Flyin' Shoes

Today we head out to the Uros islands; floating reed structures that house native families. We’ll be overnighting with a family which I’m both excited and nervous about, as there’s no electricity and only basic toilet amenities – it’s also getting bloody cold at night.

Time to check out the hotel and wait for the tour operator to pick us up in 30 minutes. Think I’ll have some coca tea while I’m waiting, to see if that settles my stomach a little.

Time to check out of the hotel and a brief conversation with the front desk about unpaid drinks. I then had to relate the story about being woken the night before and the same question the guy asked me whom I paid. I think the morning desk would have argued, if I hadn’t been able to reel off the exact amount I paid the night before. They also tried the same deal with B, who thankfully told them the same as I had. Not that I would have argued all day over what would translate to a $10 bill, but it’s the principle, isn’t it.

The flight over the Nazca lines aboard a 6 seater Cessna had me a little nervous, with the stories I’d heard about the pilots turning hard and making rapid drops. It was pretty quick to get aboard the plane after the airport tax of 20 soles was paid (yet more mystery taxes, not included in the price) and about 5 minutes to reach the first of the lines.

The Nazca lines are smaller than I expected – it’s certainly a flight of fancy to think that these can only be seen from space, as they’re small enough to be hard to spot from the plane. Nevertheless, it’s still impressive that anyone could spot these puppies from the land and then dedicate a life to cleaning and understanding them.

The flight ended up being not so queasy and we hit the ground again, around 35 minutes after taking off. Walked the two blocks to the Cruz Del Sur compound, where I had to point and wave to the clerk who was saying we didn’t have a reservation after I showed him the purchase numbers. Some flapping later and he smirked and printed the tickets out; maybe hoping to have us pay twice? who knows.

Sitting down to wait for boarding, there was a crazy-friendly kid with downs syndrome, shaking hands with us all and patting people on the back. Had to laugh, when he sneezed hard into his hand, before shaking a girls hand in line.

The long coach trip was broken nicely with two pretty good movies and embarrassingly enough, drawing me into the third movie of The Little Mermaid. We did have a few slow areas to drive through, including one area next to the beach near Tanka (I think?), where the sand dunes had blown across the main highway, covering it with a few feet of sand. Short wait while this was bulldozed out the way and then it was back to overtaking on blind hairpin corners. It’s been nice to get out of the grime and smell of Nazca, for some dramatic coastline. The towns too, look in better shape, with well paved sidewalks and plenty of lighting. The houses still resembled square adobe structures with straw or tin roofs but looked much cleaner.

We were due to arrive in Arequipa at 11:30pm, which was 30 mins longer than the bus line had said in their email. We actually ended up arriving at 12:20am and ready for sleep. Getting to the hotel, for some reason the reservation had been deleted but we were offered another room. Despite the bed being too short (about 5’7″ for my 6″ frame)it was wonderfully soft and after taking advantage of the 4 soles beer in the room, I fell asleep within minutes of turning out the light. Tomorrow we get our proper room and hopefully I get to find an adapter for the laptop.

Jorge said to us in Lima, that Nazca was really a town built to cater for the lines; after spending a day here, I can certainly understand that statement.

The town is situated just off the Pan-American Highway, with nothing much more than dust and debris to its name.  Our guide would later inform us that agriculture and tourism are the two types of business in Nazca, with the first being possible (long-term), after aqueducts were built by the towns’ ancestors.  Prior to that, they had to carry water in, which seems a thankless task in this heat and dry sandy landscape.

Touts are baying for attention as soon as you step off the bus, offering flights, tours, and hotels.  After getting my bearings and figuring out where we were on the map, one of the touts helped direct us to the hotel, which was a five minute walk around the corner.  I expected to see a hand out for a tip but instead received a warm smile and thank-you.

There seemed to be some confusion that led to trouble booking in and the front desk just kept shaking their head for no reservation.  I don’t think they understood what internet reservation meant but finally got the message and took our details.  This was the first time it’s been necessary to use some Spanish and stumble our way through a conversation.  Wasn’t too bad, but could have been easier if I’d taken classes.

The room was really pleasant and just a few steps from the small pool out in the enclosed lawn.  I was quite looking forward to a dip after the flight, but the water was freezing, so I opted to go for a walk instead.

The roads in Nazca are terrible and look like you’re in the middle of Beruit.  I think they’re trying to pave some of these roads but it’s a thankless task, with the dry air and dust making everything dirty all the time.  Garbage, again, is piled up everywhere and people just don’t seem to care about either supplying or using some kind of disposal.  Another introduction I had, was to the crazy amount of stray dogs that are nosing in the rubbish piles for food – literally at least a few on every street.  Time to head back to the hotel and get the Chauchilla Cemetery tour.

Access to Chauchilla, takes 30 minutes back down the Pan-American and another 30 minutes on a dirt track to the burial sites.  Honestly, I have no idea how some of these cars make it across such terrain but they do.  The tour guide was a girl who was very knowledgeable and kept jabbering away for a good 15 minutes about the area, during the ride.  The transport, was a beat up car with a young male friend of the guide driving.

The burial sites are really quite splendid and worth the trip out, but the heat and spacing to walk between the graves, may want you cutting the trip to just a few of the more interesting remains.  Again, the guide was full of information about the history, culture, and meaning of some of the clothing and hair, so I consider the $20 cost a pretty decent deal.

After getting almost back to our hotel, there was a detour to visit both the pottery and gold museum.  While the first was informative (and the second pretty terrible), it was nothing more than a tourist hijack to lure you into buying overpriced crap.  I said we didn’t carry money and after a bit of shuffling around and waiting for our ‘guide’, we were driven back to the hotel for the evening.

After being warned in Lima that Nazca is a little dangerous at night, it seemed a good idea to stay in the hotel and try something local cuisine.  After looking at the menu, it would have been a better idea to go out, as they had mostly ‘American’ food but at least had Pisco sours to try.  The Pisco sours were excellent but the food was pretty dry, bland and hard.  Still, it was all we could manage for the evening so after finishing up, it was time for an early night.

One of the things I had forgotten about this kind of layout of hotel, is that you can hear plenty of noise, so it was difficult to get to sleep at first.  Finally managed to, only to be woken at 10:30 but the guy who served us and took our cash, asking us when we are going to pay the bill.  After explaining it was already paid, he seemed content with the answer and hung up. Sleep for the full night, finally happened around 11pm.