Hola from Arequipa. We had a 9 hour crummy bus ride to get here from Nazca, should have spent the extra 15 soles each on the luxury bus! But at least we got away from Nazca.
The whole place was a bit surreal actually, kind of wild wild west. I half expected the theme from the good the bad and the ugly to be playing in the streets, it was certainly playing in my head. It was a very dusty, dry town, hot, and kind of pointless. I guess if the nazca lines weren´t here it would be totally pointless, except for maybe a fuel stop on the Pan American Highway. It is next to what the locals told us is the world´s highest sand dune, and given that the sand dune dwarfed the massive barren mountains, I suspect that they were right.
We arived on the overnight bus from Cuzco, at about 8.20, and hour early, so we sat at the bus stop waiting for our ride to the hotel. The bus was deluxe, I mean, really super deluxe, black leather look reclining chairs, only three across the width of it so they were huge. A meal, which Richard ate both of as I was feeling a little bit off colour, either from some sort of bug, or too many cuba libres on our last night in Cuzco.
So they picked us up an hour later and took us to the hotel, the "Walk on Inn", where our room was not ready so they let us use another room until it was. Where we both slept, as comfy as the bus was, twisting and turning through mountains for 12 hours does not make for a restful sleep. The girl at the reception offered us a flight over the lines for $45 including return trip to the hotel, so we took it, she said they would come to get us at 2. At about 1 we moved up to our new room, thank god, as the temporary one was like a sauna. Two minutes later the guy arrived, just a little early, to pick us up. Off we went in the standard Daewoo Tico Taxi to the Aiport. So we paid him, and sat around under a tree waiting for someone to come and get us for the flight. Moments of panic set in, as our guy was no where in sight, no one but a few pilots hanging around, thinking we had just been fleeced of 300 soles. But surely enough, another taxi with someone else rocked up and it was off accross the road to our plane. Our very small, very hot, single engine cessna.
The whole place was a bit surreal actually, kind of wild wild west. I half expected the theme from the good the bad and the ugly to be playing in the streets, it was certainly playing in my head. It was a very dusty, dry town, hot, and kind of pointless. I guess if the nazca lines weren´t here it would be totally pointless, except for maybe a fuel stop on the Pan American Highway. It is next to what the locals told us is the world´s highest sand dune, and given that the sand dune dwarfed the massive barren mountains, I suspect that they were right.
We arived on the overnight bus from Cuzco, at about 8.20, and hour early, so we sat at the bus stop waiting for our ride to the hotel. The bus was deluxe, I mean, really super deluxe, black leather look reclining chairs, only three across the width of it so they were huge. A meal, which Richard ate both of as I was feeling a little bit off colour, either from some sort of bug, or too many cuba libres on our last night in Cuzco.
So they picked us up an hour later and took us to the hotel, the "Walk on Inn", where our room was not ready so they let us use another room until it was. Where we both slept, as comfy as the bus was, twisting and turning through mountains for 12 hours does not make for a restful sleep. The girl at the reception offered us a flight over the lines for $45 including return trip to the hotel, so we took it, she said they would come to get us at 2. At about 1 we moved up to our new room, thank god, as the temporary one was like a sauna. Two minutes later the guy arrived, just a little early, to pick us up. Off we went in the standard Daewoo Tico Taxi to the Aiport. So we paid him, and sat around under a tree waiting for someone to come and get us for the flight. Moments of panic set in, as our guy was no where in sight, no one but a few pilots hanging around, thinking we had just been fleeced of 300 soles. But surely enough, another taxi with someone else rocked up and it was off accross the road to our plane. Our very small, very hot, single engine cessna.
I used to love flying when I was younger, but it seems the older I get, the sookier I get, and this little thing scared the crap out of me. Richard and I piled into the back, and the other guy into the front. Bumpity bumpity bump down the run way, this isn´t the bit that scared me, it was the impending landing. So we are flying off towards the freaky weird nazca lines, all sorts of creatures and shapes made by some weird people long ago, by removing the dark stones of the desert suface and exposing the lighter stuff underneath. Our pilot duly pointed out many recognisable shapes, the astronaut, the whale, hummingbird, condor, monkey, etc etc, flying in crazy circles so that we could view them from both sides of the plane. Plus, as we were flying over a desert, there were all sorts of rushing up and down drafts pushing us all over the place, said upset stomach not dealing with this aspect very well. More so than the strange creatures, I was intrigued by the sheer number of lines just going everywhere, dead straight over hills for miles, and odd tringles and polygons and spirals. Very interesting. I only wished I was not so motion sick/hungover/generally unwell to appreciate them.
That s supposedly an astronaut, but what the hell they were doing drawing masive pictures of astronauts I don´t know. I think it looks more like an owl with gumboots on.Landed, safe and sound, no injuries apart from my fingernails digging into Richard´s knee, then into the taxi and back to the hotel by 3pm.
It was all a bit surreal still.
We showered and got ourselves organised to wander around town, and it suddenly struck us that maybe we could get a night bus out of there that night instead of the following, as there really was nothing else to do at all. Town power was out, mobile network down, so the ticket offices weren´t work, come back in an hour they told us. We came back, and he managed to write us a ticket by hand, the phone network back up by now so he could check seats. Brilliant, we were going that night. Even as we checked out, they did not charge us the full room rate, and the girl at the desk said "yes, there really is nothing to do here".
Nazcan security system for motorbikes. Yes, he barked at us after we took the photo.Called ahead to Arequipa to reserve a room, half in Spanish half in English, but I got the impression they would pick us up at the bus, which they did, lovely. We crashed into our room, onto the most comfortable bed we have slept on since leaving australia, and slept for about six hours.
We´ve been for a walk around town, found a supermarket, and had dinner in a dodgy little kind of fast food grill shop, chicken, steak, and chips, it was ok. Tomorrow we will explore properly, and I will try and get my camera to the flashest looking internet cafe I can find as to upload a heap of photos. (Did that)
Buenos Noches!
1 comment:
I saw those lines on a documentary a couple of weeks ago. They're pretty amazing.
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