Nazca (July 1, 2006 - Canada Day!)

We arrived in Nazca around 8:00am (15 hours after leaving Cuzco), and were promptly attacked by some of the pushiest touts we have encountered yet. They wanted us to go to their hostels, use their travel agency services for tours around the area, bring us to the airport for flights over the Nazca Lines, and even follow us in our taxi to our hostel to give us free information. Argh! We eventually escaped them after gathering our mochillas (backpacks) and got in the first taxi that was patiently waiting and being very non-pushy. This was the best move that we could have made, because our taxi driver Edgar would turn out to be the most wonderful thing we found in Nazca.

While chatting with some helpful motorcycle tourists in a pub back in Cuzco, they had recommended a hotel in Nazca to us, so we asked Edgar to bring us there. The hotel pool was big and fabulous, but the rooms were just average, and the prices had increased quite a bit from the price our friends in Cuzco had told us – to a whopping US $65 per room. Yikes! Too steep for our budget. We piled back into the cab, and Edgar recommended another hotel to us (San Marcelo) that also had a nice pool and was cheaper at US $25 per room. Since the price would have been the same for a triple as two singles, Jessica got her own room. The rooms were big, and even nicer than the ones at the original hotel we looked at, although the pool was smaller. It wasn’t a problem though, since we were practically the only people staying at the hotel! A GAP Adventures group arrived later in the evening and stayed one night, but we only saw them briefly at dinner. The hotel was a couple of kilometres from the town located in the middle of several farmer’s fields. Edgar stopped along the drive to explain to us what all the different crops and trees were, and told us that he was an aspiring guide and was studying French and Italian. Because it was so secluded, the hotel was very quiet and peaceful. Except for the band that was filming for a television show beside the pool and started setting up just as we were settling in for a quiet read in the sun for a couple of hours. Double Argh.

Edgar had told us that he could set us up for flights over the Nazca Lines later that afternoon with a friend he had at the airport, so we arranged for him to come back and pick us up at 3:00. In the meantime, the hotel told us that we shouldn’t just show up at the airport without a reservation because we would be charged much more than if we had booked with an agency, and if we booked with them then they would provide us with free transportation to and from the airport. We were worried that we would get dinged for a higher price with Edgar, and that he would also charge us for the taxi to and from the airport, so we asked the hotel to make a reservation for us. It turned out that I had misunderstood Edgar, and when he showed up to pick us up, he said that he had already made a reservation for us, and the price was the same as the hotel had quoted us, and that he was giving us free transportation as well. D’oh! So we had ended up with two reservations. I told the hotel that I had misunderstood Edgar, and that we had in fact booked with him first, so they would have to cancel the reservation they had made for us. I felt bad to have caused such a commotion, especially since Edgar was so nice. I blame a head cold and a bad sleep on the bus for my inadequate Spanish skills during the whole exchange!

Before we went on the flight, we ended up going on a tour of the Aqueducts (booked through the hotel and their guide buddy, and we paid way too much, but we knew that at the time, haggled a little over the price, and went anyways). The Aqueducts were very interesting. There were originally around 200 aqueducts built by the Nazca culture around 1500 years ago and. 60 of them are still in operation and used by the farmers in the area. It is amazing to see how green their crops are in such an arid landscape. Agriculture is their primary industry, which is pretty impressive considering Nazca has received no significant rainfall in the past century. All the water for the town and crops is taken from underground springs that are fed by the surrounding mountain ranges. The wells in the aqueducts are spiralling ramps going down to the water, which made it easier for the ancient cultures to carry big vessels of water. The aqueducts themselves are a very elaborate engineering design that our guide explained (he somewhat earned his money in this regard). Our guide also took us to see some nearby lines in the desert that are not regularly visited by tourists, and we got to see the type of sand and rocks that were moved to make the lines (the Nazcas removed the rocks to reveal lighter sand underneath and piled a few inches of rocks on either side of the lines so that sand wouldn’t blow in). The lines we saw were pointing to water sources in the foothills of the mountains.

When we returned from the aqueduct tour, Edgar was waiting for us at the hotel and the previously mentioned misunderstanding occurred. It all turned out well in the end, and Edgar brought us to the airport for our flight. We were running a bit late, so we were whisked through a short video about the lines and Maria Reiche, the archaeologist who spent 50 years studying the lines. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the end of the video before we had to board the tiny Cesna 750 that only seats four people. Lincoln was very excited about flying in a small plane again (he had his small aircraft pilot’s licence a few years ago but it was too expensive to maintain). Jessica and I let him sit in the front since he was so excited. I had been leery of taking the flight to begin with because I thought I would probably get sick – a very high number of people get sick on this flight because the airplane banks hard to the right and left to give good views of the lines – and sure enough Jessica and I both made use of the puke-bags. The lines were very cool to see – some of them are 150m in length – but in the end I could have done without throwing up on the plane! My favourite was the monkey, but I also liked the astronaut and the hummingbird. We also saw a tree, some big hands, a spider, a parrot head, a dog, and some trapezoids. These lines have been here for an estimated 3000 years, and many of the designs are the same as ones that have been found on pottery that dates from the same era.

After the flight, Edgar brought us to a little place that demonstrates how the mining and gold extraction process works, and then to a ceramics place that explained how the Nazca people made their pottery and showed us their recreations. We couldn’t resist buying something here, and both Jessica and ourselves bought little bowls. Most of the stuff was too expensive, but it was very nice. Edgar also drove us around the downtown part of Nazca, which is pretty small. The main plaza was nice, and there were some cool statues that represented the Nazca lines as well as a statue of Maria Reiche.

We went back to the hotel and had dinner there, played cards, and had a couple of drinks to celebrate Canada Day. It was the tamest (i.e. sober) Canada Day any of us had ever had though – and we were in bed by 10:00! Bad Canadians… It’s just not the same with the big crowds and fireworks!