Live - SIlver Explorer October 25 2017, Guayaquil to Valparaiso

[jpalbny]

Sunday, October 29th

 

Larco Museum, Lima, Peru

 

More ceramic objects. Not sure what this one was.

 

 

Ayapec at work, doing what he does best. Collecting trophy heads.

 

 

These tumi (knives) look uncomfortably sharp.

 

 

A real arsenal here. Someone was prepared for a full-scale harvest.

 

 

Skulls demonstrating trephination. These show healing around the edges, indicating that the patients lived for some time afterwards. Ritual? Or medical practice? Not known. I know that I have heard of the Inca practicing trephination. But the Moche, a thousand years earlier? Wow.

 

 

Gold jewelry. Finally, something to protect your neck!

 

 

The collection was small but enjoyable. Now it was time to visit the X-rated wing...the erotic art gallery! Apparently the Moche had a preoccupation with erotica. Who's in?

[jpalbny]

Sunday, October 29th

 

Larco Museum, Lima, Peru

 

So I figured it was wise to not post any of the pictures directly here, as they are quite graphic and would almost certainly violate the TOS, even though they are technically art.

 

Here is a link to the gallery. Enjoy!

 

After our visit, we wandered out for some fresh air. The clouds were back, unfortunately.

 

 

Some exotic plants here. They don't have to be censored.

 

 

Cool texture on this succulent plant. I'm sure Hans Peter would have a story about it. Where is he?

 

 

We slowly made our way down to the entrance gate to meet up with the group. As the bus wasn't here yet we took a quick spin through the gift shop. Nope, nothing. We are still terrible shoppers. I'd rather enjoy the flowers. But what is that blur in the middle?

 

 

It was a hummingbird, buzzing around just a few feet from us! They are a blur at normal camera speeds, though. I quickly set my shutter speed to 1/1000 (one of the benifits of lugging a heavy DSLR) and fired off a few shots. This one almost froze his wings, but I think it's because he must take a brief pause at the top of his wing flap cycle.

 

 

It is amazing that they move so fast. This shot is also taken at 1/1000 of a second, and his wings are almost a blur.

 

 

Time to get back on the bus and visit Huaca Pucllana. How cool to see that hummingbird up close, though!

[57 varieties]

JP your blog is terrific, thank you.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[WesW]

JP & Chris, we will seriously think about the circumnavigation of Iceland--thanks for suggesting this voyage. We are doing a circumnavigation of Australia next December/Jan (36) days and covet circumnavigation cruises.

 

Did you read that American Airlines (published less than 2 weeks ago) will introduce round trip flights from Reykjavik to Dallas beginning in June, 2018.

[jpalbny]

Sunday, October 29th

 

Huaca Pucllano, Lima, Peru

 

On the way, we passed a replica of the Sayhuite (Saywite) Stone. This was found at a site a few hours from Cusco, and there is some debate over what it represents. It seems to be a kind of scale model for Incan engineers, where they could test their techniques for irrigation and other water projects before applying them to cities. Too bad we couldn't take the time to see it. Sounds interesting!

 

 

We arrived at Huaca Pucllana and it certainly looked familiar from our last visit. It's basically a huge mound of adobe bricks stacked up in the middle of the Miraflores neighborhood. It too is pre-Incan, built by the Lima and Wari (Huari) Cultures, which existed at the same time as the Moche. We spend a lot of time on the ground level, looking up at it.

 

 

We had visited a few years ago so there was no pressure to do much this time. Nonetheless, we were a little bored while the guide went on about this and that. We really wanted to climb the structure!

 

Here we paused while we heard the explanation of some large pot which had been found at the site. It was broken into pieces and this is a replica. Let's move on...

 

 

Finally we got to climb a little. This is the first level; there are seven in all. From here you can see how close the modern buildings encroach around the edges of the ancient structure. It's a little disorienting. You can also see our bus in this shot, with the number 2 on it. We got the best parking spot!

 

 

The blocks are stacked loosely so that they can withstand earthquakes. Much like the Huaca de la Luna, it looks like it would be incredibly unstable, but clearly it works. These ancient architects knew what they were doing.

 

 

Down below the structure, we saw the tables set up in the restaurant for our dinner.

 

 

Looks like it will be a fun time!

[jpalbny]

Sunday, October 29th

 

Huaca Pucllano, Lima, Peru

 

We crossed over and went down the far side of the pyramid.

 

 

So cool to stand on this ancient structure, and be right next to a busy city street.

 

 

From this vantage point, you can see that the structure was also built in separate sections, much like Huaca de la Luna. Did people from the Lima and Moche cultures communicate with each other about their building techniques? Or did they independently figure it out? Not sure we'll ever know, because there is (so far) no written record.

 

 

As we got closer to the street, I saw this sweet car. It must be an antique too, but not nearly as old as this site. PS does anyone know what kind of car it is? The emblem on the lower right reads "Futura" and the larger letters on the trunk are AO. I wonder if it is an old Ford Falcon from the 1960s, and the AO is all that is left after the F, C, O, and N fell off (Wheel of Fortune, anyone?). Rocchi and I were trying to figure it out.

 

 

Off to dinner! Tonight's menu. There are four main courses listed. Which should I choose?

 

 

 

 

I didn't take pictures of the appetizer course, other than the drink... The food must have been so tasty that it disappeared before I could get a picture! Either that, or I was starving.

 

 

Interestingly, none of the waitstaff has asked us to choose the entrée we would like. Well, we can have some wine while we wait. No worries. We just have to make sure that we get the recommended wine for the entrée that we like. Short ribs, or the local fish?

[jpalbny]

Sunday, October 29th

 

Dinner at Huaca Pucllano, Lima, Peru

 

So the servers appeared with an amuse bouche. Some tuna ceviche, which was quite tasty.

 

 

Then they appeared with wine, but only with the Sauvignon Blanc which was recommended for the first course. We had some, though others declined and said that they preferred one of the other wines. It turned out that we had made a wise choice, becuase the wine was quickly followed by the seabass carpaccio!

 

 

Then the second wine made its rounds, followed by the asparagus dish. It looks like they are bringing all four main courses in sequence! They must know that Silversea cruisers are good eaters.

 

 

The Paiche was delicious. Sometimes freshwater fish can be funky. This was great.

 

 

And the short ribs were worth the wait.

 

 

There was dessert. Even though we had no room for it, we couldn't resist.

 

 

You might notice the little bottle of Pisco, and the bouquet, next to my plate. Those were gifts to us from the restaurant. The flowers made a cute decoration in our suite for a few days, on our living room table. I still have the bottle of Pisco; when the urge for a Pisco sour hits I might have to give it a try.

 

I have to say that the dinner was very good tonight. It might have been nice to know that we would have all four entrées but we managed to handle the surprise quite well. We even finished early, so we were back on the ship by 9:00. So we had time for a little dancing before bed.

 

Overall, today was a pretty great day. The museum was interesting. The visit to Huaca Pucllana was not as exciting as when we visited on our own, but times have changed and apparently you cannot visit any longer unless you are guided.

 

One very big plus about the way SS did it was that we were there after normal opening hours, so we were the only ones there. And the dinner was really quite nice. Plus, it was Sunday so traffic was a non-issue. That all helped to make for an enjoyable day.

 

***

 

Before bed, we looked at the cruise catalogs in our suite in order to get ideas for future cruises, but nothing has made a strong impression yet. Maybe the flight over the Nazca Lines tomorrow will help inspire us? Quite excited for that excursion!

[jpalbny]

JP your blog is terrific, thank you.

 

Thank you! Glad to have you following along.

 

JP & Chris, we will seriously think about the circumnavigation of Iceland--thanks for suggesting this voyage. We are doing a circumnavigation of Australia next December/Jan (36) days and covet circumnavigation cruises.

 

Did you read that American Airlines (published less than 2 weeks ago) will introduce round trip flights from Reykjavik to Dallas beginning in June, 2018.

 

Reykjavik is a great destination. We are lucky to have DL and Iceland Air flying from JFK, and also Iceland Air from Boston. It makes Iceland a short hop from home. I didn't know that AA was starting up a flight there too.

 

Hope you and Ida can join us! Would love that Australia trip, but until I add a (ret) to my name, 36 days is a bit too much for me!

[easyboy]

Enjoying your review and the very nice photos!

[Rocchi]

Hi JP.

 

Ford Falcon Futura. It caught my attention when we saw it but I didn't realise why at the time. About fifty odd years ago when I was a boy I was car nut and this car was one of the favourites then. It also reminded me of the the Ford Cortina Mk1 we had here in the UK at about the same time in the early 60's

 

I am enjoying your rerun of the cruise as it is still so fresh in the mind.

 

Rocchi

[jpalbny]

Enjoying your review and the very nice photos!

 

Thanks much - glad you're enjoying.

 

Hi JP.

 

Ford Falcon Futura. It caught my attention when we saw it but I didn't realise why at the time. About fifty odd years ago when I was a boy I was car nut and this car was one of the favourites then. It also reminded me of the the Ford Cortina Mk1 we had here in the UK at about the same time in the early 60's

 

I am enjoying your rerun of the cruise as it is still so fresh in the mind.

 

Rocchi

 

Thanks for confirming.

 

I texted a picture of that car to my Dad this morning, asking if it was a 1960s Ford Falcon. He wrote back in seconds, and said yes, it's a 1964. He was a mechanic for a Ford dealer in the early 70s, and he used to work on all of those cars. Plus he said that one of his friends had one. Still, I was impressed with his recall!

 

This cruise was truly amazing. I'm having fun reliving it too, even though I am sad that it's over.

[Catlover54]

JP, thank you for your fascinating blog and pictures of an area not many travel to, complete with views of modern SS culinary delights (which hopefully tasted as good as they looked) oddly contrasted with depictions of brutal ancient beheaders and enslavers such as Ayapec, dugouts of ancient technology, and reminders that arguably not much has changed over the eons in what is considered erotic art :). I am most certainly glad I am a woman today able to wear SS gift shop necklaces and use my brain as I choose well beyond my sixth decade of life, rather than "living" back then while being necklaced with chains (and then some) and likely never making it to 30.

 

You repeatedly refer to an upcoming circumnavigation of Iceland you have planned on SS, which might appeal to DH, but when I go to SS website I am unable to find such a journey. Could you please indicate what ship it is on, and the dates, or if you have a screenshot?

 

Thx again for your generous contributions.

[zigtraveller]

Hi JP, I have just caught up with your blog this morning and am greatly enjoying reliving the cruise with you. Thanks for posting.

[jpalbny]

Hi JP, I have just caught up with your blog this morning and am greatly enjoying reliving the cruise with you. Thanks for posting.

 

It was a pleasure meeting you and cruising with you! This was a voyage that really made for some great memories.

 

JP, thank you for your fascinating blog and pictures of an area not many travel to, complete with views of modern SS culinary delights (which hopefully tasted as good as they looked) oddly contrasted with depictions of brutal ancient beheaders and enslavers such as Ayapec, dugouts of ancient technology, and reminders that arguably not much has changed over the eons in what is considered erotic art :). I am most certainly glad I am a woman today able to wear SS gift shop necklaces and use my brain as I choose well beyond my sixth decade of life, rather than "living" back then while being necklaced with chains (and then some) and likely never making it to 30.

 

You repeatedly refer to an upcoming circumnavigation of Iceland you have planned on SS, which might appeal to DH, but when I go to SS website I am unable to find such a journey. Could you please indicate what ship it is on, and the dates, or if you have a screenshot?

 

Thx again for your generous contributions.

 

Thanks for reading and for your comments. We do have it pretty good compared to our forbears 1000 years ago.

 

And yes, the food did taste as good as it looked. I tried to eat sensibly but that lasted about two days. Towards the end of the voyage we had some fresh sea bass brought on board and it was hands down the best piece of fish I have ever tasted. The chefs were amazing; it was astonishing how they put out such great food on board an expedition ship.

 

The trip is Reykjavik-Reykjavik, voyage 1918 on Silver Cloud Expedition. Here is a link to the web page for the journey, and an overview of the voyage. Come join us! The more, the merrier.

 

 

We love Iceland, and this looks like a good reason to revisit.

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

 

 

There were many reasons that we had booked this cruise, but today's excursion was one of the big ones. We have a flight over the Nasca Lines! This is included in the fare, as are all of the excursions on this expedition voyage.

 

I finally slept reasonably well overnight, but awoke with a bit of a sore throat. Chris had one a few days ago but it didn't amount to much else. Hoping for the same.

 

It was a leisurely morning, as our group doesn't leave for the excursion until 9:45. So after breakfast, we had time to wander on deck and watch the Peruvian boobies fishing for breakfast. They glide along, looking for fish.

 

 

Then they take aim, tuck their wings in, and free-fall.

 

 

Splash! Fresh sushi.

 

 

The pelicans were out too. It is amazing to watch such a large bird glide inches above the water. So graceful considering their size.

 

 

As is the trend, though, there was an announcement that we might leave a little early. Apparently the captain had delivered an early arrival. That could be nice!

 

Time to make our final preparation for the flight. They had repeatedly mentioned taking motion sickness tabs if you were prone to it, but neither of us is, at least not in a plane. And we have flown in a number of small planes without any issues. So we didn't take anything - we wanted to make sure we were wide awake for this trip!

[imcpa]

Your blog......awesome.......just awesome!

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

We had been divided into two main groups - early, and late. Each group had four subgroups corresponding to four airplanes. We were the third airplane in the early group, scheduled to leave the boat at 9:45.

 

Sure enough we disembarked a little before 9:30, and loaded up into a local boat to tender in. No zodiacs today. Local boats can be hit or miss, but this boat was actually fairly nice, and a smooth ride.

 

The harbor in Paracas was filled with colorful little boats, all seemingly named "Pisco." Looks like a beautiful day for sailing, and for flying! Visibility looks good too; they say that sometimes it can be foggy in the morning which can impede visibility. That would be disappointing.

 

 

We disembarked at the pier and walked through a visitors center with shops and an ATM. Then we boarded buses and headed to the airport about 10 km away. It was an easy ride and we were there by 10:15. It was a really nice looking airport! It was amazingly empty, however. Apparently it is very new and the international traffic has not yet arrived. Hopefully it will.

 

 

Now the not so nice part. We had to weigh in before the flight, with our cameras too. Gee, you mean they don't believe the weight that we put down a few days ago, when we confirmed this excursion? Have we eaten that much since we came on board? I blamed the super zoom lens on my DSLR for those extra pounds. We found that we were switched from the third plane to the last plane, so we'd have a bit more of a wait.

 

They called the passengers for the first two flights through security and into the boarding area. I took advantage of the time to study our flight plan.

 

 

Then they called for our group a while later. When we got through security, I was surprised to see that the first two groups hadn't even left yet. So we waited some more.

 

Finally they started boarding groups a little after 11, and we waited while everyone else loaded up. Turns out they had distributed our group among five planes, not four, so we'd been moved from flight 3 to flight 5. We must have really gained a lot of weight!

 

Finally, our flight was called a little after noon. I guess we didn't need to get here early, but that's OK. We headed out to load up on our tiny planes. The staff was eager to take a picture for us.

 

 

Only 10 seats plus the pilots, but they were 1x1 so each seat was a window seat. And for the most part, they had split the couples up so that one was on each side. That way, between the two of them, each couple would be sure to have seen everything. We waited a bit longer to go through the preflight checks, and then taxied out. There's a little plane landing here, visible just under our wing.

 

 

We then waited for a bigger plane to take off. Finally, we were airborne, around 12:25, more than two hours after we’d arrived at the airport! Still, we're going to see the Nasca Lines, so we were pretty excited. After waiting for over a year to be here, what's another few minutes?

 

 

I was already hungry, as they had told us not to eat a lot for breakfast, and I actually did what I was told. No biggie though; we can afford to be hungry once in a while. I shouldn't starve.

Edited November 26, 2017 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

The first part of the flight was briefly over the ocean, with a nice view of offshore islands - Islas Ballestas. Those who didn't want to do this flight were touring those islands today.

 

 

The land is so dry. The contrast with the ocean is striking.

 

 

We flew near Silver Explorer anchored in the bay.

 

 

An aerial view of Paracas.

 

 

Then we turned inland. These look like military planes.

 

 

The landscape was very arid but I found it pretty in its own way, with many interesting formations and patterns.

 

 

Onward. Where are those lines? Are we there yet?

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

More scenic cruising over the desert. The ocean is still visible in the distance.

 

 

An interesting formation. It looks like an image of flowing water, frozen in rock.

 

 

Nice window seats on our plane.

 

 

We weren't too far apart.

 

 

As we flew further inland, there was more sand, like what you'd expect from a desert. The patterns were pretty.

 

 

And the formations kept changing. This landscape looks like it must have been shaped by flowing water.

 

 

So far it was a very interesting flight, and we hadn't even seen the lines yet.

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

There were agricultural regions seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and the contrast between the irrigated green patches and the trackless desert was pretty. The river supports a thin ribbon of greenery.

 

 

The line cutting through the desert here is the Pan-American Highway.

 

 

These lines look unnatural. Are we getting closer? Are these Nasca scribbles?

 

 

Here are some lines, for sure.

 

 

There is an animal figure in this picture. We just haven't seen it yet.

 

 

This is not an original Nasca Line, for sure.

 

 

Fascinating. Almost there! We have dropped to less than 1000 feet above ground level. Time for some serious flying!

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

We caught a glimpse of the whale. Check that off the list!

 

 

This triangle looks like a landing strip. I can understand why some could believe that aliens were involved in the construction of these lines.

 

 

More triangular strips in between what looks like dried up riverbeds.

 

 

The landscape looks unreal in this shot. The Pan-American Highway runs through here as well. It seems out of place.

 

 

The desert seems to flow up the edges of the mountain, like an ocean.

 

 

The next figure was the astronaut. This figure is unique among the Nasca Lines in that it was carved into the side of a mountain. The others were just scraped into the surface of the desert.

 

 

More to come. The figures were coming fast and furious. Much like the maneuvers of the plane!

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

It had taken us about 45 minutes from takeoff until we started seeing lines. Now it was one after another! This was pretty impressive.

 

The monkey:

 

 

Another view, showing a bunch of other straight lines and zigzags.

 

 

We were less then 1000 feet above the ground, and the pilot zigged and zagged between about a dozen of the better-known specimens - making two passes at each so that first one side saw the figure, and then the other side. Exhilarating, but it was definitely a lot of tight banking turns.

 

The Dog

 

 

Photo adjusted so that it is right side up. My view was only sideways or upside down. One of the few photos posted here which I manipulated. Unless I say so, all photos are straight from the camera, unedited.

 

 

The lighting was pretty good and the figures stood out well against the desert. This is a hummingbird.

 

 

Another shot. It is easier to get a nice shot when their wings are still.

 

 

Now another tight turn. Would love to see our flight path! But I had my phone on airplane mode so as to not interfere with the plane's navigation.

Edited November 26, 2017 by jpalbny

[jpalbny]

Monday, October 30th

 

Paracas, Peru - Nasca Lines flight

 

A spiral, near the Pan-American Highway.

 

 

This splash of greenery seems out of place in the desert. It is neat to see such lush fields next to dry land. The riverbed looks dry but there must be water somewhere.

 

 

Back to the desert to see the spider.

 

 

This one stood out very well. Somebody must maintain them.

 

 

And the condor.

 

 

I'm glad that they were telling us which bird was which. It would have been challenging to identify a specific bird type from these stylized designs.

 

 

Onward. So far, so good. The sheer amazement at seeing these lines is counteracting the motion of the plane. Too excited to feel sick!

[mysty]

Thanks so very much for taking us along on this magical journey through your brilliant descriptions, lively wit and awesome pics! Thoroughly enjoying the ride!

[Kate-AHF]

Thanks so very much for taking us along on this magical journey through your brilliant descriptions, lively wit and awesome pics! Thoroughly enjoying the ride!

 

Well put. Ditto!