Our original "itinerary" didn't include a stop in Arequipa.  Ross and I really enjoyed the city on our last trip, but we were feeling the need to push south.  When Diego informed us that the A/C in the van wasn't working though, we opted to stop in Arequipa (where he's from and where his mechanic is) to have it fixed.

We left Ica with the intention to drive to Puerto Inca with just a quick stop in Nazca to see the lines, but ended up staying the night in Nazca.  On our way to Nazca, we stopped at the museum and house of lifelong Nazca lines devotee Maria Reiche. Although she studied the lines for a good part of her life, she came up with numerous theories, but never did solve the mystery of why the lines were made by the Nazca people between 500 BC and 500 AD. I've always wanted to see the lines and was planning to take a flight to see them, but after stories of planes crashing and the guarantee of motion sickness, we opted for the climb to the top of a rickety tower to see them from the ground.  It was underwhelming, but we got the idea. 

The next morning, we got on the road early headed for Puerto Inca.  We were really glad we ended up staying in Nazca because the drive proved to be much more treacherous than the previous legs. When people say that driving the Panamerican Sur is dangerous, it's tough to really grasp just why it is.  This stretch was our introduction to the dangers of the highway.  It's a two lane highway with minimal shoulders and frequently traveled by semis loaded down with huge freight. And the drivers of these trucks have no issue with passing another huge semi on a hairpin turn, on a hill, with a 1000 ft. droop to the ocean below.  Yikes!! 

As it's not quite summer and the weather along the coast from Lima south is still cloudy and cool most of the time (this fog actually has a name...La Garua) we were the only people at Puerto Inca. We stayed a night here and had a great time exploring the pre Inca and Inca ruins all around the bay.  At first, I wasn't convinced that these ruins were legit.  They bore no resemblance to other Inca ruins we've seen in other parts of the country.  Inca rock is smooth, masterfully cut and precision fit.  These ruins appeared to be lava rock stacked up in crumbling wall shapes.  

As we explored more however, Nash was actually the first to notice the holes in the ground.  When we looked in, you could see that the holes were huge pear shaped receptacles about 7 feet deep made of stacked rocks.  And these "holes" were everywhere.  If you looked closely, you could see indentations in the ground staggered at regular intervals all over the ruin site where these receptacles had yet to be unearthed. It would have been a tremendous effort to construct these receptacles. I was intrigued.

It was interesting that this site wasn't more protected and better marked as an archaeological site. There were stone markers with brief descriptions of what you were seeing here and there, but didn't give any detail. As the kids and I further explored the ruins on the opposite side of the bay, we came to one "room" that still had it's roof intact.  When we looked inside,we found thousands of human bones in a pile covering the floor.  It was pretty eerie.  I would think that such ruins would be at least roped off so that you couldn't go in and mess with the remains.  We found a few other rooms like this and on the ground among the rock rubble outside a couple, there were what appeared to be cloth swaths that may have, at one time, wrapped the bodies of the dead.

When I did a bit of research on the site later, I learned this was where marine resources such as fish, other seafood, and algae were obtained from the sea and processed for distribution to other parts of the Inca empire. Those holes in the ground were where the products were processed.

We headed out the next morning for Camana.  This drive on the Panamerican was much different as we hugged the coast after emerging from the desert.   We would enter stretches of road carved into the side of a cliff with sheer 1000 foot drops to the ocean on one side, and a rock wall 1000 ft. high on the other.  As usual, there are minimal shoulders and giant semis constantly passing eachother.  There was absolutely no margin for error and I found myself becoming claustrophobic. I was so glad the kids were asleep because both Ross and I were terrified at points!

Made it safely to Camana and stayed a night in some sketch lodging.  Up the next morning and headed to Arequipa.  We were thrilled to arrive and find our Airbnb spot tucked away in a quiet part of the neighborhood called Cayma. Our Airbnb experiences so far have been fantastic and we highly recommend it!