I cannot find much time to update the blog as we start traveling more and more...Our last day in Lima was a beautiful day. It was a Sunday, people had risen up early, got their surfing boards, some got their parachutes for flying...We walked around Miraflores, there was a marathone and people looked pretty tired while trying to finish the circuit. We came to a park, it looked great, very steep down to Costa Verde...I felt like lying down on the grass and feel the wind...Then some people appeared 
in the park with parachutes, a girl and a guy wore the necessary flight equipment and just disappeared in the sky!!! It looked so tempting to me, I asked the other guy if it was possible to do it too. He said ok and I did it too..It is some sort of paragliding but takes about 15 mins and called a tandem flight. The pilot was called Marco, he had a good sense of humor and we had a great flight. You jump over a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and fly right around the high rises and wave hand to the people having breakfast at their balconies!!! It was really fantastic. In the beginning, I felt a little nervous but it disappeared in one minute almost...
It was a terrific experience. I think I should do it in Babadag, Fethiye too...I had the great ice cream of Gelato for the last time,after all we felt a little hungry, we went to the supermarket "Metro", and bought some yummy looking ready made salads. We had them at our hotel. After a short nap, I went out and saw Piril on the street. We came across with some sort of dancing contest, there was a man there who danced with almost 6 different women!!! 
We appreciated him and decided to go to a casino!!! I have very little gambling culture, I have no idea about poker or any other card game. When we entered, we were asked to leave our backpacks to the cloakroom. We chose to play poker and just 1 dollar was enough to let us play...For a dollar, it gives you 90 credits...While we played with 90 credits, Piril taught me a little bit about poker, a girl brought us a Christmas cake (which we had as breakfast in Pisco), so after all we profited from this gambling experience!!! We came back to our hostel, mingled a little with the other tourists, watched "Desperate Housewives" on cable TV and went to bed early...On Monday,we had our last breakfast at the same place, packed up and headed to Ormeño´s terminal to find a bus for Pisco. They told us that there was a bus at 1:30 pm which we did not like, as it was 10:30 am when we were there. Then a cab driver at the terminal told us about another company called "Soyuz" which has buses every half an hour to Pisco and Ica. We bought our tickets for 18 soles(6 USD) for 11:06(!) 
bus and found the two best seats that we could stretch our legs before anyone else got on the bus!!! The bus was always but always full, people got off, people got on...it took 4 hours to Pisco and it dropped us right on the Panamericana Sur highway. When we arrived there, a guy approached to us and started telling us about the Islas Ballestas, hotels etc...He was very nice, very sympathetic guy (Persy). We were tired, just asked the taxi guy to take us to the hotel for 7 soles. When we came to the center of Pisco, we were shocked because the city was almost totally devastated by the recent earthquake of August. Everywhere was dust, we could hardly breathe, all sellers on the street...He told us that 300 people in the church died of which 50 was from the same family!!! I also saw the prefabricated houses which were donated by the Turkish Government, I was proud of my country again!!! 
Well, we dealt with the hotel for 70 soles (24 USD) a nite, the room had cable TV and private bath with hot water...The girl at the desk was a cutie, she was called "Sylvia" and was just 28, though she looked 38!!! Probably I also liked her because she tought I looked 25, he he!!!! After we checked in, we went out to take a look around and find something to eat. Just the main square was around, the old fashionable street was totally devastated...Monday was their market day, so went to the market, they were selling fresh mangos, papayas, water melons, cooked chicken,beef with potatoes and rice, ice cream, different types of bread!!! 
The whole thing was under a thick layer of dust however...I bought some bread and mango and we headed to the only clean looking restaurant around, El Dorado. Diego who is the waiter gave us the menu del dia for 8 soles, we had beef with lentils with mixed salad. I like the salads here, because they are served with avocados which I really love...We looked for a travel agency to book a tour for Islas Ballestas to see the Candelabrum figure but there were only touts around. Then we decided to buy our ticket from Ormeño to Nazca, bypassing Ica, as Ica was only famous for its sand dunes for sandboarders (like us, huh!!!)...After all, we decided to buy the Islas Ballestas tour from our sweet Sylvia, as she made the price down from 60 to 50 soles!!! Then our lovely "dombili" Persy came along to promote us his Nazca package. We had beer and something to nibble and listened to Persy, later came back to the room and watched a movie...Persy´s offer looked good but we had to work on the price!!!
In the morning, we had some coffee, I had the mango with the cake from the casino, Piril had her banana with the cake and they picked us up at 7:20. The minibus that we took was a crumbling one but it worked fine!!! They drove us with 3 slovenians, 2 Americans from Seattle and 2 Dutch from Pisco to Paracas to take the boat. It was a speed boat which had about 30 people in it. When the boat moved, I realized that I had forgotten my wind jacket!!! I was sooo cold that all my hair on my arms was up!!! We had a guide, Juan who explained and showed us the candelebra figure. It is a huge candle figure which did not disappear over the years due to dry weather. 
There are various rumors about the story of the candelebra, according to some people, it was a masonic sign because San Martin was a Mason etc etc...Nobody knows what it actually is...Then we went to the Islas Ballestas, which is also referred as "Poor Man´s Galapagos"...We saw the sea lions, guanco birds and pinguins there...The kids on the boat were soo happy to see them that close...On the way back, the strong wind almost froze me, well I made it and did not get sick after all!!!
When we came back, Persy was there, waiting for us. We dealt with him for the transfer from the bus to the hotel,room and the flight over the Nazca lines for 60 USD per person...He seemed happy, he must be having a lot of profit over this deal but it really did not bother me, because he was a honest and sweet guy...They drove us back, we packed our stuff,
paid Sylvia, paid Persy, bid farewell to our hostel friends and came to Ormeño to take the 1 pm bus to Nazca. The bus came at 2 pm, it was stinking, it was smelling livestock and urine terribly and it seemed like breaking down any minute!!! I went to the very back of the bus, Piril sat somewhere near the ventilation and we hit the road!!! Then at some point, a guy with a turkey jumped in to the bus. It was very weird, the turkey was "wheek wheek" some times and he was patting the head of the animal!!! Then he put his fellow in a Galatasaray colored (red-yellow) bag which had holes around its two sides and he probably fainted in the bag, as I never heard from it later!!!
He wore some perfume, guess Calvin Klein´s One and the smell felt good after the turkey smell!!! Finally we came to Nazca, bought our tickets for Arequipa from Cruz del Sur for 130 soles and Luis drove us to the hotel with his brand new Hyundai...The minibus was brand new, there was a mild music playing and we were the only people on the bus!!! What a treat...The hotel was called "El Mirador", it was right at the main square and from there, the city looked like a small scale Anatolian city (with the illuminated fountain etc)..We went out to find dinner, we ate at Plaza Mayor Restaurant which was very nice, 
withdrew some money from the cash machine and took a walk around the tiny tiny town...I fell to sleep at 9 pm as I was probably shaken by the strong wind from the morning...There was a movie on TV, "Crash" but I missed it!! In the morning, after the shower and breakfast, Luis drove us to the airodrome at Nazca for the flight. There was a Mexican family with us on the plane, the plane was a bumpy Cessna and the pilot was pretty nice. When we start flying, Piril´s blood pressure went down and she felt sick during the entire flight. It happened to me too but less then her, I just felt like I was not feeling my legs but could not look at the Nasca Lines too much as
I was getting sick too. I was able to catch several shots but it is hard to take pictures from the plane. I am totally convinced that people from outer space came and did the lines. Either aliens or some other creatures but it is not likely and logical that a human being can create such shapes in that time frame. The lines could only be appreciated by flying above and how come a human being at 900 BC-600 AD could think about it??? They were giving a message by creating those shapes there and we still deny their existence..Weird...There was a German lady who devoted her whole life
to Nasca Lines, called Maria Reiche whom I really appreciate as she lived here 50 years and died here... The flight took about 30 minutes, we came back and our handsome pilot signed our certificates, like the ones at Cappadocia!!! Piril took some rest when we were back, we waited for the other people to come back and came back to the hotel...It was an interesting experience though...Weird..
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