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Published: March 17th 2013
The overnight bus ride from Arequipa to Nazca was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. The seats were comfortable and reclined. The bad part is that when the person in front of me reclined all the way back, it crunched my knees so much that I couldn't sit with my knees forward. I used positions such as hanging over the armrest into the aisle, or propping my foot on the back of his armrest. One thing I thought was odd was that the driver videotaped each passenger while saying what seat number that person was in. I have no idea what that was all about. We left Arequipa at 9:30 and arrived in Nazca around 7.
Although I was not able to check into the hotel until 2, they let me stash my luggage there. I changed into short sleeves and added some sunblock and was ready to hit the town. Honestly, what I was ready to do was to take a flight over the famous Nazca Lines. Reception called a company and by 8:15 I was on my way to the airport. The airport was filled with people waiting to be called into the departure area. It
The Cessna 207A
It is all set for our flightwas over an hour before my group of 5 people were ready to head out to our Cessna aircraft. Each of us had been weighed, so we were assigned our seats according to that. I was right behind the pilot, so had a great view of not only the Lines, but also of what the pilot was doing. Try as hard as I could, I was not able to remember the last time I went up in a small airplane that didn't end with me climbing out midair and letting go to skydive to the earth. It's a good thing that wasn't an option today, because I just wasn't up for all that hoopla.
Flying over the Nazca Lines was a very surreal experience. I have heard about them, seen pictures, watched documentaries, but never thought I would see them in person. The copilot would talk to us through headphones and gave very detailed information as to when and where the lines would be. Some of them were easy to see, while others were more difficult to pick out. The first one we saw was the whale. And sure enough, I saw it. The plane would dip over to
the right so that we could see it from the right side and then it would circle around and dip over to the left. I have read several blogs on this and know that all the circling and dipping can cause some motion sickness which is why I came prepared with my Dramamine. No worries for this roller coaster enthusiast. I actually think I would have been fine even without the Dramamine. Of all the lines, the hummingbird, probably the most famous, the monkey, the condor and the astronaut were the most visible. All in all we saw 12 of the Lines. The flight was a half hour and worth every minute it took to get here to Nazca.
After being dropped off at the hotel, I still had several hours to kill until I could check in. I did a quick walk around the town, and when I say quick, I mean there isn't much to see here. It was hot as all get out and I felt gross and grubby from spending the night on a bus and not being able to shower, wash or brush my teeth. Once 2:00 rolled around, I was able to check
in. After checking my TB account and emails, I thought I would take a quick nap before going to find something to eat. At midnight I woke up. My contacts were crusted to my eyes and I was fully clothed on top of the sheets right where I had plopped down to rest 8 hours earlier. Ugh. I must have been much more tired than I thought. At that point, I just cleaned up and went to bed for the rest of the night.
I took the next morning, Saturday I think although I have completely lost track of what day it is, to organize my pictures, write my Arequipa blog and catch up on email. To help the maids out, I went down to a small sitting area to do all of this, allowing them to get my room cleaned and off their list. It was quite peaceful sitting and doing this. I had tried to arrange a tour of the aqueducts and desert, but since I am only 1 person and no one else was signed up, I was not able to do it. Not to be deterred, I went walking down the tourist trap area until
I found a company that would take me out into the desert. We went to the Cahuachi Pyramids, an ancient adobe complex that is still being excavated. There are silos for grain built into the ground as well as aqueducts for water. Unfortunately there was not much to see at this site and the driver's English was about as good as my Spanish, meaning I didn't get all the information that he had. Still, it was very interesting to see. All of the blocks used for building this site were formed by hand; they did not use forms. After leaving there, we continued through the desert to an ancient aqueduct. This is way off the beaten path and obviously not visited by tourist too often. To get to it, we walked through ditches and fields along with several local Peruvians who were headed there to cool off and swim in the water. Although this is not the one shown in the documentary I had watched, it was just as impressive. Out in the middle of nowhere was this large spiral of stones leading down to an underground water source. I will post some pictures and hope you will find it
as interesting as I did.
After hoofing it through the hot desert, we drove to the Chauchilla cemetery where mummies are still sitting in their burial chambers. The mummies were originally buried with pottery, jewels and corn; however, looters have long since removed most of these. Some broken ceramics were still there, as well as some ancient corn. The mummies were still wrapped in the burial sacks. Some had long hair that is still there. it was a very unusual sight, but not as creepy as it may sound. They actually looked kind of peaceful sitting there in nicely built stone burial chambers. The wind picked up so much while we were there that the sand was blowing and pelting us. It really reinforced what a harsh place this is. By the time I was back in the car, my entire body was gritty with sand. I couldn't get it off no matter how much I brushed.
When I finally made it back to the hotel, I was thrashed. It wasn't until I had a good long shower that I felt up to foraging for food. I stupidly used a guide book to choose a couple restaurants. After
walking way off the beaten path, I opted to not go into the one that I did find. It was one of those moments when I just wasn't feeling it. No way I was climbing 3 flights of unmarked stairs up to what I hoped would be a restaurant. I listened to my inner warning system and headed back to the main drag. Eventually I did find a place and enjoyed a very nice bowl of vegetable soup and chicken Milanese while watching the parade of cars cruising the streets. Nazca is a very odd place. I know there must be lots of tourists here, but I can't see them. Not sure where they all are, but the people I see out on the streets all appear to be local Peruvians out enjoying their town. It isn't a bad thing at all, but seems unusual compared to some of the other places I have been. Anyhow, I am going to break Nazca into 2 blogs too. My attention span is around 1500 words and only 2 pages of pictures, so I think it's time to cut this one off and start a new one tomorrow.
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Ali
Ali Watters
It really is a whale!
With a road through the middle...