A Fond Farewell to Nasca

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Our final day in Nasca was mostly spent in transit as we were booked on the night bus to Arequipa and had to check out of our comfy room at midday. The hotel looked after our packs for us while we wandered around town again and chatted to some of the many new friends we´ve made in the short time we´ve been here. Most tourists come and go after just one day in Nasca but if you stick around a bit longer, the locals really open their arms to you. Alas, we only managed to see Jordan briefly as he was out to guide an offical tour for most of the day, we had been hoping to drag him out for a meal or a drink with us before we left to say thanks for everything.

In the evening, we were delighted to find our favourite souvenir shop open again (it had been shut for one and a half days) as it was much cheaper than the other shops and we had taken a shine to the two sisters that run it. We must have spent a good hour inside trying to decided what not to buy (we wanted everything!) but had a lovely time chatting to one of the owners as we shopped. The people of Nasca really are so lovely; we´ll certainly miss them.

We finished our stay in Nasca with a leisurely dip in the hotel pool and at 10.30pm were at the bus station ready to catch our 11pm bus to Arequipa, Peru´s second largest city. We hadn´t been able to get seats on the fully booked posh Cruzero class bus so instead we got tickets for the slightly cheaper and less plush Imperial service. While we waited, we got chatting to an English couple fom Norwich who had also sold their house to fund their round the world trip - what are the odds?!

It seemed that Cruz del Sur were having a bit of trouble with the buses tonight and we were told that our Imperial service wouldn´t be coming to Nasca at all! Instead, they were sending a Cruzero bus for us so we got to go on the comfy bus after all despite paying 50 Soles less than we would have done. Cool! The bus was still late turning up and it was gone midnight before we were on our way. The Cruzero was really comfy and we soon dozed off in our luxury reclining seats.

At about 6am we were woken up and informed we would be changing buses, which was a bit worrying as we were in thew middle of nowhere but when we got off, we watched our packs get transferred to the Imperial bus that was waiting for us and then climbed on board. The difference in standard was immediately apparent. Although the Imperial was in no way dreadful, it was just a bog-standard coach with a lot less legroom. 3 hours later, we finally arrived in Arequipa. What a long day!

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