We got up at 8:30am on a 64-degree and gray day in Lima.  After breakfast, we walked around the block and got gorgeous lunch sandwiches, chocolate croissants, and cheese sticks at a nearby bakery and then tried and failed to get a city map.  The bus with all 14 of us, plus luggage, Lucho and 2 drivers left at 10:30am to go south.

7,000,000 people live in Lima and the city has a huge area and really weird topography and geology.  The beach is wide and flat (even with a few surfers in winter now).  Adjacent to the beach is a park area in nice to awful condition and then huge 200′ high tan/brown cliffs up to residences and high rises. Very weird looking with large nets covering much of the cliff area.  As we went south shanty towns hung on the cliffs.

 

 

 

There were many totally deserted areas with lots marked with stones and maybe a teeny building on it. Apparently in Peru no taxes need to be paid on an unfinished building.  Hence many buildings have rebar for an additional floor sticking up even if the owners have no intention of completing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid-morning we stopped for snacks and potty. Further along we saw rather sad grape vines and many chicken farms – many long, narrow buildings with red and white chickens all enclosed in tiny spaces.  Also there were a number of factories, refineries, and natural gas pump stations. 

Lunch in a nice restaurant in a gas station took an hour.  We had our super sandwiches. 

 

 

 

 

 

 Late in the afternoon we finally arrived in Paracus at the 3-star Emancipator Hotel.

At 5 we all went for a walk along the Playa.  We bought 2 bookmarks of the critters to be seen on the Nazca lines and we watched birds on the beach.  Everyone gathered for drinks on the Playa – mostly pisco sours.  We left when it got too dark, cold and windy.  Dinner was at the hotel; the food was ok but the service was very slow.