Nazca to Arequipa - Overflight & Overnight

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Day 9 - Nazca to Arequipa - Friday 10th October 2008

Jo was up first but I managed to wake about 0700. We were told the previous night that breakfast started at 0800 and we would be picked up at 0900 to be taken to the airport for our flight over the Nazca Lines. I skipped a shower because the 24 hour hot water wasn’t working at this early hour and by 0830 we figured that breakfast wasn’t going to materialise either. Two blocks from the hostel we managed to get breakfast of a few meat sandwiches and I ordered a white coffee that came out as a glass of hot milk (we’ve since found out that the syrupy compound on our table was the coffee). We returned to Friend’s Place just before 0900 only to be told that due to low cloud we would not be picked up until 1100. We took a brief stroll around town to take some photos before hitting the internet at the hostel to get the blog up to date and add some photos.

At 1100 our “guide” came in to advise us that we would now not be leaving until 1300 - even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! Finally we were shown into a tiny beaten up Daewoo at 1315 and taken the four kilometres to the airport where our man booked us in with one of the airlines and disappeared. We hadn’t heard anything more by 1400 and by 1410 my efforts to get some information came to naught as all of a sudden no one could speak English anymore. Our man showed up a few minutes later and told us (for the second time) that we would have to wait another half hour. I threw a Mike Tizzy (TM) and made it clear that we had better be on a plane by 1440. We didn’t see him again after that.

Our six seater Cessna flight finally took off at 1445. We boarded with three Chinese blokes who - as luck would have it - spoke no English and couldn’t understand when our pilot asked who wanted to ride shotgun with him. My hand shot up so quickly our Chinese friends had no show whatsoever.

The Nazca Lines probably date back to somewhere between 900BC and 600AD and are a series of shapes, lines and drawings made in the sands of the desert for reasons yet unknown. Some theorise that the symbols have religious meanings, others that they are some type of calendar whilst others again believe that they were functional irrigation systems in an area of desert that gets only 30 minutes of rainfall each year. Amongst the more recognisable shapes are a monkey, a condor, a dog and a tree.

To give an idea of the scale of the designs, the Pan Americana Highway runs right through the middle of the lizards tail as road constructors didn’t even notice the designs existed from ground level. The lines were only rediscovered when early commercial flights took place in the area in the 1920´s.

I took some video but no still photos as I figured that on a bright sunny day and shooting through a plane window we would be better buying postcards. Our pilot banked the plane at huge angles and circled most of the figures on both sides ensuring all aboard got a good view. Unfortunately the light aircrafts manoeuvrability wasn’t doing wonders for Jo’s stomach and after landing she needed 15 minutes sitting down before her skin changed from green through white and back to regular.

Outside the terminal we found our guide had been replaced by one of the guys from our hostel who arranged a lift for us back to Friend’s Place where he made Jo a coca tea to settle her.

On the balcony of the hostel we met David, an Irish backpacker and we shared travel yarns before heading to a restaurant for a bite to eat - Jo’s dish of chicken and rice was excellent. I tried a Cusquena Negra, a dark version of the beer we’d had once or twice since arriving in Peru. It was dark and thick like a stout but had a lighter taste - the best beer I’ve had this trip and much better than the standard pilsners that seem to be popular in South America. David had travelled in Colombia in the past and relayed stories of good and safe times there so I’ve got my fingers crossed for a future trip.

Our last tourist stop in Nazca was the 1900 English version of a lecture about the Nazca Lines at Planetarium Maria Reiche where our lecturer spent 30 minutes explaining in great detail that they’re fucked if they know what the lines are for.

We collected our packs from Friend’s House, left them at the bus station and had a few coffees in a cafe across the road until our 2330 bus showed up only 20 minutes late for the eight hour trip to Arequipa.

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