Along Peru's southern coast

The South Coast of Peru is a vast desert landscape with a starkly beautiful coastline. Our first stop was the Paracas National Reserve. The reserve is set aside to preserve the abundant marine life along the coast as well as the archeological sites of the Paracas culture. The Paracas culture existed between 800 BC and 100 BC. They created beautiful ceramics and textiles, and are known for their water management practices as well as their burial practices of wrapping bodies in beautiful woven and embroidered textiles and setting them in shaft tombs, many of which are well preserved to this day because of the arid environment. It is thought that the Paracas culture evolved into the Nazca, which we will visit a few days later.

The Paracas National Reserve is highly regulated including no camping, but if you drive a bit further south, you can find beautiful camp spots along the coast and very few people except for local fishermen. We drove to a lagoon with flamingos and spectacular desert landscape, then headed to a camp spot at Playa Mendieta with few people and a beautiful seascape. I love finding such spots to spend the night. Cooked a good dinner, watched the sunset, and climbed into the tent.

The next day we headed to Huacachina, an oasis in the desert surrounded by towering sand dunes. Although many tourists visit Huacachina, there is good reason. It really is striking. And... you can go skiing or sandboarding on the dunes! I tried my hand at sandboarding, but I should have asked for skis instead. It was not as easy as I thought it would be. I fell pretty hard my first few runs. Still, it was fun, and the sunset was well worth it. The instructors were very kind and helpful.

Next stop was Nazca and the famous Nazca lines. The Nazca culture flourished between 100 BC and 800 AD. They are known for their large designs in the desert of straight lines and different animals and other figures. They are also known for large underground aqueducts that carried water to this parched desert. No one knows for sure the purpose of the Nazca lines. When I was a kid, I read about them and the wild speculation at the time was that they were the work of aliens, because how else could figures that large in a relatively flat desert be constructed? They are pretty interesting. We stopped along the highway to climb a tower to see a few of the figures. The next day I took a plane ride in order to get a birds-eye view. (Sheri opted to not go flying.) Afterwards, we visited the archeological site of Cahuachi, which was a Nazca ceremonial center of pyramids and plazas. We also visited the Cauchilla Cemetery, a burial ground with mummified remains of well-preserved bodies. Discovered in 1920, the site had been plundered by grave robbers, but somewhat restored in the last decades.

The Nazca culture also has beautiful polychrome pottery, of which we saw beautiful examples in the museums in Lima. We stopped by a shop of a couple who have rekindled the process and style of Nazca pottery, and, of course, bought a couple of representative pots.

The last stop before heading inland towards Arequipa was another of those beautiful camp spots with no people. It was just off the highway amongst many rock outcrops overlooking the ocean, but it felt like it was a long ways from anywhere. So nice.