4th March 2015 – Nazca to Lima – 2015-03-12 20:48

We are ready to depart our hacienda hotel this morning when the resident vicuna pays us a visit, she’s very inquisitive. Last night she had a bit of a nip at Wendy’s arm and spat over a couple of people so we’re keeping our distance today.We drive out of Nazca via the centre of town which is vastly different to the area our hotel was in. The Pan American highway runs through Nazca which is in the Atacama Desert. They receive on average 2 hours of rain each year, so it is very dry and dusty. We climb over some sandy hills after leaving town and down into the flat desert plains. As we are driving through a small township a dog runs out in front of us & unfortunately we hit it. It appears to be just stunned so the owner tells us to continue our trip. We continue onto Ica which is the wine and pisco producing area of Peru in the middle of the desert. We stop for morning tea on the side of the road under the shade of some trees that look like orange flowering jacarandas. We finally get to see the Pacific Ocean and the desert seems to just flow into the water.We reach the start of the auto piste, so it’s divided highway all the way to Lima. We stop at a seaside town – Cerro Azul for lunch on the beach. The sand isn’t quite snowy white but the locals seem to be enjoying their day at the beach. The drive along the auto piste is past resort areas that remind me of a low rise Surfers Paradise, but no green just sand. We hit Lima at about 4pm, it’s chaotic with cars going everywhere. It seems that no one gives way here. There are police directing traffic at the busier intersections, which is really confusing as the lights are still operating and the police wave us through on a red light. Lima has a population of about 10 million people, one third of Peru live here and it feels like they are all driving on the road this afternoon. It’s Really hard trying to keep 7 cars together but somehow we separate then we all come back together for the crucial navigation into our hotel.ÿ Our hotel is a beautiful colonial building set on the edge of a golf course, it’s quite grand and the cars are parked out the front under the watchful eyes of the staff.