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Published: August 8th 2007
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I am over a week behind in updating this thing, so I was going to try and squish a whole bunch into one entry, but it got long and the internet for uploading photos is super slow so I’m breaking it into two parts. Bear with me.
The thing about Cusco is that it is the kind of place that can suck you in and keep you forever. I loved it, it had all the things that I need to be comfortable, and I could have spent days if not weeks just wandering the streets and being mellow. Good people, good times. On Sunday I did the city tour, which was the last thing I really wanted to get done, so I decided it was time to pry myself away. I went first thing Monday morning to the bus station and bought a ticket to Nazca. I allowed myself the indulgence of the later bus so that I would have one last day in Cusco. What a mistake (Not the day in Cusco, that was really nice. I hung out with my Irish friends from the trek and we hit up 3 bizarre museums in the city. ) but the
later bus itself was a bad call.
It was supposed to leave at 6:00pm and get in at 9:00am the next morning. Well, it left at 6:00pm but didn’t get in until 11:53 pm the next night. That’s a 30 hour trip! In the middle of the first night we got stopped at what looked like a landslide. We had to turn around and go spend the rest of that night and until noon the next day in a parking lot in a nearby town. I couldn’t get anyone to explain anything until the next morning, but basically the teachers were striking and had blocked the road with a huge number of rocks and themselves.
People were very adamant that we get through on Tuesday, because Wednesday was a National General Strike and the whole country would be shut down. We had to wait for word from the police that all was clear. When we did finally get through there were rocks that looked like mini landslides ALL over the roads--we went through weaving and swerving as sometimes they had been pushed to one side, and sometimes to the other. And sometimes we had to stop and our
Waiting
The locked lot the bus waited hours in. bus people had to push them aside. It was great fun for super motion sick me. I don’t really understand how they did it. There were so many rocks for such a long distance, the human power to get that done must have been huge. Rock on Teachers of Perú!!!
From that point on the trip became truly comical. We were stopping for something all the time. We had a flat (though admittedly it was a pretty darn good spot for a flat,) then there was lunch, there was every imaginable animal in the road (donkeys, cows, llamas, alpacas, etc.) it started snowing, we had other "technical problems" that lead to pouring water on the engine. Sometimes we stopped for what appeared to be no reason at all. The French guy next to me was wondering if there was a hidden camera watching our reactions. Luckily I was in the front because there was a screaming child on the back who had a 30 hour tantrum--plus I was at the front window on the second level so I had a great view of all the chaos.
But, the best part of the trip was when it was time
for Bingo. And if Bingo in hour 23 of a bus trip isn’t exciting enough for you, the grand prize is a return trip on the bus from Lima to Cusco. Then, to liven it up even more, the game also involved singing, joke telling and a toothbrush scavenger hunt. Truly a new experience for me!
The first morning in Nazca I was still really sick and since I had been on the bus I hadn't eaten anything at all for over three days. I asked for a recommendation and headed to the doctor. I went to Red Cross, was seen quickly for just over $2.00, and sent to the pharmacy to buy about $9.00 worth of medicines to kill the parasites I had. I consider the Doctor a miracle worker. I had so little faith that the 4 pills he had me buy were going to do anything. I swear at home it would have taken 3 times as long, twice as much money (even just for the co pay) and I would still be sick the next day. But here I was, fixed by lunch. Good as new. And boy did it feel good to eat. I
The spot we had the flat
We all headed to the river to wait. went on a major avocado and chocolate binge--healthy I know!
The doctor situation had been so quick that I managed to make it back in time to get a flight over the Nazca lines that same morning. This was a bit of a crazy experience. It wasn’t quite as neat as I’d expected, but it was worth doing and I would have been left wanting to do it if I had missed out. The Nazca lines are these pretty awesome shapes of animals, plants, and geometric designs in the desert made long ago by taking the darker stones off the top and leaving lighter lines. There are lots of theories about who made them and why but they have to be seen from the air. So, tourists now pay to fly in these teeny tiny 6 seater airplanes and view the lines from above. Luckily the doctor had prescribed me a pill for nausea and I was sitting in the front next to the pilot. Both things I think that helped me from being too sick, because the plane was very unstable. I have video from inside that’s pretty funny, I’ll share when I get home.
This was
Wednesday, so there was also a big march. Seriously, teachers here know how to make people notice.
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