Nasca

Sunday April 28th                                                            

Before getting on the bikes we took a walking tour of some Inca ruins. The center of the Inca Empire was in Cusco, 400 miles up in the Andes. They had a seaport however right where our hotel is. They would carry fresh fish to the king with relay runners in two days. For everyone else they cured and dried fish. Their drying structures are still there. It gave me a chance to take more photos too.

We only have 100 miles to go today but a good detour too. We followed the coast with some curves for awhile and then headed straight north toward Nasca. It was all hills and sand dunes. None of us could think of a place that we had been that was more barren. There is not even a weed.

W turned off onto a dirt and sandy road to go visit some Nasca Indian ruins. Some people were not used to riding dirt and sand but they all made it. Jan and I did great. The F800GS, even with the two of us, on it handled the sand fine. We just had to keep the speed up. I really like the bike.

The ruins were over 2000 years old. It was an Indian burial grounds. It is incredibly desolate, hot and dusty. How and why they lived there is a real question. It must have been home.

We checked into a hotel right in Nasca. It is quite nice. We then went to the airport to board small single planes to look at the Nasca Lines. These are mysterious lines that had been drawn in the hills of figures, people, animals and birds over 2000 years ago. They say that for 500 years it never rained here. A few years ago they had a rain storm and damaged some of the lines. People had gone their whole lives without seeing rain.

Jan didn’t take the flight. I thought it was okay but not worth $100 for 30 minutes of flight time.

We went to a local restaurant by ourselves tonight. I had a baby goat stew and Jan had pizza. While we were there a bus load of about 50 toourists came in. Scary. I hope we never have to do that.

One thing about the trip that is very different than I planned. I expected that we could ride alone. We have ridden in the pack all the time. That is the way they want it. It has worked out okay. In the twisties I get up front with the guide and two of the fast Canadians. When it straightens out or there are good photo ops we go to the back and stop to take photos.