Travels of Gilamonsta & The Ijit Dragon: Nasca Lines

Today is the day that determines if I, Nancy, will be able to do the trip to Antarctica. Antarctica will be my seventh continent (if you learned there are 7 continents) or my last unvisited continent depending on how many you think there are. It is has been a recent dream to step foot on all of them. We lived in several states in United States of America (MA, ME, NJ, CO) and visited a majority of them. We visited several major places in Canada (Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Niagra Falls, Montreal) visited Mexico highlights were Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tijuana. While we have not exhausted North America we have seen more than most. We have also lived in Afirca, Asia and South America for at least 2 years visiting numerous countries on each continent. Europe needs some more time but we have been to several countries there as well.

I have heard nightmare stories about the boat trip to my final frontier, Antarctica, from huge ocean swells to being stuck in a glacier. I get motion sick. I am still determined to go regardless of what I hear or videos I see.

Peru hop passes through Nazca but does not stop long enough to do the plane ride over the lines. We have been told this is an exciting adventure worth alternating our plans. We armed ourselves with our day pack; camera, extra batteries, binoculars, overnight clothes, and ginger for motion sickness.

We dropped off our big bags at the hostel where the tour guide was staying, she was going to load it on the bus for us. We left the hostel to head to the bus terminal. 10 sols for the taxi ride. The bus was from Ica to Nazca 3 hours and 11 sols per person. Does not seem right that a 5 minute taxi ride was half the price of a 3 hour journey.

The bus ride was uneventful except for the motor oil beneath our feet causing us not to be able to grip the floor on hairpin turns.

We were met by a representative from AeroNasca which was arranged by Peru Hop. Come to find out this is a new company, less than a year old. We took a short ride to the local aero port for the flight over the lines.

They weighed us and determined who would sit where on the flight, a wee bit embarrassing. We waited for about an hour for our turn, as one plane goes up at a time. Flight is about 40 minutes. Cost 80 U.S. dollars plus a 25 sols local aero port charge.

30 minutes before our turn I took some natural motion sickness meds which I have used in the past and worked well. Our tour guide collected us. We showed our passports and got to walk to the plane.

We boarded the flight, donned our earphones, looked at the map of the 10 most prominent shapes we might be able to see and are thrilled to fly!!

It is a bit snug.

We are cleared for take off and up we go. It is a smooth flight and I am excited I am not sick.

The tour guide is explaining a little bit about the lines and the location. We then come to one of the first lines, the whale. I am on the left side of the plane and Mike on the right. He got to see everything first and then the pilot would bank a hard left and circle the lines again so my side of the plane could see.

Do you see the whale?

Neither did I. I took this picture with my eyes closed as I was really nauseous after the hard left. My first thought was Antarctica boat trip is off the bucket list.

Even with my eyes closed I still managed to get part of the tale. This is a cropped version of the photo above.

There ends my photos of the Nasca Lines. I did see the lines I was supposed to see but was more focused on breathing in and breathing out...sounds like a blonde joke.

Actually as I look at my photos I took a few more:

Monkey