to try had closed for the evening. We did manage to find one that was open, though I doubt it was anything legendary the foodies would talk about for Lima. Though we did try the Pisco sours! Definitely my kind of drink.  And after a long flight and day, we were satisfied.

Barcelona

Monday morning we took an early train to Barcelona, since there weren't any on Tuesday, being Christmas and all. We spent nearly a week in Barcelona in total, and I think we covered almost everything a tourist could want.

Our first hotel, before the tour started, was by the beach, and we took a couple walks down there. I'll always remember Christmas morning, walking down the beach in Spain collecting shells. Because the shells are everywhere! They just sort of stayed in huge patches, washed up by the waves. And a number of them already had holes drilled into them too, perhaps by some sea creature who ate the animal inside.

Mom put her feet in the Mediterranean, which actually wasn't as horribly cold as I assumed it would be. Definitely not as cold as the northern California ocean during winter.

As most things were closed for Christmas, we decided that it was a good day to see Guell Park, one of the famous works by Gaudi, the architect who is well-known in Barcelona not only for the park, but for several other famous buildings inside the city (more on them later). Guadi's style is very reminiscent of Dr. Seuss to me, with the rounded curves (he wanted nothing to have straight lines). It's definitely something that needs to be seen rather than explained, so I'll add some pictures later for sure. But let's just say it was a bit like going through a mosaic-covered Whoville. And we saw the famous Dragon lizard at the front, too.

The next day had us catching the citybus tour, jumping on and off one of the red tourist buses that I like to laugh at in San Francisco. But at least they tell you what to see! We hopped off at the main city museum near the magic fountain and explored around there for a while. Another night we came back to watch the magic fountain in action. On Friday and Saturday nights, the fountain performs a show to music (sometimes to Christmas music around this time) and changes colors and sizes and streams. I took a ton of pictures, but we'll see what turns out the best. The square where the fountain is also holds the old bull ring of Barcelona, which has been converted into a shopping mall, but is still a rather iconic ring-shaped building. Barcelona actually banned bullfighting last year, so the new ring isn't in service either.

Other days, we wandered around the Ciutadella park, seeing the amazing fountain (my mom is having new thoughts about the backyard) and mammoth, as well as rambling down La Rambla, the famous market street. They had a cool street person statue of Galileo who my dad and I took a picture with. And lots of things to buy, of course. We also had lunch on one of the patios, getting giant sangrias and watching the people go by. Another time, we stopped by the famous market and saw the fresh butcher's meat hanging from the ceiling, as well as the colorful fruit and peppers.

Michael took several hyperlapses of some of the views, including the unlit Arc de Triumf and the magic fountain. He also took a number during our day trip to Montserrat, where one of the famous basilicas housing a black madonna is perched high on some oddly formed mountains. We went up on a tram and took several funiculars to different sites on the mountain, and he got some pretty cool shots from that. The views were spectacular, of course, and it was a beautifully clear if chilly day.

Another day, we took a cruise around the Mediterranean to see the skyline and to get out on the ocean, and saw a couple old styles sailing ships tied up at the dock. We also went to the Picasso museum and enjoyed watching as his style evolved in front of our eyes as he grew up and experimented.

The other highlight, once we finally started our official company sponsored tour was Gaudi's most famous piece of architecture, the Sangrada Familia Church, which is still not finished to this day. Their projected end date is in the year 2026. Like most of Gaudi's work, it's a bit bizarre, but fantastical. Again, pictures needed. Only one side of this church was actually finished by Gaudi himself, though the design today's modern architects are using to complete it is based on the plans he created. I say based on, because after Gaudi's death, his workshop was destroyed during the Spanish civil war and most of the plans for the church along with it. They reconstructed the plans based on models and discussions with the people Gaudi had worked with.

Regardless, the structure speaks for itself. The inside is amazing too. I especially liked the pillars shaped like tree branches. Gaudi meant for the building to be like a forest inside, and it kind of is. Pics to come!

Reunion

I've been trying to decide if I've been neglecting my blog or if now that some of my family is here, my stories are at a bit of an end. But as I've just sent off a bunch of pictures to Grandma with no explanation of what they are, I'm thinking that I'll go ahead and keep writing, so there's no mystery for the next few weeks before family Christmas in January. And there are more pictures to come and be added, of course!

There were lots of hugs at the airport, and I showed off my Madrid knowledge immediately by guiding us around the Metro to the hotel, which I'd scouted out earlier. After walking them down the brightly holiday lit Gran Via, Michael and I headed down to the river and Atletico's futbol stadium for the match with a couple of my Spanish friends. We agreed to root for the opposition, Celta, as my friends were fans, even though they were expected to lose. And lose they did eventually do, though it wasn't until the last 15 minutes of the game that Atletico finally scored. Which my friends thought was pretty good.

The most memorable part of the game was definitely the large guy who sat behind us yelling and swearing at the ref in Spanish for practically the entire match. I learned a lot of new words that night. The rest of the crowd was pretty fantastic though, with all their songs and calls. They're definitely more organized than any type of American fan base. Or at least they've been singing their songs for longer and make sure their children grow up knowing them.

After the game, A heard from a friend that there was a metro strike on, which meant only one train every hour or so. With the amount of fans packing the station, it wasn't likely we'd be able to get on it, so we had to hoof it back to the center of town. I went out for a drink of drowning sorrows with some of the group before heading back to the hotel. Michael was out cold, the late night walking coupled with jet lag.

The next morning we headed out for a walking tour of Madrid, covering most of the good places I've explored before heading out to Villaviciosa for lunch with my Spanish family. I think my family was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of food and drinks that kept coming, even though I tried to warn them ahead of time. The Spanish mother always says that she's not a good cook, but it was a pretty masterful meal. After, we took a stroll around the castle park before heading back into the city.

The next day was Toledo, and I again showed everyone around some of the good spots. We actually went into the cathedral this time, and it was pretty magnificent. The amount of detail they put into everything is just exquisite. No pictures from me on that, but I'm sure that my mom took plenty, and Michael took a few nice ones as well.