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Published: January 25th 2009
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Evan and I wake up early to catch our tour of the Nazca Lines. We head to the airport and get split up. It cost us each $60 USD for the tour which includes flight and transport to the airport, but not the airport tax which is 20 soles. I end up on a four person (including pilot) single engine aircraft. The flight is about 30 minutes and if you have a weak stomach I suggest you don't do this tour. If you do, do not eat breakfast!
Before we take off, the pilot points out the little barf bag for near each person should they need it. We take off and fly to towards the lines. The pilot tells us that he will circle the lines so that we can see them from the right and left side of the plane. He does this by banking the plane right and then left. And when I say banking I mean 90 degrees on the side. You get a great view of the lines, but it can make you throw up. Thank god no one in our plane throws up. It's actually very difficult to look at the lines and try
to take pictures from the front seat. I'm sure that it would be easier in the back seat.
Interesting side note: the stall engine light came on when the pilot was landing the plane. I don't know if this was a good or bad thing. At least we landed in one piece 😊.
After my flight, I need to wait for Evan. It's a bit of a wait, but that's okay as I need some time to rehydrate. After Evan's flight, we look for taxis to take us back to the hostel but can't find any, so we start walking in 30 C weather, in the middle of the desert. I wonder if this is a good idea? Evan has water but I don't. Hopefully we can make it back to town before I die of thirst. We make it past the main gate of the airport when an empty taxi drives up and picks us up. It cost us 3 soles to get dropped back to the hostel.
At the hostel, we bid Christine and her cousin goodbye as they are heading back to the hostel they stayed at the night before. They are going to
take it easy today before they catch their bus up to
Cuzco to do the
Inca Trail. The other hostel has a pool. I wish ours did too.
Evan and I venture out again in the hot sun to Cruz del Sur bus terminal for him to buy a bus ticket to Cuzco. I'm staying a few days as I'm trying to join dune buggy and sand boarding adventure. We get some lunch and then head to a museum. It's a very hot day. I'm sweating like a pig...I wonder if pigs sweat? I should look that up, but I digress... After a 10 minute walk from Plaza de Armas, we find the museum and go in. Entrance fee is 15 soles each and we get handed a binder with all the English translations to the exhibits. We learn everything about the Nazca Lines and how the ruins were excavated. We spend about 30 minutes in the museum. The museum has an aqua duct (still in use) in the garden behind the museum. The museum was informative, but not very impressive. The weird thing was that we were the only two customers in the museum. I don't know how they
keep it open as there were at least 3 people working there when we got there.
We head back to the hostel as there isn't much to do. Did I mention that we are in the middle of the desert? I spend most of the afternoon sleeping and writing in my journal. This is a really slow day. I meet Arpit; a student doing a graduate degree in physics at John Hopkins university in Baltimore. He is only traveling for two weeks (winter break) and has only traveled in Peru. I head out to the supermarket to break 100 soles. On the way back, I bump into Christine and her cousin. I only recognize them because Guillaume is carrying an Australian instrument. I walk with them for a bit, bid them farewell again...there seems to be a theme here...and head back to the hostel. Arpit is going to the Planetarium for a show about the Nazca Lines. Evan and I head out to dinner and find a hole in the wall place. We order food by walking up to the menu, that is written on a whiteboard, and point at what we want. We also try to order dios
cervaces, but the restaurant doesn't sell them. The owner actually offers to go buy them for us at the store, but we decide that would be too much trouble and order a large bottle of coke. Combined, our dinner costs 13 soles. Not bad.
By the way, if you are wondering what the conversion rate is: soles x 0.4 = CAD amount.
After dinner we head back to the hostel where I find out that I can get on the
Inca Jungle Trail for 693 soles. I do it considering it cost way more to do the Inca Trail. This looks to be the best alternative as I don't want to spend 6 days in Cusco waiting to go to
Quito.
I take Evan to the bus depot (Cruz del Sur; the most reliable buses in Peru), buy my overnight ticket to Cusco, and bid farewell to Evan. I will probably see him in Cusco. There seems to be a theme where I see people off. I wonder if that will change? Doing all these tours is getting a bit expensive, but it's definitely cheaper than doing it in North America. I had a slow start in Lima but
now I'm on my way 😊 I can't wait to go to the
Galapagos. I wonder what adventures I will do in South East Asia?
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YH4Life
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Well.....
It's a spider of course. LOL! Can't you see it? :)