Day 3 started with a light breakfast at the recommendation of our tour guide and then a short drive out to the airport we would be flying from. We were bundled with 3 Americans and after paying the airport tax (S/ 12.50) we were walked over to the small 6 seater Cessna plane we would be flown over the lines in.

The flight was like no other plane ride I’ve ever been on – after reaching the lines and geoglyphs it started to bank sharply to one side and then to the other to give both sides of the plane a good chance to take pictures. Personally, I thought the drawings in the desert were pretty cool and tried my best to get some decent pictures – but it’s hard work from a moving plane. It was around this sort of time I was pretty pleased I listened to the advice we were given the night before, “Have a light breakfast”. Unfortunately I don’t think the American girls sitting behind us took this advice, and they were sick a few times. After the flight was over we were driven back to our coach and headed off to Ica. It took a couple of hours to get to the Las Dunas holiday resort, even though we stopped on the way at a viewing platform to see some more of the Nazca lines.

Las Dunas was a really nice hotel, with plenty to do in the spare afternoon we had there. It was pretty unusual to have a spare afternoon, but we made the most of it and had a good look round (including going up a sand dune at the rear of the hotel), enjoying a game of mini-golf, and went for a swim. They did have plenty of other facilities that we didn’t use, such as for football, volleyball, golf, and dune buggies. There was also plenty to photograph, including the first Llama we’d seen.

In the evening we went back to the sand dune and climbed it to the top, which was very hard work due to how fine the sand is, so we could watch the sunset from there. From the top it wasn’t a great view as you could see Ica, and for the most part it’s a very poor town with most of the buildings made from mud bricks. The meals there were very good though probably among the more expensive ones of the trip (yet they were still cheaper than a restaurant meal in the UK). One part of their meals that really stood out was when we asked for cake for desert they actually bring out a trolley full of huge cakes and you point at the one you want a slice from. Very nice.