No escaping Bob

One of the few things that seems to be consistent in almost every country I have visited is that Bob Marley's music will always make an appearance at some point on the trip. I am sitting on a balcony outside our room at Mancora beach in northern Peru and I can hear Bob emanating from a nearby restaurant as has he has done from probably about half of those we have eaten at here. Maybe they think it helps nurture the free spirit, grungy type ethos they are trying to cultivate in this town. Judging by the number of dread-locked heads walking up and down the main drag, I think they are there. Our five days here has been really relaxing, but it's time to move on. We are heading south tomorrow to see the famous Nazca lines. Very excited about that.

4 days later:The Nazca lines were impressive but tough to photograph from a 5person plane doing a quick circuit tour. If only planes could hover like helicopters. Those Nazca folks were a kooky bunch too. Trapezoid, triangle, then monkey and "astronaut"? Its kind of fun too when the anthropologists cant make any more sense out of it than you can. This town does have the branding down. They've got the designs on park benches, bus stops, fountain tiles, you name it.

We also tried sandboarding. Kind of like snowboarding, but after every run you have to rewax the board because sand just isn't snow and you also have to schlep back up the dune each time. Our dune buggy driver seemed to love terrifying the tourists as he flew up and down the dunes. "Low center of gravity, it's not gonna flip", I kept reminding myself.

In case it wasn't prime time news over there, the US embassy in Peru sent out a warning a few days ago that a bunch of cocaine-funded Maoist rebels might just kidnap us if we go to Machu Picchu this month. Naturally just before we plan on going. So we are rerouting and will try to hit up that area towards the end. Hopefully these rebels will have gotten over this nonsense by then. The plan now is to study more Spanish in Arequipa.