Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Nazca.

We are spending the Christmas period here in Nazca at a lovely hostel near the centre of town. Christmas kicked off at midnight on Christmas night with massive, personal fireworks throughout the town, from crackers to rockets and everyone gives it heaps, sounds like a real war zone with rockets screaming overhead in any direction. Ah the smell of gunpowder in the air.

Everybody sits down to family dinners after midnight and the music and celebrations carry on till daybreak.

I write this and its 7.30am Christmas morning and its still all go in the plaza. It may be a long day ahead.

We arrived in Nazca after two days riding from Cusco. Annette in a taxi lead us out of Cusco on the road north and east to the Pacific coast. We spent those two days firstly dropping down into fertile valleys, growing all manner of crops, then climbing back up to over 4300 metres onto the alto plano before dropping down to around the 3000 metre mark into another valley. The whole journey was twists and turns, a bikers heaven.

You rode slow as animals ruled the road at every turn and every dam dog just wanted to chase wheels. I don’t know what it is, but cars and trucks they can lie there and not bat an eye lid, but as soon as they see the bike its like a switch is flipped and off they go, and once one runs the others join in so that soon you have three or four dogs of all shapes and sizes tearing down the road after us. The ones to watch are the silent ones that come running with no warning out from a concealed position with no noise, but nothing a kick in the head has not fixed.
We ended up having everything from broken down trucks, crashed buses and land slides due to the rainy season starting in the central Ande

All the time as we neared the coast the vegetation changed and the temperature increased. We were nearing Peru’s coastal desert. After the last high pass we could see the coastal region and were soon looking down on the worlds largest sand dune, (in two photos). Truly a massive mountain of sand and how did it get there? It really does mark the landscape. What followed was a broken pot-holed road of steep winding descent to near sea level and being hit by the hot dry desert winds.

Nazca, a dusty desert town with the hustle and bustle of markets, masses of people and plastic bags everywhere but these places have a life and character all of their own and each one is quite unique.

Now we don’t see what we used to notice when we first arrived in South America. This is just the way it is here.

The flight over the Nazca lines was something else. Very bumpy with the desert thermals and when you are twisting and turning at 90 degrees to the earth so that everyone gets to see the images on the sand, well all I can say is I didn’t take many photos and my eye was on the nearest plastic bag. I did warn the pilot before hand that any mad flying and he would wear it. A grin from him then you’re strapped in.

Annette had a fun time but the other four of us left the plane in silence and headed for the shade and a seat in peace and quiet. Never again in a small plane that close to the ground., give me the bike any day.

Annette has that pilot’s grin.

Well, Merry Christmas to you all. We hope you all have a good time with your families around. We have spoken to ours and miss them all very much. Don’t overdo the Christmas pudding and make sure you get a good rest before the New Year celebrations kick off for 2010.