Ica, Nazca & Arequipa

Took a mototaxi to a 200 population town of Huacachina. It's a nice resort town full of gringos, nice lake in the middle surrounded by sand dunes. Slept in the afternoon, and in the evening took a winery "tour". The tours in my hostel didn't go every day, they needed to fill up a group. And while walking on a street I bumped into one agency who had a tour in the evening. So I signed up, got there, and the other couple didn't show up. So it was just me in some taxi driving somewhere in the night ... it was a bit spooky. Visited a museum, full of mummies and antiques. It was the coolest museum ever, because everything was so close, and you could touch it all :) Also tried wine and pisco. The guide said that because we went to the museum we have to order some drinks, but I didn't want to drink at all. He was really pushy, but I kept saying no. At the end he bought a litter of wine, and I just drank like quarter of a glass if not less. He tried to come up with some drinking games, but that didn't work either :) We danced for a bit, and drove back.
I slept 12 hours again :))
Next day took a buggie tour around sand dunes. I was expecting more after hearing super fun stories, but it was ok. Sand EVERYWHERE!! There were only a few dunes on which we went up and down, most of it was straight. We stopped at some dunes to do sand boarding. I stood up on most of them and slided down on a belly with huge speed on the last dune which was the biggest one. I really waxed the whole board twice not missing a spot :) At the end there was an earthquake, but didn't feel anything :( I just checked the internet, the earthquake was magnitude 6.1 in central Peru.
Slept 12 hours AGAIN !! :))
In the morning took a taxi back to Ica with 5 "teenagers". Turns out they go to Nazca too. We went straight to the airport and took a half an hour flight for $50. These lines were discovered less than a 100 years ago. People could see the lines all the time, but didn't know that they make any shapes. Somebody as always discovered them by accident by flying over that area. The reason why Nazca people made these lines are still unknown. Always a bunch of speculations like: the lines lead to water; it was a religious area for celebrations; they honored the gods. They also think that Nazca must have had air balloons because otherwise why would they draw something that cannot be seem from the land?
The flight was ok, nothing special. We all thought that the lines would be bigger, but they were tiny from the air. And since the plane has two sides with people sitting on it, the pilot would always turn first left then right on every figure, so basically all of us got sick :) In the town of Nazca there is nothing to do, so we just had a coffee, and sat in one restaurant all the evening until it was time for the night bus to Arequipa. We took the most expansive and luxurious bus "cruz del sur". There was not even one local on it. The whole 2 floor bus was filled with tourists, I've never seen it anywhere travelling before !! The bus didn't fill my expectations, it didn't have any blankets, and the dinner wasn't nice. The cheaper (half as cheap) companies offered much better service!
In Arequipa, all went to the same hostel. Everybody in the group is really cool, very different than the first impression. They're smart and considerate and know a lot of history, politics, current events. We ended up spending a few days together, and it was really nice! But just by looking at them I wouldn't even want to spend five minutes with them ... lesson learned: never judge a book by its cover!
That day didn't want to do anything crazy, so just went to a frozen mummy museum. Super cool! She was sacrificed because of the volcanic eruptions over 500 years ago. The people thought that the gods are angry at them and had to make sacrifices. This "mummy" is in the best shape out of all the "mummies". It's not really a mummy, just frozen body which was at a -25 degree Celsius all these years, so it got preserved very well. The girl was given a lot of chica, and struck in the head with some sharp object. Overall they found 8 or so mummies on these mountains.
In the city found the best coffee place, so we had a nice coffee and cake, lots of times :)
Also went to a monastery. Way too expensive and not fun. The nuns live without any comfort, all in the dark in tiny little rooms. Anyway, nothing really to write about.
The souvenir stores are sooo nice !! Very colorful, super good quality, and a huge variety. I think these are the best souvenirs I've ever seen in my life!
Next day wanted to go to suburbs, but had to find more people for the Colca canyon trek. Found an agency that does it for 90 soles for 3 days (~$30), while most companies charged between 120 - 200 and one company advertized in the lonely planet guidebook charged 690 !! For exactly the same thing !!! I'm gonna write them something about it ! And so many people went with this company, just because it's in the guidebook! At the end, we didn't find anybody. Some couple even run away from me :) Anywho ... we decided to do it alone. It's a popular trek with easy paths, so everything should be alright! 6 of us are going. 2 girls and 4 guys. 1 girl and guy from the previous group, 1 guy who we met at the hostel, and 2 guys who we met on the street while bugging people to go with us :)
At night we all got waken up by an earthquake. It lasted for 20 seconds, dogs started barking, it felt pretty strong, but not that high on the scale. Can't imagine magnitude 8!!!

pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/IcaNazcaAndArequipa#