NASCA LINES

Alien

Desert Road

Detour

After we got back from Machu Picchu, we put away all our stuff and got ready to leave. While we were gone, Norm got our laundry done, had our tanks filled with water, and made sure that our motorhome was safe. We then moved down the Pan America Highway to Paracas, about 150 miles. We were both glad to be out of Lima, a dirty city of 10,000,000 people.

Paracas is a seaside resort and we stayed in a city park facing the sea. There were many “Kodak” moments as the boats met the morning sun. We were charged 30 sols, about $10. The next day we went to a shopping center and purchased a modem for our laptop which is supposed to give us internet service anywhere there is phone service. We’ll see.

We then headed south and ran into a big problem because a bridge had failed and a bypass around it wasn’t finished. We spent about three hours waiting till we could get through. The detour was an old river bed. You can imagine how rough it was. The big trucks were having a time of it.

We then moved on to the town of Nasca. The NASCA Lines museum is based on the work by the German Maria Reiche who spent many years studying the lines. Many theories have been proposed on the origin and purpose of the lines, but by now anyone with a TV knows they were made by aliens from outer space who then went on to build the pyramids, or was it the other way around. In any event we were able to see some of them from a tower constructed for that purpose. The best way to see them, of course, is from the air, but we didn’t trust those little planes.

After leaving the lines we traveled through no man’s land. There were huge sand dunes,and blowing sand and then we would see the ocean with white sandy deserted beaches. There were steep grades to climb with hair pin curves and huge trucks to make it interesting.

Our stop for the night was the small village of Chala. We parked up on the hill by the plaza and the church. The plaza is the center of activity with children playing, kite flying, and “fuz” ball being played by all ages. We walked to the dock. There were some brave souls playing in the water and the fishermen were coming in with their catch. The wind is brisk and when Bill heard the word chili, he about fainted when I told him I had the fixings for Carol Shelby Chili. As Mari says we had a “Happy Stomach” when we had our dinner that evening.

Our last night in Peru was spent in the town of Cocochaca. This is an oasis town that is a spot of green in the desert. They use irrigation from a small river to grow crops, hay for the cows and rice. We arrived here after driving 200 miles through the most fantastic scenery you can imagine. There was 100 miles of coastline that would take your breath. Huge waves crashed onto rocky shores. There were pristine white beaches and no habitation except for a shanty here and there. The desert was always presents. There were huge dunes that looked like they would love to swallow you up. Sometimes the color of the sand would be tan and other times it would be rose. Then the sand would change in a small space to rock. The roads were very good and there were men with brooms sweeping away loose rocks. This was a lonesome road and you would not want to have trouble on it. Our motorhome and our driver seem up to the task.

We will cross the border into Chile next and can’t wait to see what is around the next bend in the road.



Gerry and Bill