Pan American Highway

We leave Lima at dawn on a bright April day and drive through the urban sprawl and power and waterless shanty towns and endless chicken farms with black vultures circling overhead, on to the Pan American Highway along the Pacific coast towards the Chilean boarder.

The landscape is desolate and desert like with the odd palm grove near trickling streams. We drive past Paracas National Park, detouring to take the boat ride to Ballestas Islands, full of birds and sea lions, the wine growing areas of Chincha, Pisco and Ica where we stop to visit Tacama  winery, and overnight in historic Nazca at Nazca Lines Hotel to overfly the lines in the desert the following morning.

The road hugs the Pacific Ocean and dips in an out of canyons. Lines of pelicans circle over the surf looking for anchovies. The coast is wild and deserted except for the odd fishing village next to a pretty cove.

We stop to have the biggest and best wild sea bass for lunch at an unpretentious wayside restaurant.

Finally, we leave the Pan American Highway at hilly Camana, 851 km. from Lima, to drive inlands towards Arequipa.

Nazca Lines Hotel

My travels in Peru were arranged by Lima Tours.

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