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Published: March 1st 2010
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The scenery as we got closer to Nazca.NASCA:
We eventually managed to get on a bus out of Cusco to Nasca. The bus was supposed to take 13 hours but it ended up taking 18. So when this is added to the time that we spent waiting in Cusco we actually arrived 32 hours after we had initially told the hostel that we would arrive. The journey actually wasn´t too bad and the bus even had air conditioning that seemed to come on just before things got unbearably hot. An added bonus was that the route from Cusco to Nasca included some very impressive scenery.
When we got to Nasca it was very hot and we were immediately accosted by locals trying to sell us icecreams or take us to hostels. The weather was completely at odds with the heavy rain that we had left behind in Cusco. We decided to walk to our hostel which was only about 7 or 8 blocks from the bus terminal. From the start I didn´t have a brilliant opinion of Nasca. The central plaza was nice and at night the fountains look good but apart from that, in my opinion, it felt like a unfriendly and slightly hostile place.
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One of the Nazca aquaducts. Nevertheless we did a tour of the aquaducts, which weren´t aquaducts as we know them. They were more like wells with spiral staircases for access. They were all connected by a main underground canal, it was very interesting. Our tour was arranged by the hostel we were staying at and our tour guide seemed very knowledgeable. However he had the slowest and most rattley car I have ever seen. It had the fuel tank in the boot and he mostly rolled, where possible, in neutral because he was low on fuel and the clutch was on its last legs. As well as the aquaducts our guide took us to see The Needles and some Inca ruins. The Needles are more lines in the desert that apparently point to sources of water in the mountains. I would definitely recommend doing this tour to anyone visiting Nazca. In the same afternoon we took the public bus out to the Nazca lines mirador. It only costs 2 Soles per person, each way and when you arrive you have to pay another 2 Soles per person to go up the mirador tower. From the tower you can see the "algae pattern", the "hands" and
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A beautiful lake on the way to Chavin. the "lizard". I wasn´t particularly impressed by them but I´m sure that if you´re happy to pay 50 dollars then you´ll get a much better picture from one of the airplane tours.
HUARAZ:
After Nazca we took the 7 hour bus to Lima. As we weren´t really bothered about seeing Lima we were lucky to get the last 2 seats on a bus to Huaraz the same evening. The next morning at 6:30am we arrived in Huaraz feeling quite dirty and tired. But we knew that we wanted to see the ruins at Chavin then leave as quickly as we possibly could. A man from Jhonny Tours offered us a tour to Chavin to see the ruins that sounded good and he said he´d also sell us tickets to Trujillo so that we could leave the same day. We decided that it would be just right for us. After some breakfast and a shower at a hotel we got in the tour bus and headed off.
The ride in the tour bus was very bumpy, not great for anyone who suffers from travel sickness. I don´t normally suffer from it but by the end I was feeling quite
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The ruins at Chavin. A brilliant day out! rough. I´m sure it didn´t help that we were sat right at the back of the bus though! Our tour took us to see the ruins at Chavin, which were very impressive. I especially liked seeing the underground chambers and tunnels. It was refreshing to see some ruins that haven´t been heavily refurbished as a large part of this site is underground anyway.
When we got back one of the men from the tour company walked us part way to the bus station and then gave us our tickets. To our horror about 10 minutes later we realised that the tour company had bought our tickets from a different company to the one that they had promised us. Not only that but the tickets had cost them 20% less than they had charged us. This made us really angry but when we returned to the office to question them, they had already shut up shop. Everyone in the office was so nice and friendly to us, but I assume that they do that to prevent you from suspecting any foul play, and I´d imagine that a lot of tourists don´t even realise that they´ve been swindled. It just leaves
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A view of Huaca del Sol from Huaca de la Luna. such a foul taste in your mouth. At 9pm that evening we left for Trujillo on a bus where it was prohibited to remove one´s shoes.
TRUJILLO:
We arrived in Trujillo and all we wanted to do was find a hotel then get a few hours sleep after our overnight bus journeys. We eventually did find one but when we tried to get to sleep someone on our floor started playing really loud music. I couldn´t believe how anyone could be so inconsiderate and when I went outside onto the corridor to investigate it turned out that it was some locals having a dance lesson in the communal area near our room. The music was so ridiculously loud that there was no chance of getting any sleep so we went to reception to complain. Here we found out that there was a dance competition on in the city over the weekend and this was the reason for the lessons. We also realised that moving rooms would be pointless as they were dancing on every floor of the hotel! After being assured by hotel staff that there would be no music after about 2pm we gave in and went out
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The incredible ruins of Huaca de la Luna, I was especially pleased to hear that they hadn´t been remodelled in any way. for some food with the plan of getting our much needed sleep later on.
We spent the afternoon visiting the pyramids. They are called Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol and it only takes about 15 minutes in a local collectivo to reach the site. Only Huaca de la Luna is open to visitors but it is possible to see the exterior of the other pyramid from the road. This turned out to be one of our favourite visits of our travels so far. We had a great guide and, as usual, I spent the duration of the tour struggling to understand her with my basic Spanish. However she spoke clearly and was obviously passionate about her job which always seems to help. Again, it was great to see a sight that hadn´t been remodelled in any way, just excavated. It was mindblowing to imagine a whole city underneath the surface of the desert and they are still in the process of uncovering parts of it at this site. Who knows what they might discover over the next decade!
After just one night in Trujillo we moved on to Cajamarca.
CAJAMARCA:
When we arrived at
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The beginning of the walk up to the Silla del Inca in Cajamarca. the bus station we booked tickets for the following afternoon to Chiclayo. It was a shame that we didn´t have more time to spend in Cajamarca but we were really pushing to get ourselves to Ecuador. We arrived late in the evening and found a brilliant hostel on the Plaza de Armas with a massive room for only 25 Soles per night. We spent the next morning seeing the Iglesia Belen, Cuarto de Rescate (Where the Inca Emperor Atahualpa was apparently held prisoner) and we also walked up to the Silla del Inca where there is a great view of the city.
MACHALA:
On my birthday we headed straight up from Chiclayo to Tumbes, which is the closest city to the border with Ecuador. So I spent the majority of my birthday travelling! We managed to cross the border the same evening that we arrived in Tumbes with no problems at all (mas o menos). Our transport took us up to the city of Machala in Ecuador and we spent a night there relaxing after our travelling. We now had another day to get to Ambato before we were due to start our volunteering with the foundation, Jovenes Para
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The view from the Nazca Lines mirador. El Futuro.
We didn´t see much at all of Machala. But what we did see wasn´t really attractive or friendly. The parts of the city that we saw had quite a hostile feeling to them. The main plaza isn´t anything special and we didn´t have time to see much more than this. Our hotel, however, did have air conditioning and cable tv so it was an OK place to stop and spend my birthday evening before completing our trip north to Ambato. The owners of the hotel were hilarious and the things that they talked to us about really outlined to us some of the cultural differences that exist between South America and back home. Due to our tight time constraints we caught the bus to Ambato after only spending a night and half a day in Machala.
For some reason the hotel owners booked us tickets with a rubbish bus company for this trip. The bus left very late and Amy and I didn´t get seats next to each other. When we asked the girl who had the seat next to Amy if she would swap she said that she would really prefer the window seat. We
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The main plaza in Nazca at night. ended up talking to her quite a lot during the journey and randomly she turned out to be half way through an Automotive Engineering degree (the same profession as me) in Riobamba. She was on her way back to her University in Riobamba as she lives in Machala. It was so strange as it´s fairly rare to meet another Automotive Engineer, let alone a female one!
AMBATO:
The bus arrived 3 hours late to Ambato and, when it did, Amy and I were asleep at the back of the bus. It was funny as we had to ask someone if we were in Ambato, just to make sure! This is the problem with the company specific bus terminals that they have in Peru and Ecuador, there´s never a large sign on the front saying which city you´re in.
Nevertheless, we had made it just in time. We spent the Sunday night in a dingy hotel on the outskirts of the city of Ambato and then on Monday morning we took a taxi to the Isabel Vasconez school in Ambato where we would be living and working for the next month.
Cue the next blog about our time
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Amy inside one of the chambers at Chavin...you can just make out our guide peering through from another chamber. spent volunteering in Ambato, which Amy is writing as I write this.
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