Paracas and Nazca

The rest of the flight to Peru remained uneventful (yay) and we spent a night in Lima to rest and chill out.

Check out this funky mural across from the hotel...

The following days agenda was to head out to Paracas. Being Good Friday, half of Lima had the same idea and we eventually caught a collectivo with a group of family and friends taking a boys weekend with the camping and fishing gear.

The landscape during the drive was completely arid and barren and looks like something from Tatooine in Star Wars. It’s difficult to believe people are able to live here and grow any food.

Typical scenery around Lima

Paracas was absolutely packed - this is kind of like the Gold Coast over Easter. A couple of fellow passengers on the collectivo were amazingly helpful and quite concerned we wouldn't find a room. They walked around with us to several hotels, translating, and ensuring we had somewhere to stay before parting ways. Eventually we did find a room, although quite average and overpriced as to be expected over Easter.
The main attractions in Paracas are the seafood, sand dune tobogganing, penguins and sea lions at Ballestas Island and the museum, which is home to a slightly morbid collection of elongated skulls that have been excavated in the area.

Here are some of the skulls in the collection;

I got to hold this one...slightly weird experience :-/

The following day we caught a bus out to Nazca and jumped on a tiny 4 person plane to check out the Nazca lines from the air.

Preparing for take-off

Bouncing around up there in a tiny plane it was difficult to get any decent photos but here are a few that kind of came out;

The 'astronaut'

Hummingbird

tree + hands