August 12, 2014

Nasca to Lima - Riding along the coast

We decided not to fly over the Nasca lines (I think it's not ecologically worthwhile...), but on our way north we came across the viewpoint from where we could still observe two of the famous figures.
Nasca lines: The frog or hands
The Nasca lines are geoglyphs in the desert, created by removing the reddish pebbles from the ground, exposing the lighter ground below it. However, no one knows what for the Nascas created these figures, there are lots of theories, none of which could be confirmed so far...
After leaving from the viewpoint, we soon reached Palpa, and as we were told that after Palpa there's nothing but desert all the way to Ica, we decided to spend the night there and continuing the next day to Ica. Leaving Palpa we had one last little pass to cross; it was pretty special, as the mountains are completely dry, while in the valleys on each side of the mountain ridge there's a green valley along a at this time of the year dry river...
Our very last mountain pass: just about 600 masl...
After leaving the pass behind us it got really boring: There's a lot of sand everywhere (we're in the middle of a desert) and lots of cars on the road (we're back on the Panamericana), but otherwise there's pretty much nothing and it's completely flat...
Now we're definitely in the desert!
A few km before Ica we reached another valley and it became a bit greener again, and then we made our way through the suburbs of Ica, looking for the place of Berly, our WarmShowers host. Initially we didn't plan to spend a day in Ica, but it came different: On our way to the oasis Huacachina we got lost and ended up in a weird neighbourhood where several dogs followed me (nothing special, dogs don't seem to like bikes). As they seemed pretty aggressive I stopped (usually they stop barking and turn around as soon as you stop), but one of them didn't like that either, jumped up and bit me in my ass. Now that wouldn't have been too bad, it just bled a tiny little bit and well, it hurt, but as it was dog from the street, we knew that we'd have to get anti-rabies treatment. This turned out to be pretty difficult, in the first hospital we spent over an hour waiting for this and that until they finally told us that they didn't have the vaccine I needed (and they even told me that it's not that important, that you should only start treatment if you show symptoms, clearly telling me that they had no idea, as by the time you show symptoms you're condemned to death...). At least they told me that I should be able to get the vaccine at the local anti-rabies center, so we decided to first go and visit Huacachina and care about the vaccine later. Huacachina was very touristic, but truly gorgeous! It really looks exactly how I always imagined an oasis: a little lake surrounded by palm trees in the middle of huge sand dunes...
I didn't think that an oasis really looks like this!!...
Huacachina - Just amazing!
Back in Ica we went to this anti-rabies center which of course was closed, so we had to return the next morning again... There they took it more serious and sent me to the next hospital where finally it was no problem to get the shot. The next problem, however, is that now I need another shot exactly 3 days later, so we have to be in a city with a hospital again... In the afternoon we finally left Ica and cycled towards the coast. On the way we passed lots of vineyards, it was really weird to see all this agriculture with the sand dunes in the background... In the evening we finally got to the coast again; we stayed in the touristy town of Paracas in a very cute little hostel with amazingly kind hosts! From there we took a tour to Islas Ballestas the next morning. These are some islands out in the sea with lots of wildlife, therefore also named poor mens' Galapagos.
Sea lions on Islas Ballestas
They almost seem to be posing...
A Humboldt penguin :-)
El Candelabro - A geoglyph on the Paracas peninsula
When we returned to Paracas, Stefan went to bed immediately as he didn't feel well at all. However, he still wanted to leave later in the day in order to reach Lima soon, so I went for a short ride to the national reserve on the Paracas peninsula while he slept for a while. If we'd had more time it would have been great to spent more time on the Paracas peninsula, as the landscape was just amazing! I only got to see one of the many beaches, but I'm sure the others would be at least as gorgeous as this one!
Paracas National Reserve
This red sand is just amazing!
Beautiful bay with a red beach!!
Amazing colors!!
I guess I could have spent quite a while there...
When I got back Stefan really wanted to continue, so we packed everything and went on to Chincha Alta, a very non-touristic city a few km from the coast. The next day Stefan felt so bad that we decided to stay the day there for him to recover. Luckily I could get my second anti-rabies shot at the local hospital the next morning before heading on towards the north. But Stefan still didn't feel well and after a long ride along a busy highway we stopped at a gas station where we only found a closed restaurant. So we ate our last cookies and then tried to get a ride to Mala, were we had a Warm Showers host waiting for us. Pretty soon an empty yogurt truck agreed to take us and our bikes to Mala for 20 soles, which we were more than willing to pay, as Stefan seemed to be falling asleep soon. Once in Mala people soon figured that we were looking for Lula, our Warm Showers host, she seemed to be known for hosting cyclists... She welcomed us very warmly and after a lot of story telling Lula showed us her little town and we went out to eat Chinese dinner. Later that evening I learned a lot about Lula and all her travels and experiences while Stefan went to sleep early in order to finally recover! It would have been nice to spend more time with Lula, she seemed a very interesting person telling us lots of thing about Peruvian people and customs, but Stefan was determined to finally reach Lima. So the next morning we hit the road again. It wasn't a particularly nice ride: Along a busy highway through the desert; passing several abandoned "holiday villages" of the rich Limeños, but luckily there was a wide shoulder so the passing cars didn't bother us too much...
Entering Lima on the highway: Lots of ads, cars, fog and pollution :-)
Soon we reached the southernmost parts of Lima, from one minute to the next the desert was replaced by houses, but we still had lots of kilometers to head north along the highway. And once we finally left the highway, we got lost pretty immediately and only with the help of several kind Limeños and police officers we reached the Jesús María district. Once in this district we soon found our hostel where we both enjoyed a warm shower before heading out to find some good food and celebrating our arrival in Lima!
The next day we met Jihyun and Sungjong again! :-) As they have been in Lima waiting for a package from South Korea for over 2 weeks, they knew the city pretty well, so we had our personal city guides. After eating Ceviche at the local market in Jesús María we took a bus downtown. After visiting the mandatory Plaza de Armas with all the government buildings I finally got the chance to buy some souvenirs! (We decided not to buy anything before reaching Lima because of space issues...) Towards the evening the streets got filled with artists of all kinds and we spent quite a while observing them. Once our legs didn't want to carry us anymore (it seemed that by now our legs preferred cycling rather than walking), we made our way back to Jesús María the four of us went for Chinese dinner.
One touristy day in Lima had to be enough; the next day we had lots of things to do: First, we had to find some bike boxes. Natalia, the women who invited us to her house in Nasca, gave us the contact details of a certain Andrés. So after contacting him, we set out to find his little bike shop (which turned out to be pretty difficult in a city as big as Lima...). But finally we found it and Andrés proofed to be a very helpful guy! He didn't have bike boxes in his shop, but he promised to organize some and to bring them to our hostel! He also showed us a good seafood restaurant where Stefan and I had lunch before heading to the sea. But it was all so gray (we never ever saw the sun during our time in Lima) that we didn't really get the "beach-feeling"... So we took a bus back to our hostel and just the moment we got there Andrés arrived with two perfect bike boxes! I want to use this opportunity to thank Andrés and all the other helpful locals we met during our time in South America; all of them our trip special and unforgettable, it would never have been the same without meeting them!!
Andrés, a friend of Natalias', organized two bike boxes for us :-)
Later we went to the nearby supermarket for some duct tape and after asking around for a while we even got the Styrofoam of a fridge. Soon our bikes were safely stored in the boxes and I finally started to realize that our adventure is coming to an end... But we still had one last evening left in South America, so we headed to the Miraflores district where we met Alice, a French cyclist we first met in Susques, Sungjong and Jihyun, and Thomas and Corinna, two German backpackers we met on the Laguna route in Bolivia. After a last Chinese dinner we spent the evening in a cozy little restaurant having some drinks and replaying the last few months with all the unforgettable experiences each of us will take home...

No comments: