August 24, 2006

August 24, 2006

This morning we meet back up with my nephews John and Ryan who came in on the night bus from Arequipa. We take a taxi towards town and stop at one bus line’s terminal (apparently Nasca has no central bus station). We buy tickets for their afternoon bus to Lima. We are going to bypass the coastal reserve of Paracas as Ryan needs to head home early and start his graduate studies in archeology at Yale.

The day bus is much more enjoyable. The route to Lima follows the coastal desert north. Most of this area is pretty bleak with only giant sand dunes. There is not even enough rain here to support cactus. The Sahara desert has nothing on Peru’s coast.

Peru is truly a country of extreme geography. The western coast is the driest of deserts, the center is tall mountain highlands and the east (which will have to wait until our next trip) is the very wet rain forest of the Amazon basin.