huacachina,nasca and arequipa

So its been a few days since we have blogged and I guess we should backtrack a bit. We left Lima on a bus and arrived around lunchtime in the city of Ica. From there we took a taxi for about 5 minutes to the town of huacachina, pop. 200. Talk about a change, going from a city of 9 million to 200 people and it was a welcome change. Huacachina was unlike anything either of us had ever seen, it was an oasis in the desert. The town was surrounded by these mammoth sand dunes on every side and if you climbed to the top you could see them stretching into the horizon. We found ourselves a hostel, got a little food and quickly rented a sandboard for an afternoon in the sun. I wont say that sandboarding compares with snowboarding but it was a lot of fun to play around in the dunes. After a good day we retired to our hostel for some good peace and quiet...oops, or maybe we accidentally registered into the biggest party hostel in southern peru. Once again the earplugs saved us (as much as I love latin dance music at 4 in the morning). Even so we both loved huacachina and were sad to see it go when we set off for nasca the next day.

We rolled into Nasca around noon and after storing our bags at the bus station we hopped onto the same bus we were just on to take us back to the mirador(lookout point). IT was from here that we climbed up a tower to catch our first glimpses of the nasca lines. They were interesting, especially how they are only made by removing a top layer of gravel from the desert sand and yet they are still there. The funny thing is that the panamerican highway runs smack through the middle of some of them(so much for the lizard). We flagged down another bus heading back into town and then tried to decide how best to kill the afternoon untill our 10pm night bus. After some meandering through the streets we decided that we had better splurge and fly over the nasca lines. We headed to the airport hoping for a late afternoon flight. After some searching around we landed one of the last flights for the day. It was a bit more expensive than we had hoped for but we really didnt want to kick ourselves later for being too stingy. The plane was a little 6 passenger cesna with no doubt the red baron himself for a pilot. We whipped and twirled around the lines in the sand so both sides of the plane could see(should have taken a gravol beforehand). nonetheless there were ample bags for us just in case (liana came close). The lines were really cool, interesting how the shapes could be made without arial vantage. We finished our flight(about 40min.) and headed to wait for our bus. We were scheduled in for 10, and about 20 to 12 we were on our way to arequipa.

We have spent the last few days here in arequipa just relaxing a bit and taking in the sights. It is a nice town, famous for the white blocks used in building that come from the volcano (sillar) that lies just outside of the city. Today we went to the monastary santa catolina, built in the 1500´s(and on). Although there are still nuns living in one sector the rest of the monastary is open for public viewing. The monastary takes up a full city block, a city within a city. IT is a maze of passagways, streets, and living areas. It was neat to see for sure. Anyways that is about it for now, we have our tickets for cusco on saturday night and are excited to take in this rich historical experience.