Nazca & Huacachina

Day 150 – Possibly the most fun I’ve ever had.

Our night bus was more like a nightmare.  The road was windy the whole way and the driver seemed to think he was driving a go-cart instead of a road coach, a couple of times he cornered so hard we were thrown from our seats, no mean feat on a bus that size.  We arrived in Nazca tired and late despite the speed. 

Keen to make quick arrangements for a flight over the Nazca Lines we succumbed to the advances of a tout at the bus stop who promised we’d be on a plane within half an hour.  Two hours and a lot of stalling later, the three of us and three others finally boarded our tiny eight seater plane.  The front two seats were occupied by the pilot and co-pilot.  Up until a couple of months ago the co-pilot’s seat would have been occupied by a paying passenger, but the authorities changed the rules after a pilot had a heart attack in February and crashed killing himself and five unfortunate Chilean tourists (who were supposed to be doing the Inca Trail but had reorganised their plans after the landsides).

The Nazca Lines are a huge collection of lines and drawings strewn across the arid landscape around Nazca.  Archaeologists estimate that they were created over a period spanning from 900BC to 600AD, and the entire set includes over 800 lines, 300 geometric features and about 70 plant and animal drawings covering around 500 square kilometres of terrain.  Nobody can agree why the lines were created, theories speculate that they may be a giant astronomical calendar, special walking tracks associated with the religion of the day or extraterrestrial landing sites.  Whatever the reason they are quite incredible, not to mention mysterious, given they can only be properly appreciated from the air.  More information here.

Erin and Anna preparing for takeoff.

The rather unusual flight plan!

Trapezoids all supposedly pointing to some far-off water source.

‘The Astronaut’ – go figure.

The Monkey.

The Condor.

The Hummingbird.

 

After about thirty minutes we were back on the ground, me with vomit bag in hand!  Back in Nazca we quickly negotiated a ride to Huacachina in a classic old shared taxi.

Huacachina is a tiny little resort town set around a spring fed oasis amongst towering sand dunes.  The setting is something you’d imagine from 1001 Arabian Nights.  When we arrived one particularly aggressive tout scared us away from a hostel we probably would have otherwise stayed in.  Instead we ended up in a little family run place, the matriarch a young Peruvian woman who spoke excellent English and was married to an Englishman who she refused to leave Huacachina for – and why would you to go to England?!

Our principal objective in Huacachina was to go sandboarding, and with that lined up for later in the afternoon we headed down the street to share a delicious jug of frozen lemonade and splash around in the little pool.

The view from out the front of our hostel.

At 4:30pm our dune buggy rolled past the back door to pick us up.  After paying our ‘toll’ on the way out of town we rocketed up and over the first dune.  The ride was like being on a really noisy roller-coaster with no rails.  The driver shot over the top of dunes and we plummeted down the steep drop-offs, he floored it towards banked bends and slammed on the brakes moments before we shot off steep drops.

Huacachina sits on the edge of a vast expanse of dunes.

After a while whizzing around the dunes in the buggy our driver deposited us at the top of a huge dune and handed out our sandboards.  There was no real instruction, he just pointed down the hill and told us to go for it.  The snowboarders amongst us fared a little better, but apparently snowboarding skills were only of marginal assistance.  To get down you had two options, lie on the board, or stand on the board.  Erin stuck with lying down, I had a crack both ways.

 

 

Sunset over the dunes.

Back safe from the sandboarding and dune buggy ride we went for dinner with a few other backpackers at a restaurant on the lake.  Anna and I both had ceviche (fish ‘cooked’ in lemon, with red onion, chilli and coriander), it was delicious but left us both feeling a bit funny the next day.  After dinner we hit one of the local bars, but didn’t last very long after a terrible night’s sleep on the bus and a very eventful day.

What a bargain!

Machu Picchu

Day 147 – The expensive train

The recent landslides in this part of Peru have severely affected the the train system and train is the only way of getting to Aguas Callientes (Machu Picchu Village). So instead of catching a train from Cusco or Ollantaytambo as we might have otherwise done, we instead hopped in a taxi from Cusco which connected with a bus in Ollantaytambo, that in turn took us to the improvised train station at Piscacucho, the end of the road.

A shrine on the roof of a house in Ollantaytambo.

Our train waiting at Piscacucho, where the road ends and the repaired section of train line begins.

Our train ticket was our first example of the money leeching machine that is Machu Picchu, our two hour journey cost US$43 each (similar to our flight to Rurrenabaque for example, or about 1,000km on a First Class Peruvian bus). Given the money being made from this service the speediness with which Peru Rail had managed to repair this section of track was unsurprising, but impressive nonetheless seeing the extent of the landslides.

Railway tracks in the river.

Ruins of Llactapata as seen from the train.

One of the many landslides.

Aguas Calientes perched over the river that threatens to wash it away.

For dinner we chose one of the same-same pizza/pasta restaurants and introduced Anna to our favourite cocktails, Pisco Sour and Caipirinha! It was the only way to keep her awake... still suffering from jet lag.

Day 148 – The Great Inca Citadel: Machu Picchu

We got up early to try and beat the crowds, got lost trying to find the ticket office for the bus up the hill, but still made it to Machu Picchu pretty early. When we got there the site was covered in cloud, giving the place a pretty eerie feel.

Ruins peeking out from the mist.

The Temple of the Sun, one of the site’s few round buildings.

Crowds arriving at the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock.

Huayna Picchu (that’s the hill) emerging.

Just before 8am we decided to climb Wayna Picchu (the bigger, steeper hill behind Huayna Picchu), well I decided to, I don’t think the girls really minded either way! It was a steep and sweaty climb (with added shortness of breath), but the cloud cleared as we reached the top giving us great view of the ruins on the mountain top and back over Machu Picchu.

Some very steep agricultural terracing on the side of Huayna Picchu.

One of the trickier sections of track.

The geography on Wayna Picchu gave some other tourists some serious vertigo problems.

About lunchtime we’d walked around the whole site and the crowds were starting to get pretty thick, so we got the bus back down the hill in an attempt to catch the one train a day that heads in the ‘cheap’ direction. While the girls went to retrieve our backpacks I rushed to get to the station to buy tickets by the ‘deadline’, only to discover the office empty. When someone finally did turn up it turned out there was no deadline, we could even have bought tickets on the train if we wanted, but at least we had seats, US$8 this time instead of US$43.

The train parked in the main street of Aguas Callientes.

From what we can gather this train is run primarily for the benefit of the locals, with one more expensive carriage tacked on the end for cheap backpackers. Instead of running back towards Cusco it heads in the other direction toward a hydroelectric station near the town of Santa Teresa. According to the information we had it was possible to go to the hydroelectric station, get in a truck to Santa Teresa and then catch public transport back to Cusco. The trip would be a few hours longer but about a third of the price of the way we had come.

At least that was the plan. When we made it to the hydroelectric station it became apparent that the road to Santa Teresa had been washed away in the recent landslides. So instead we started walking, following the other backpackers, hoping they knew what the go was.

Part of the repaired road cut into the landslip.

After about an hour of walking we worked out what the new procedure was. At the point where the old road became trafficable the locals had erected a cable crossing. Everyone else had been hurrying because they knew there would be a queue, we had not. We negotiated a ride with a driver back to Cusco and he tried to get us priority service over the river. I tried explaining to the people in front of us that there were seven other people waiting for us, and asking nicely if we could scoot in front, it would have added about 3 minutes to their day and saved everyone else in our car about an hour. But my politeness was met mostly with rudeness (quite extreme rudeness in some cases, except for a really nice French guy), so we waited in line.

Erin and Anna crossing the river, with our driver clinging to one side.

Now to put things in perspective!

When we finally made it to our vehicle an Argentine lady blasted the driver about soliciting passengers he couldn’t deliver in a prompt manner and a range of other issues. But when things finally calmed down we had quite a nice chat with our fellow passengers, the other Argentine lady even gave Anna her first taste of maté.

We finally made it back to Cusco around midnight, Pariwana Hostel was full (again), but we soon found somewhere else and collapsed after a very long day.

Day 149 – Chores

Anna hadn’t spent much time in Cusco the first time around so we stuck around one more day so the girls could do some shopping and we could get some other bits and pieces done, like finally choosing a Galapagos boat.

Researching Galapagos boats - the girls thought this was hilarious.

Cusco

Day 144 – Pirawana vs. Pirwa

Pete and Jacqui split a cab with us into town early in the morning, as we were under the impression we’d booked the same place to stay.  When we arrived however it was to discover that we had in fact book very similar sounding but different places.  So we parted ways and went in to claim our beds.  However to our dismay we’d booked a day late and there was no space at the inn (at least none they were willing to give us), so we headed back out in the early morning streets in search of beds.

Eventually we succumbed to one of Cusco’s relentless touts and followed her up the hill from the main square to a crooked old hotel with a cheap room on offer.  Five minutes later we were both collapsed on our beds asleep.

When we finally got up again we headed up the hill to the San Blas area in old Cusco to grab some late breakfast and spend the afternoon shopping.  Erin got a variety of bargains, including a whole heap of stuff I can’t remember, jewellery probably, all gifts of course!

The pokey little laneway which housed our hotel.

 
Cusco’s Plaza de Armas.

Day 145 -  Research and Milkshakes

Walking from our hotel to the hostel we had booked we encountered the makings of a parade.  A woman accosted us providing us each with a pin and brief explanation in exchange for a ‘donation’, but I still didn’t really get the  gist.  Every one had nice costumes though!  We think it was something to do with the Sunday after Easter.

This time the hostel had beds for us, and not just any beds, but nice new ones with innerspring mattresses, fluffy doonas and pillows that didn’t feel like they were full of rocks.

What we also found in the hostel was a bar, with WIFI and really comfy couches in the corner.  We also discovered some of the worlds most delicious milkshakes and some quite tasty sandwiches.  In short, we didn’t move for about 12 hours, instead Erin researched Galapagos tour boats and interrogated tour operators while I finished my book pretty much in one sitting (The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson, a little contrived but very engaging).  We also consumed several of the tasty milkshakes!

Day 146 – Anna arrives with a Bam!

The internet told us that Anna’s connecting flight from Lima to Cusco had been cancelled, but that there were others 30 minutes before and 15 minutes after.  So we hopped in a cab out the airport to wait.  She arrived on the second flight and we whizzed her back to the hostel to receive our pressies.  Aside from the aforementioned replacement camera, we’d also bullied her into getting us some new Bonds undies, mine had all been pinched with the pack and the South American equivalents were no match.  We’d also enlisted her to bring us some Vegemite, but the liquids rules when boarding at Sydney had caught Anna out and the bastard security people confiscated it (whoever heard of someone blowing up a plane with a jar of vegemite?).  Erin’s dark chocolate made it at least!

To ease the culture shock on Anna and satisfy our own bored taste buds we took Anna to an Australian owned restaurant for dinner.  The menu was a mix of Peruvian classics and Australian food (Indian and Thai!).  When we decided we’d kept Anna awake long enough to begin her jetlag recuperation, we headed home to the nice comfy beds!

Arequipa – Take 2

Day 143 - Naughty Nuns

After a sleep in from a big three days, today we visited the Santa Catalina Monastery. This huge place dating from 1580 occupies an entire city block. There is still a closed section for nuns on one side of the block, but the rest of the old section has been opened to tourists as a way of generating revenue (except for a couple of sections that are still considered dangerous due to earthquake damage). For about the first three centuries of the monasteries existence pretty much only the richest families could afford to send their daughters here due to the extensive entry requirements, including a huge list of items that must arrive with the aspiring nun, for example candelabras, statues, paintings and rugs.

Each nun had between one and four servants (or slaves) and it sounds like along their Godly duties, they mostly partied! That was until 1871, when the Pope sent a strict nun from the Vatican to send all the riches back to Europe and free the servants, giving the nuns the option of returning to the outside world or staying on as nuns - proper nuns.

A nun’s kitchen in her cell.

A typical cell.

The ‘Clay Pot Laundry’, where the nun’s servants wash clothes.

A typical narrow street within the monastery complex.

Restoration works in the chapel to peel back the plaster and reveal the intricate paint and gold leaf work underneath.

Although there was a nice little cafe inside the monastery, we opted for the Moroccan restaurant we had spotted in one of the surrounding streets.

Big tasty Moroccan lunch ready for our night bus to Cusco.

Some souvenir shopping – a lady intricately carving patterns into a dried and painted piece of fruit. Hmmm… don’t tell customs!

Boarding the bus was quite an experience, first they took video of each passenger in line, then checked our passports and tickets before finally fingerprinting each passenger!! At least we felt safe as we tried to get some sleep.