Today we arrived at a desolate cruise port, General San Martin (Pisco). There is nothing near the cruise port and not many taxis, if any, are waiting nearby. You need to arrange any private transportation in advance. The ship offered a shuttle (about 30 minutes) to the town of Pisco, but there doesn’t seem to be very much of interest here.
NOTE: Before we moored at General San Martin at 9 AM, we anchored near the Islas Ballestas to put the ships Zodiac boats in the water for a sighting excursion near the island for $199. More information HERE
Islas BallestasShip Zodiac Tour
I suspect that the main reason for stopping here was to allow the people who went on the overnight to Machu Picchu to return and provide an opportunity for guests to take an aerial tour of the NAZCA Lines.
NAZCA Line Tours
The ship offers a NAZCA Lines tour for $799, but we were able to find a package online from a company called Nazca Flights for $310. More information HERE. They used an airline company called Aerodiana which has a website HERE. It may be possible to book directly with the airline, but I was never able to establish contact with them to find out their pricing. Nazca Flights arranged for a driver – it turned out to be someone in a private car – to pick us up from the port, take us to the airport and return. The whole experience took about 4 hours from pick-up to return. One of the negatives of this company was that we didn’t know the exact flight time until the night before. When booking with this company make sure you are clear when the ship will be in port, so they don’t assign you a flight that will risk you missing the ship.
General San Martin
The Quest arrived at General San Martin at 9:00 AM and was scheduled to depart at 7:00 PM. Our departure time was originally scheduled for 6:00 PM and when I received the email with our pickup time for our NAZCA tour of 1:30 PM, I was a little concerned since that would put us back at the port exactly at the all aboard time – a little closer than I prefer. Fortunately, when the Daily Herald arrived, the ship’s departure was an hour later than expected, so we would have a nice buffer. As it turned out, we left the ship at 1:30 PM and returned at 5:32 PM, so we would have been OK in any event, but it was nice to have a little more time in reserve.
The Seabourn Quest from a distance at this desolate port
NOTE: The ship always has water bottles available near the gangway on Deck four, so it is easy to grab one on leaving the ship. The all aboard time is displayed on a flat screen TV near where our room cards are scanned when leaving the ship and we always take a picture of this sign with our phone to avoid any confusion later about the all aboard time. Sometimes, the time will change from what was published before the cruise, or in some cases after we’ve sailed, and if you leave the ship without taking that picture, you may have a “discussion” later as different people will remember different all aboard times. A quick picture snapped on a phone is useful to clear up any confusion. Our room key also has the ships phone number which could be used if necessary, and if you do ever find yourselves delayed, you should always call the ship an keep them apprised of your situation.
At 1:20 PM we left the ship and found our driver immediately. There were only a few other vehicles along with a small tent with someone selling local wares. The drive to the Pisco airport took about 30 minutes. There wasn’t any traffic, and from the looks of the town, I don’t think they ever get much traffic in this area. The driver didn’t speak much English, so there wasn’t a lot of commentary along the way.
The airport is modern (built in 2015) and much larger than current needs. There are large areas for ticket counters and baggage claim and the second floor, which is empty, has plenty or room for restaurants, shops and arrival gates. Unfortunately, it appears that the only scheduled flights are the small Cessna Caravan aircraft used for the NAZCA Line flights. Maybe they will get commercial air service in the future to justify the money they spent on such a nice airport terminal.
The Pisco airport has a lot of room for expansion
Checking in for our flight was a breeze and our driver helped us navigate the process, although that wouldn’t have been necessary since there was only one check-in counter open. They had us hop on a scale to get our weight – not disclosed or displayed – and asked our age, to assist in assigning seats based on our weight. On small aircraft this is more crucial than on larger aircraft. There is a small window around from the check-in counters to pay an airport departure tax, but our driver paid this as part of our total fare and he gave us a sticker that we gave the airline clerk that he put on our boarding passes.
The airport has signs for various restaurants and other services (none of which exist at the moment), there was, however, a small gift shop that also sold a few snacks in the waiting area.
Airport Snack Bar
Our flight was scheduled for 3 PM and they opened up Security at 2:30 to process the 8 people or so who would be on this flight. There weren’t any other flights boarding or arriving in the time we were there. Security screening was the same as you would find at any other airport.
We had a short wait at our gate before they called for our flight to board. There were only 8 people in the boarding area, which could easily hold 100 people, and we cracked up when the gate agent used the public address system (we were only 10 feet away) to tell us we should exit the boarding area and walk the 200 yards to our parked aircraft, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan.
Cessna Grand Caravan
Takeoff!
Once we were onboard, there was a short safety brief from the co-pilot who turned around in his seat to give the brief before they started the single engine turbo prop and we taxied to the runway for takeoff, taking off at 3:16 PM.
The aircraft isn’t pressurized, which wasn’t necessary, as we climbed to 7500 feet enroute to the NAZCA Lines area – about 30 minutes away. As we arrived in the NAZCA Lines area (at 3:53 PM), we descended to 2,500 to 3,000 feet above sea level with the elevation of the NAZCA Lines being about 1800 feet above sea level. This means we would be around 700 to 1100 feet above the Lines (ground).
Here is a scan of the brochure that we were given when we boarded the aircraft that shows the path of the aircraft over the Lines and the order in which we could expect to see them. This map is not to scale.
This is the map that they passed out on the airplane that showed the relative locations of the various lines
Here is a screen shot from MAPS.ME that shows the Lines in relationship to each other.
Overview of the NASCA lines and their relationship to the portThis map is the above map zoomed in on the linesMore zoom
Touring the Lines
As we approached each Line, the pilot would bank the aircraft quite steeply, probably 30 to 45 degrees, and announce that the particular Line was visible under the wing tip on either the left or right side. They would circle around so everyone had a chance to see each Line out the windows on each side of the aircraft. The Lines were hard to pick up, since the contrast between the Line and the surrounding terrain is small and the Lines are much smaller than we expected, even at this low altitude. Additionally, we only had 3-5 seconds to see the Line before the aircraft leveled or started to bank to the other side, and it took us a second or two before we could pick up the Line. Taking pictures was difficult as picking out the Lines thru a camera viewfinder was even more difficult. My advice is to forgo trying to take pictures and enjoy the spectacle while airborne and then find photos of what you saw on the internet later – they will be better pictures than you can take while on the aircraft as you can see from my examples here:
This photo is unretouched and shows how hard it can be to pick out the lines from the air
This is the same photo with the haze removed in Photoshop.The observation tower here allows you to see two of the NAZCA lines without taking an airplane flightThis line is called the Astronaut of Giant but some people think it is actually a crude depiction of a fisherman
We spent about 30 minutes flying over the various lines before we headed back to Pisco at 4:17 PM, landing about 30 minutes later at 4:51 PM. By the time we walked the 200 yards back to the terminal, used the restroom and walked to the curb outside the Terminal to meet our driver it was 5:05 PM. We arrived back at the ship at 5:32 PM.
On final approach at Pisco airport
First Time Seabourn Cruisers
At 6:00 PM in the Club, Seabourn hosted a reception for first time Seabourn Cruisers. We arrived about 6:15 and Jan, the Cruise Director, was just starting to speak and welcome everyone. She then introduced members of the various departments, shops and spa along with some of the staff entertainers. They served champagne and passed hors d’oeuvres.
Guest Lecturer
David Stansfield, one of the guest lecturers, had a presentation on Peru – Legacy of the Incas in the Grand Salon at 6:30 PM. We headed there after the new cruiser reception. We enjoyed David’s talk, but he covered a lot of history in a short period of time and we would have enjoyed him spending more time on a few topics rather than covering such a large time period.
David Stansfield
Dinner
For dinner this evening we chose the “Earth & Ocean at the Patio” venue next to the pool. Arriving around 7:30 we were seated alongside the pool on the ships starboard side. We found the area to be breezy and chilly. They provided blankets and had heat lamps above, but it was still not as comfortable as we would have preferred, but it was tolerable. If you come a little earlier, you can be seated near the forward end of the pool and get better protection from the wind and find more heat lamps in this area.
We selected the Yellowfin Tuna Ceviche for a starter followed by Tandoori Style Rotisserie Chicken. Both dishes were delicious and the service was outstanding. We decided to forgo desert here by the pool and head to the Seabourn Square coffee bar to get something sweet.
The shops were open, and we took a few minutes to browse. They have a nice selection of logo wear, dressy clothes and a full line of items for Antarctica. They also had a small selection of snacks for purchase which was something they didn’t sell on our recent Crystal Cruise – Crystal’s position was – why would you want to buy a snack when there is so much available 24/7?
Evening Show
After a brief stop in our cabin, we headed to the Grand Salon to see Davie Howes perform. He put on a wonderful show, playing the piano, trumpet, fluegelhorn and the pocket trumpet. He also plays percussion instruments and had a interesting bit where he was joined by the Seabourn drummer as they both donned yellow hard hats and they played “drums” on each other’s yellow hard hat.
Davie can take any object with a hollow tube, like a walker or folding chair, and play a tune by blowing thru one end. Davie’s show is high energy and a lot of fun.
