Puerta Inka

We couldn’t wait to get out of Nazca – the town caters to tourists to a fault and is no destination other than to see the lines. Get in and get out is our recommendation. We headed down the coast right after our flight.

The desert gets windy in the afternoon, and we drove right into a sandstorm. A first for us. It was a little unreal and we were blown all over the road. When we finally stopped, we even had sand inside the car.

The next stop was supposed to just be a place to camp on the road to Arequipa, but we quickly discovered it was a real gem. There is a little hotel, restaurant and beach camping. We pulled up on the beach and popped the top and had the place to ourselves.

Perfect weather. Beautiful beach. We were surrounded by Incan ruins on one side and pre-Incan ruins on the other. Oyster catchers ran up and down the beach right in front of us all day. There was even a playground.

As luck would have it, they were taking apart one of the play structures and that meant colorful firewood was laid down right in front of us. Besides, who needs a playground when there are rocks to climb? Bode insisted on climbing barefoot for hours…