At breakfast the next morning, we discovered that Peruvians are not coffee drinkers. However, coffee was readily available and generally very good. We also quickly discovered that Peru has great fresh fruit and juices. During the entire trip, whatever juice we ordered appeared to be fresh squeezed. Is it a sign of a more advanced culture when all the juice is either from concentrate or sweetened with high fructose corn syrup?
After breakfast, we were off to the Chauchilla Cemetery. We soon passed one of the world’s biggest sand dunes (over 3000 feet high), and then turned off into the desert about a half mile until we arrived at our destination. The Cemetery represents a pre-Inca civilization which mummified their dead and buried them in sitting positions. Twelve graves have been excavated. Unfortunately, long before formal excavations began, the locals discovered the site and dug up many of the graves looking for gold. In fact, this apparently still goes on at night and one can see many indentations in the sand where holes have been dug.
Next, we drove back towards town and stopped at a shop where the owner makes Nazca styled pottery patterned after ancient pottery found in the area. All the paints are made from local plants. We bought a few pieces to take home with us. The owner looks like a character out of a movie but I don’t know which one! He used to be a baker but learned the art of Nazca pottery from his wife who no longer works because of her poor eye sight.
Wanna dig for gold? Most of the local mining is done by individual prospectors using primitive tools and involving back-breaking labor. All you have to do is just hike up into the barren mountains nearby, manually dig, pick and blast out rock, put it into sacks and carry it out. Then you take the rock to one of several extracting businesses in town, pay them a fee to use the facilities and try to extract minute quantities of precious gold. The process involves crushing the rock and mixing it into slurry with mercury. Any gold combines with the mercury. This process involves standing on top of large stones shaped like rolling pins and rocking back and forth for six hours. Sound like fun? If you’re lucky, you make enough to put food on the table without developing mercury poisoning!
After lunch at the hotel, we headed over to the local airport to catch our small plane for a flight over the Nazca Lines. This is why we came to Nazca and I was looking forward to seeing what many books list as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. We were not disappointed! No one really knows how the figures were actually constructed. How could such large images be made on the ground by people who did not have the perspective of viewing them from above? Thus the theory about aliens, Etc. Most current thinking centers on the belief that the figures somehow indicate sources of water in the dry God-forsaken desert. My favorite two figures were the hummingbird and spider. If you are prone to motion sickness, take something before the flight. The plane makes sharp banking turns so that the figures are visible to the passengers. Unfortunately, despite taking bonine, my wife spent most of the flight looking at the inside of a plastic bag rather than the ground.
We spent the afternoon relaxing at the hotel before being shuttled to the bus station for our all-night trip to Arequipa.
The agent had great response to questions and coordinated well to create an itinerary that met our expectations.
Bob Sunshine
1 day ago
Very responsive to all questions
Teresa Cardoso
2 days ago
Kelly and Rhenee were excellent to work with on planning our trip. The logistics all worked smoothly and everyone was friendly and on time. Our accommodations were very good, particularly the incredible Patagonia Camp in Torres del Paine! Our guides on every excursion were outstanding and made the hikes memorable! Overall we had a wonderful trip with incredible memories!
Scott Gibson
2 days ago
Adventure Life is definitely a first-class safari tour company, and our representative was Franny Friesz. First of all, she responded immediately after we contacted Adventure Life. We told Franny that we had never been on a safari, and she was more than eager to offer a mountain of information about the trip. She informed us fully about all the ups, downs, and all arounds! She even prepared a number of packages for us to review -- even after we made changes to the areas we wanted to explore. Friendly, helpful, professional, and extremely knowledgeable -- these words describe Franny, and what a wonderful trip she prepared! We couldn't have asked for better service than Franny of Adventure Life. We HIGHLY recommend her and her outstanding company! Bon Voyage!
Prima Burke
3 days ago
The staff at Adventure Life made planning my family's trip to the Galapagos Islands as easy as possible. They listened to what we were hoping to experience and made thoughtful suggestions about how to accomplish our vacation goals while meeting the needs of travelers ages 17-76! They patiently answered questions and follow up questions in the months leading up to the trip. They helped us trouble shoot and customize the trip in every way possible. The logistics involved in traveling from Boston to the Galapagos are innumerable. The Adventure Life staff helped us arrange every detail and the team they assembled in the Galapagos was tremendous. I have never done a trip this big before and after working with Adventure Life this time--would not hesitate one second in working with them again.