31-May – Santiago
We are now in Santiago but should not be here!! – more of this later.
Our final few days on the Truck were busy and good fun. We left Arequipa and headed to the coast and a beach camp and BBQ. We had not realised do much of the coastal area of north Peru was desert and sand dunes. Surprisingly we enjoyed being back in the tent!!. Next day, we left late ie 8 am and were off to Nazca and the flight over the lines. The little 6 seater plane took us on a 15 minute ride sweeping over the different images carved into the ground. Most people were sick!!. We completed the flight about lunch time and then pitched camp on the lawn of a very nice hotel. We set up the kitchen in the hotel car park but surprisingly it was a brilliant arrangement. On then for our final night of camping in a national park on the coast. We drove through miles and miles of desert with not a person or bird in sight. Sun was setting as we reached the beach and the truck sank gracefully into the sand!!!!!!!!!. We dug and dug for a couple of hours to no avail so we pitched our tents in the dark, cooked supper and lit a camp fire. Two of the group set off at 5 am to walk the 6 km to the nearest park entrance to get help! A fitting final camp for our adventure. A van was sent to rescue us and the passengers went off on a 2 hour boat tripto the Ballesteras Islands – How amazing literally thousands and thousands of Boobies, Cormorants, Pelicans and others as well as dozens of sea lions. Quite an unbelievable sight. On return our truck had been rescued and we headed to Lima and the end of our overlanding experience.
The hotel in Lima was really good – it was just unfortunate that we only had time to throw away our camping clothes, bath, pack, have supper and make our farewells before heading to the airport for a 0145 hours flight to Santiago and on to Easter Island.
Unfortunately, the mist in Lima turned out to be a pea souper at the airport and nothing was flying in or out. We sat and sat and sat a bit more and finally it was 1025 am and we got on a plane to Santiago. However, we had lost our connection to Easter Island which meant wating 33 hours for the next flight – if we could get on it. We intended finding the hotel we had stayed at when we visited Santiago earlier in the trip. As we were calling the hotel we heard a tannoy announcement with our name. To cut a long story short, Lan Chile – the airline -has put us up in a 4 star hotel, with dinner , breakfast, phone card, free internet and transfers and got us on today´s flight to Easter Island. We do lose a day in Easter Island but cest la vie.
Amazingly, we now fully realise how much we enjoyed our outdoor life and camping and appreciate that it was the way to really see and get to know South America.
