Flying over Nasca

Up early yet again, and had a boring continental breakfast and then sat in the lobby waiting for my ride to the airport. When I got there I found it was a small airport and was very efficiently run. They checked me in quickly, sent me through the safety check and then grouped me with three people from Poland. Two of them were quite large, so they put them in the middle seats and I sat in the back with the large guy's wife. The co-pilot, from the picture, was a very nice guy and told us what to do and what to expect, basically keep looking outside instead of inside and we shouldn't feel sick. Then off we went. The flight was 35 minutes long and took us over a number of the lines. I found some of them hard to see, because the land is marked with lots of other lines from water marks and tire tracks. However, I did see very clearly the hummingbird and the spider. Not sure how many I actually got on the camera, as they are hard to see in the viewfinder. The flight was very smooth and there was no turbulence, which was good. I heard from the English guys in Lima that a couple of weeks ago, one of these planes crashed and four tourists were killed! However, today went off without a hitch.

This afternoon, I just hung out. I spent some time wandering around the town. It seems like market day. Several streets are blocked off and there are stalls set up on both sides for blocks. It looks like part dollar store, part garage sale, part fruit and vegetable market, part meat and fish market and part clothing or shoes, and part housewares. In other words, they sell almost anything and almost all of it is crap by our standards and I wouldn't go anywhere near the meat and fish stuff which is outside and not refrigerated.

It was a beautiful sunny and warm day, so I sat in the square for awhile listening to some music from a marching band. In fact after awhile they became part of a small parade that went around the square. I went for a late lunch at an incredibly busy local restaurant. The locals flock to it. I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup, only the noodles were bowtie pasta, and fish, rice and potato. I didn't eat the salad or drink the watery fruit drink, but it was certainly cheap, about two dollars. I read for awhile in the lobby and out in the square. And I spent a long time updating photos, e-mails and the blog. So, a relaxed, laid back but productive day.

The people here are quite friendly and helpful. I haven't felt intimidated at all. But they are a noisy lot! In the lobby the TV is always on, as is the music system and then they are yacking constantly and at the same time. Outside, they are always tooting their horns, some vendors have loudspeakers and advertise their wares that way, and today there was some group of either political or religious types in the centre of the square ranting through an amplified megaphone. It's certainly not quiet or dull.

I'm not sure if someone is picking me up to take me to the bus station, so I just wandered off to find it. It's about six blocks away. So, I feel better now that I know where it is. Tonight is an overnight bus. We'll see how that goes. I've got a book, iPod and the computer, so worse comes to worse I've got things to do.