Nasca, Paracas, Peru Monday, June 15, 2015
Farewell Lima, it's been nice to know ya... As our finally day in Lima as part of the tour is here, I
figured I'd get out on my last run I could while I was here. Bruno went to the gym while I headed out on the road. I thought seeing this could potentially be my last run for a while that I would head down the local running route. To get there it was a 1.75km run to the starting point for me (which happens to be the 5km mark on the running track). The running track takes you down the coastline past all the parks that I had walked previous days and then a few more which I hadn't seen yet.
I can understand why this run is so popular, to give an idea, I generally wouldn't be going more than about 200 meters until I saw someone else actually running, great scenery and while it was still quite overcast, it was also still rather hot. By the time I got back to the hotel my t-shirt was completely saturated. Not surprised though, I hadn't taken any water with me and running almost 14km normally has me trading a couple of drinks here and there.
After getting back and grabbing a shower it was time to pack up and get ready to leave our home for the past 5 days before getting on our bus to Nazca. We took a trip via a local transfer bus to the bus station where we caught a fancy bus to Nazca, 7 hours later, 4 movies, a few Zzzzz's and several games of cards we finally arrived in Nazca.
We booked in all those wanting to fly over the Nazca lines (the one thing that Nazca is really known for). Out of the 11 people only 1 person decided to do it... me, I'm not sure if it's the horror stories of how the pilots fly, the thought of having to sign a waiver, or if it's simply the price.
It was then off to tonight's hotel "Hotel San Moncelo" so we could checkin and get our meal for the evening. While the hotel looks like it's designed to host 100 people or so at a time, it doesn't appear to be sleeping any more than our group, then again... We did arrive late, so it's possible people were already sleeping. We put our bags away and gathered in the dinning area for our meals. Not a bad meal for NZ$12.50, and some of the meals looked even better than mine. Alison & Martijn, if you are reading this, it's cheaper than number 30 on the Sampan menu, and you get an entree and drink included.
Over dinner Lucho told us a little about Nazca and mentioned it's very rich in minerals here, lots of mining goes on for things like: Copper, Gold, Zinc, etc. next to mining it would be good for fishing and then farming, farming isn't that great around here due to the lack of flat land and fresh water.
I'll leave this post here as I have to be up and ready by 9am tomorrow for the flight.