Monday, September 6
I woke up around 7 am. I slept pretty well. Some drunk guests woke us up in the middle of the night when they came back to their room right next door talking loudly. It only lasted a little bit and we went back to sleep. We showered and packed up. Martin came at 10 am and we walked to breakfast. I had strawberry juice and fruit salad. It was a small but tasty breakfast. Larry had a breakfast meat sandwich that he was happy with. We returned to the hotel and I did some writing by the pool.
Martin returned at 12:30 pm in the van we were taking to Lomas beach. It was packed with 12 folks, 4 rows of 3 people each. We carried our backpacks but the luggage had to be tied down to the roof. I was pretty comfortable but Larry’s legs and feet were very cramped. It was only an hour's drive through the desert to the beach.
Our hotel (Hotel Lomas Beach) was very nice overlooking the beach and ocean. We had a second-floor room at the end which gave us 2 windows with views and a small balcony. We are discovering that the beds in Peru tend to be small. Our bed was barely double size. Some days we really miss our king-size bed!
After we settled in, we headed to the beach to have lunch with Martin. There were 2 tables set out midway and the waiter walked 50 yards from the restaurant (Don Pascuel) to take our order. We shared screamy ceviche, some fried fish with fries, and cervezas. It’s warm here but the wind is cool. I had to change into pants and a sweatshirt. We walked into town…..a one-street town basically.
There are a lot of wooden buildings and the town looks deserted, much like the beach. We were the only ones on the beach earlier beside the birds. This is an important fishing village but the season hasn’t really started yet. They send much of the fish to Lima by trucks. It’s also a huge tourist town in the summer, January, February, and March, for folks from Nazca. It’s easy to escape the Nazca heat in only one hour. Martin says during this time, the beach is covered with people, tents, umbrellas, and a ton of people in the ocean. You can walk out a long way before it gets deep and it’s a safe beach for kids. We continued to walk around. We saw the tiny town square but never found a church. Martin left for Nazca and we headed back to the hotel by the way of the beach. We investigated some interesting tide pools with tiny fish and 2 crazy starfish with 40 legs.
We took some pictures of vultures and egrets. We came across a part of the beach that was entirely covered with large snail shells...interesting. We arrived back at our Hotel right as the sun was setting. There was a layer of fog so we didn’t get a good sunset on the water. It gets dark at 6 pm. We asked for some hot water for tea and skipped dinner because of our late lunch. We found out that the hotel did not have WiFi so I just spent the evening writing and listening to my Audiobooks. Today was a nice low-key day. We both enjoyed it. Warmer weather and more sun would have enhanced our experience but you get what you get at the beach!
Tuesday, September 7th Lomas Beach
I slept pretty well on the small bed. I had one cup of tea and then we headed to walk on the beach. It was overcast and very windy. so chilly. I decided to take advantage of jogging on the packed sand. I probably jogged less than a mile but it was a great photo op.
After our continental breakfast at the hotel, the sun came out. We sat on lounge chairs for a while until I figured it was warm enough for a bikini…..just so I can say I did it! We laid out until 2:30 pm. We took another stroll into town but walked down a few other streets. We found the tiny cemetery at the top of the hill. It was very fancy. At the top of the hill, all 2 blocks of it. We could see the other side of the peninsula. The beach on that side was rough and craggy. We didn’t see how to get down to it and weren’t that interested in finding how. We went to a small store to buy fruit and snacks.
We were still hoping to see Martin in the evening but since I had no internet, we hadn’t heard from him. I thought he was going to BBQ dinner for us but I was mistaken. When he came with his wife, they made a fire on the beach. He made his special Pisco Chicas drink and he sang songs. We drank and snacked on peanuts. He consumed 2 very potent drinks and was having a lot of fun. We stopped at 2 because we were getting up early, at 6 am to go out fishing.
Here are some links of Martin our tour guide singing around the campfire.
Wednesday, September 8th Lomas Beach
I didn’t sleep all that well. I set my alarm for 5:45 pm, not 5:45 am! Luckily I just woke up at 5:51..just cuz. I drank absolutely nothing because I wasn’t sure how long the fishing trip would be. We walked 4 blocks to the marina and to find Martin’s friend, Juaquin with the boat. He brought some rolls, bananas, and avocados for a snack. We had to walk across a few boats in the marina to get to ours. The boat driver siphoned gas from another boat….not sure what that was all about. The boat driver had a helper, Bernardino, that did all the driving. We only went out into the bay about 500 feet and anchored…...well we tied to another boat. We did some hand fishing with a line wrapped on a piece of wood. Usually, they drag nets but it was too rough to go out to do that. We didn’t stay out very long at all…..no fish were caught. I think I had one bite that took my line a bit but then nothing. Larry and I dressed in many layers because we were afraid of freezing to death on the open ocean…... It is better to be prepared. I wore my exercise pants under a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, and my rain jackets plus my hat. I only used one hood. Larry did about the same but he had a toque (knitted hat) on. We were warm enough and that was great!
We had breakfast at the hotel. We enjoyed the same breakfast as the day before, Eggs, rolls, papaya juice/smoothie plus coffee. Martin had brought some sweet tamales to try too. That made up for what dinner lacked the night before. We showered and took a van back to Nazca.
Wednesday, September 8 Nazca to Arequipa
We returned to Nazca around 12pm. We hung out at the Don Agucho Hostel until 2:30pm when we walked into town to meet Martin. Today is the big celebration day for the Virgin of Guadalupe. From the church we walked around to see what festivities were happening. We watched people in the plaza enjoying their day. We got more cash and bought some new sunglasses.
We were able to go with Martin to do some water deliveries. This is where we got to see the neighborhoods of Nazca. We found it interesting. Mostly dirt roads and lots of dust. It’s a big desert here. The folks are always sweeping and throwing water on the sidewalks to keep the dust down.
Next stop was another large outdoor market. We had already walked through the food market. We had bought some new fruit, a type of melon, shaped like a large white tomato with brown stripes. It’s called Pepino Dulce, and I highly recommend it. We also found some tasty peanuts from a vendor at an excellent price. We went back to the church and had our snack on the steps. We met up with Martin again and he took us to the clothes market. Things were super cheap. Larry found a pair of thick sweatpants for $5 or $20 soles. I got some yummy kettle corn from a vendor for 38 cents or $1.50 soles. I bought 2 bags…. Ha ha ha.
At 5pm Martin and Veronica picked us up at the Hotel to go to the ceremonial grounds across the valley. We drove down a long dirt road through a few small villages until we parked at another aqueduct site, Orcona. There was a small square in this tiny place, but it was lovely. We walked down the dirt road to a dry riverbed behind some tiny shacks. There were animals penned up, like turkeys and pigs. We walked through an informal dump to the river. We walked along the riverbed until we found a spot to climb over a cement wall to get onto the dry river. It was a bit steep with wiggly rocks but not too bad. We found a place on the other side that was super steep. It had lots of loose rocks, but it was the only path to the road. The road that had the dead end on Sunday. We walked up the road between two mountains. This land is protected as an archeology site. There used to be a cemetery of people who were sacrificed but grave robbers removed them and took the old pottery and valuables. We saw rocks painted with blood red paint…kinda creepy! We eventually came to the main path that would lead us to the 3 large circles of the ceremonial grounds. This is where Martin performed the healing energy ritual. It was to release bad/negative energy and rejuvenate positive energy. We gave gratitude to every part of nature and hugged each other. We laid on the ground for 20 minutes, healing our bodies. Afterwards, it was pretty dark so walking back was a bit more challenging, but we all made it safely.
Back in town, Martin dropped us off at the square. Larry and I had our last meal in Nazca at the La Estacion restaurant again. We had a few beers, salads, and fries. Made our last walk-through town to our hotel. We had an hour to wait until we were to leave for the bus station.
The bus was supposed to leave at 10pm to drive all night to Arequipa. We actually left at 11:30pm. Larry and I sat in a very cold coffee shop until the bus came. When we were getting on, they insisted that we have face shields. Two masks were not enough. Martin went inside and bought us some. They were $4 soles…. a buck! Interesting thing, they didn’t care if we wore them…we just had to have them. We sat on the bottom floor of the bus. It had a second story. We were right by the bathroom too. I thought that would be good, but it eventually started to smell bad. When I used it around 4am, the floor was very wet, and it was a mess. I was grateful to have it though. I slept pretty good as the seats reclined and the double masks helped suffocate me to sleep. Ha ha ha. I think I was able to get almost 7 hours of rest. First time I ever got to sleep all night on a bus. I’ll check that off of my bucket list…I guess.