Nasca

We arrived in Nasca after a two-hour pleasant ride on our now, local bus 'Cruz de Sol'. People from the hostel we’d booked with greeted us and they drove us to our accommodation.

Nasca is a small and dusty town and on arriving, there seemed very little to do, so we decided to go for a leisurely, long lunch. This resulted in E-J sending her steak back to the kitchen three times, falling into a tantrum and believing that the chef may have added some "secret ingredients" not to her liking! Eventually, she got what she wanted much to the waiters apologies and relief.

In the evening we conversed with the Hostel owner, who was a charming but mad Belgium. Every other word was a swear word and despite living in Peru for seven years, he could not provide one compliment to either the country or the people! He enjoyed talking with English people and about Faulty Towers! However, after telling us that the Hostel was a shithole we decided to go to bed!

Leaving the hostel at 08:00 am, we were told that we would not be flying until 12:00 pm, due to the morning overcast and the backlog of flights.

At last, after a brief video about the lines’ history and a warning that many people experienced sickness during the flight, the time arrived and before we knew it we were inside a small, four man aircraft with the faint smell of sick.

Once in the sky, we felt we were on a fairground ride as the plane would suddenly rise and then fall leaving our stomachs behind, but also adding an amazing adrenaline rush. The pilot would turn the plane practically upside down in order to show us the lines on the ground and simultaneously a warning, bleeping sound would be heard from the plane, due to the dramatic angle we were flying at. Then the pilot would turn round to us in the back, saying, 'You see the lines, yes?' to which point we would respond yes, whether we had or not, so that he would turn around and concentrate on the flying, before we spiraled to the ground!

We had imagined the lines to be massive shapes across the landscape, but in fact they were very small and you had to really concentrate to see them. Some were more prominent than others.

Despite the faint and smallness of the lines, E-J thought it was amazing to see images of animals on the ground, which had been created so many years before and their purpose still not truly known. Sam was just relieved to be back on the ground without breaking a bone in his hand, after thirty-five minutes of intense squeezing by E-J!

After the lines and a quick photo with the pilot, who seemed to enjoy having his arms wrapped around E-J, we headed back to the hostel. We chilled out in the afternoon, although this was briefly disrupted when we bumped into the American, Kendal (from the Guayaquil to Lima bus)

That evening, we decided it was about time we make the effort to go out for an evening and for a few beers, but when wandering the streets of Nasca we were amazed by what a ghost town it seemed. All the restaurants and bars were empty or had just a couple of people in them. Feeling defeated and expecting the tumbleweed to blow across our paths, we decided to pop into one bar for a quick pint before we headed back. On arriving, we spotted Michelle and Dave, a couple from Newcastle, who were staying at the same hostel as us. We joined them and before we knew it we were in a full swing of conversation about everything and anything. This continued into the early hours of the morning, with the shutters down and the door almost closed, the bar tender finally had to ask us to leave.

The next day we meet up with Dave and Michelle again and decided to do a tour together. After being to several tour agents who seemed exceptionally expensive, we were convinced we could organise it by ourselves. We all agreed to go to the Cementerio de Chauchilla, to see the ancient Nascan mummies. None of us however, had remembered to write down the actual spelling of the place, but feeling confident that by flagging down a taxi and saying 'Cemmetria´ we would arrive at our destination. The taxi driver seemed to understand us and pleased with our Spanish skills set off for the Cemetery. It was only when we reached the local cemetery on the outskirts of Nasca, that we realised we were very wrong. The next five minutes involved all five of us becoming very confused and the driver struggling to comprehend anything we said. Sam, thinking he was the most practiced at Spanish told Michelle, Dave and E-J that he would deal with this, to which point he started making the motions of wrapping something around his head at the same time as saying 'Mummariers, Mummariers!?'. The driver looked even more confused at which point we realised there was no way of communicating this to him, so instead E-J piped up with 'aqueducts?’ To everyone’s relief he understood this and headed in the direction of the aqueducts.

On arriving at the aqueducts it was like a barren landscape and the owner, looked slightly confused to see us. With little Spanish from all of us and little English from him, the tour was explained through single words and gestures.

The aqueducts were fascinating to see at first, but once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Afterwards a young girl was able to organise a taxi for us to take us to the correct cemetery.

On arriving at the Cementerio de Chauchilla, we were able to tag onto a tour group with a very animated guide. Sam got the giggles throughout the majority of the tour and by the end of it, I don’t think any of us four were popular with the group. We all found these mummeries rather disturbing. Their bodies were so well preserved, still with their hair on their heads and partially dried skin on their bodies. It felt very voyeuristic to be walking around this place looking at dead people.

After a brief breakdown of our taxi, we returned to Nasca. A quick drink and a bite to eat was all we had time for before heading to our overnight bus to Arequipa.

At 10:30 pm we made our way to the bus stop to be told that it was going to be twenty minutes late. Sam and Dave thought it would be a good idea to go and have a quick pint while waiting in the bar across from the bus terminal while E-J and Michelle decided to stay with the bags. The bus arrived twenty minutes later and the bags got loaded onto the bus. As people started to load on, Michelle and E-J began to panic about where the boys were as they were nowhere to be seen. With the bus practically boarded E-J quickly ran into the bar across the road and tried to find the boys, but to no joy. The bus was now loaded up and so were our bags. Michelle and E-J begged the bus to wait a bit longer, but the driver was furious as he was on his way from Lima and already behind schedule. Fifteen minutes later and still no show of the boys, the girls asked if they could get the bags off the bus, but the guy at the gate said no. Distraught and worried, E-J and Michelle boarded the bus after the guy at the gate had told them that luckily there was another bus going to Arequipa in thirty minutes and he would put Sam and Dave on it when they arrived. E-J and Michelle both sat, frozen and panicking about whether the boys were ok. E-J turned her phone on in the hope that Sam might call and forty-five minutes after the departure she got the call. Relieved to know they were ok, the girls were both absolutely furious!

Sams Comments: Sitting in the bar hearing Dave say " I would like to have another beer, but I don’t want to take the mick with the girls" was a comment that rang through my ears along with E-J’s comments of disappointment for quite a few days!

E-J Comments: The airplane was quite an experience and a good way to overcome my fear of flying. I don’t think I would have enjoyed my time in Nasca as much if we hadn’t bumped into Dave and Michelle, the four of us definitely have a way of making it memorable!