Cuzco and Nazca - Flight Club...

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lunes, 14 de junio
The GAP hotel was kind enough to let us check out at 11am despite our super late arrival and we checked into Bright Hostel fairly prompt (Dan is here having done the Jungle Trail). After putting our entire wardrobe into laundry we slept the entire day. Hayley got mad at me for not waking her up.

martes, 15 de junio
Having shunned Cuzco yesterday in favour of doing absolutely nothing we felt a sense of duty in exploring the town today. Sadly for itself Cuzco is famous solely for Machu Picchu - a shame since it's quite nice to look at. Kind of like Arequipa but with a different type of stone. Again the volume of churches is what dominates the city, especially the main square. It couldn't be less Inca if it proclaimed the Sun was not in fact the source of all life but actually just a lamplight the real God uses to look through his attic.

Aside from the central square there isn't a huge amount going on. Quiet cobblestoned streets are there to be savoured the next time we head to London but didn't hold the attention. Today the square is packed for some festival that our preschool Spanish isn't able to conclude upon as to its point but there's lots of colours. Oooo, and dancing. We watched and enjoyed in the comfort our cameras wouldn't end up at a Peruvian family wedding from the balcony of a cafe.

At lunch history ceased to be used for tourism and started writing itself. The World Cup 2010. It started a few days ago but the Incas didn't have satellite. We couldn't get a Machu Picture. There's lots of places in Cuzco advertising the games which has come as welcome relief since we weren't sure if they (Peru and Bolivia mostly) would take to it. In Argentina billboards were up in April. Here, not so. Anyway crisis averted.

We met up with Jasper, Alex and Laura (now 6 of 10 from the Salar trip) to watch Brazil v. North Korea. A heavy investment required for no return and bowel looseningly close at 2-1. Gambling is for suckers. We heard North Korea's crowd were just Chinese paid to wear shirts. Also that the team was banned from talking to the other team. Koreans good at Portuguese are they? Without books or internet? June 19th until the locals can watch it (presumably 70 minutes long with a different winner).

In the evening we went to an English bar (Norton's Rat), played darts and sank some ales.

miercoles, 16 de junio
Cuzco, nice to know you. Time to leave. On a night bus, something we swore we wouldn't do in Peru. Completely mugged on the cost too because there is only one super-safe company you can use.

For the time being we hit the square again with the unknown festivities still continuing. 2 solid days dancing, the calves here could be cut off to build churches with. Are they inventing colours too? It got hard to watch, eventually the volume of masseurs, world cup pubs, tour operators, artists, jelly sellers, beggars, fake sunglasses who swear they are real sellers, photographers and restauranteurs got a bit much. We found a bar on the quieter side of town to watch Uruguay versus South Africa.

Is this the worst World Cup so far? 1990 was supposedly cr*p but the English only remember the good bits of that. No-one can shoot, everyone dives and it's backs to the wall. Yawn.

In the evening we caught Cruz del Sur. They checked our passports and video'd us as safety measures. CCTV exists too. Fingers crossed. The entertainment treated us to a woman with huge boobs touring North Peru and stripping down to her bikini whenever she could. Which was often. Sweet dreams.

jueves, 17 de junio
As always with night bus, next day = write-off. We arrived in Nazca, booked a flight for the day after, watched some more football (France going home - nice!) with some sangria and slept. The life of a bum is not difficult.

viernes, 18 de junio
Did you enjoy how nonchalantly we mentioned a flight yesterday? This despite the fact flying turns me into a pneumatic drill of shaking? Not sure why, he is dropping depth charges. He contemplated not doing it for most of yesterday evening but resolved to just take it one step at a time. For the record, light aircraft are way worse than big planes. They crumple like paper and float like it too.

Should probably explain the plane thing. Nazca is home of the Nazca lines (funny, that), a collection of imprinted pictures in the nearby desert that are so large they can only be seen from up in the air. Nobody knows who put them there but the dashing American in the pre-flight video says that the geology is such that tyre marks still exist from the 1920s still, so it could have been as early as the Flintstones. Popular theories contend it is ancient astronomy or even messages to aliens. A more recent theory, spontaneously created today, suggests that it doesn't matter because it's a great way to extract money from tourists.

Despite the promise of flying together, Dan had to fly alone (expectation gap). The tiny little plane flew with just a front propeller. Hayley has done this before and therefore didn't put holes in the seat in front grabbing tightly after take-off bumpier than a bout of measles. At any point it feels like a sneeze would put us down. There are thousands of pictures (mostly animals) but the standard tour sees just the closest 12. To allow both sides of the plane to see the pilot flips the plane left the right. He forgot our stomachs. 7 animals in and I was done.

Batten down the hatches son before the German in front wears a new suit.

Truly unique, we won't see anything like this again.

The necessity of early flight left us with the afternoon to kill in Nazca. Luckily there's an England game on huh? We located to the same restaurant as yesterday where now we are treated like regulars getting banter from the owners and canvassers in their broken English. We're the only ones from the Motherland in here which is nice - no-one competing to be "more English" through aggression, racism or anti-German sentiment. I think back to my embarrassment in 2006 on Australian soil. For now I have promised to be on my own best behaviour, quelling the cursing characterised during Liverpool games.

It's later. What a motherf***ing, ****ing, stupid, ***-**** waste of time.

Nazca isn't much of a town and certainly offers little in entertainment. Its small square leads to just a few streets with anything on them (except dust - it's like the damned moon landings). We roamed around. It's official - South Americans love Hayley. Or at least her short shorts.

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Photos

The hummingbird
From up in the air

Hayley at the bus stop
She is usually scared of spiders