Nazca Lines

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Day 49-24th October

Well we were rather abruptly woken up by the bus’s trolly dolly that we were at Nazca so we bid the girls goodbye and a safe journey and exited the bus... off the bus went and we were left at 06:00 in the middle of a dusty town with no real plans other than to get a plane over the lines so we immediately jumped in a cab and raced for the airport excited as two little school children on the way to Disneyland.
Although very early there were a couple of companies selling tickets so Liz went through the names of the reputable companies to use, Air Diana, Travel Air, Aero Paracas and finally Air Perunas. All others were off limits as they had failed safety checks after the recent crashes. We went to Air Diana first but they were busy trying to get a big group of tourists weighed so we went to Aero Paracas who had just opened up in the meantime.. I think the woman was late.
She couldn’t get her chip and pin machine to work and we hadn’t thought to get cash but an old man who I assume owns the company said not to worry we could pay after the flight so he rushed us through the whole process... and we ended up on a 12 seater Air Diana plane anyway!, I guess they just pool together to make up the numbers, the flight only lasted about 35mins and cost 105 pounds for both of us but was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was worth it I honestly couldn’t describe how much I enjoyed weaving around in the air in this nimble little plane taking pictures of the ancient lines I could have spent all day up there, Disneyland hasn’t got a patch on the Nazca plane and both Liz and I got some pretty cool pictures. Thank you so much Anne and Bob (Grandma and Grandpa!), it was absolutely amazing and hope the pictures do it a bit of justice!

When we got back on the ground it was still only about 09:30 the old man drove us back into town to a cash point and we had to pay at the office which was actually a hotel reception... a little odd I admit and we were confused throughout the whole process but it worked and we then just had to figure out what to do next! We didn’t know very much about the town its self but we had seen a Cruz del Sur office (Cruz del Sur is a very good bus company we had heard of) so we headed there hoping a bus to Cusco would be along soon... hmmm sadly not we had until around 21:30 to wait and it was still only about 10:00, they let us leave our bags there under lock and key but it was certainly going to be hard finding something to top our last couple of hours but so help us we would try to find something decent to do for the day... just as soon as we had some breakfast inside us we had been so excited to go up in the air that we’d forgotten to eat first! We started to wander into town and stopped at a cafe to order some food.

As we waited for our breakfast to be brought to us (which seemed to take forever) a total of three beggars came in off the street to ask us for money, the first was an old lady who wasn’t too persistent, the second an old man who just stood there looking forlorn for about five minutes and then a guy about my age came in and saw the SLR camera, at first he was polite enough and advised me to put it away and guard it and then he asked us to buy some sweets from him, although grateful for the advise about the camera we didn’t have any change which I told him but he wasn’t taking no for an answer and after a minute or two of telling me in Spanish that I had money to buy food so why not money for his sweets he started to get a little aggressive and the mood definitely changed, it was the first time we have actually come across this in South America and although nothing I couldn’t handle I stood my ground and was considering getting out of my chair and standing up at the ready before it got out of hand he eventually left, Liz was visibly a bit shaken by this and I was furious and expected to bump into him again at some point during the whole day we had to spend in this tiny little town so after we’d eaten and had our bubbles burst somewhat we wandered up to the main square to try and find a bar of some kind that was not leaving us walking ATM’s in full view of every beggar and his uncle but to no avail, then I remembered walking past a very posh looking hotel that Liz had mentioned at the time as being the famous Nazca Hotel that although pricey was very highly recommended in her travel guide book... “they must have a bar” I said, “Lets try our luck” Liz tentatively agreed and we wandered back to it, as bold as brass I walked in and up to the reception and asked where the bar was (by now it was midday so I didn’t look like too much of an alcoholic) the receptionist didn’t look phased by this at all and told me where it was, looking back at Liz with a wink I said “through here darling” without meaning to blow my trumpet too much within five minutes we were both sitting by a pool with ice cold beer’s out of sight of anyone who might want to bother us and we proceeded to spend the rest of the day there getting rather pickled in the sun and on cocktails, eventually the staff figured out that we weren’t residents but didn’t mind as we’d already racked up quite a bar bill and weren’t any trouble, they were happy for us to have lunch there too and the food was as good as the atmosphere, it truly is a lovely little hotel and I would recommend it to anyone who can afford to stay there. Throughout the day many Hummingbirds came in and stole nectar from the flowers allowing me to take pictures (they are most certainly my favourite birds now) the day had gone from amazing, to bad and right back to amazing. We stayed until dusk and headed back to the Cruz del Sur office to wait the last couple of hours for our bus and let the cocktails wear off a little.

When our bus finally arrived (it was 45mins late) we boarded and went through the most stringent security we’ve come across yet, more so than in some airports! The seats were plush leather and we watched a film and went straight to sleep headed for Cusco and eventually the Inca trail!
Ellz xxxxx

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Comments

[Nick Payne]

tight lines
I'm enjoying this, pity it wasn't around in my travelling days.. Hmm , maybe on second thoughts, keep it coming guys,, '..will the Flash and his sexy sidekick track down Mr. Grande, will Ginger and Algy suffocate under the bags of leaves tied to their heaDS. tUNE IN FOR MORE ADVENTURES OF fLASHeLLZ AND LIZ DAN DA DA DAAAAN!!!