Arrival in Nazca.

Tags

Cemetery, Chauchilla, Hotel, Nazca, Oro Viejo, Peru, Roads, Tour, Tourism, Travel

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.

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Getting to Nazca from Lima.

Tags

Accidents, Ballestas, Ballestas Islands, Bus, Cemetery, Chauchilla, Chauchilla Cemetery, Dangers, Flights, Hijacking, Hotels, Lima, Nazca, Nazca Lines, Oro Viejo, Peru, Tours, Transport

This seems like an easy plan to book so you would think, but travel through the standard agencies that I’ve inquired with, are mostly geared up for the usual tourist routes and/or trips that start and end in Lima. Take for example the Nazca lines tour; turns out that the best way for me to get there in a short space of time, involves an early morning bus from Lima to Nazca, a mid-afternoon arrival and half of the following day for the fly-over of the lines, before hopping on a lunchtime bus to Arequipa.

There are of course alternatives if you have both the time and money, although flying, isn’t one of those options. Currently there are no scheduled flights to Nazca, with the nearest inbound flights arriving at Ica, where you can take a charter flight over the lines as part of a tour package. This is not a bad idea if you just want a flight over the lines, but I also wanted to visit the Chauchilla cemetery, which is located 28k to the South of Nazca.

Looking at the tour operators, there were a couple of choices by private coach that terminated in Nazca, and also covered the Ballestas Islands. While most people will take this option, it didn’t fit into my schedule for getting to Arequipa and ultimately, I cut the Ballestas Island excursion and just booked a bus from Lima to Nazca. While I have no doubt the coastal relief and the expanse of the reservation are a spectacular sight, it’s not something I can’t live without and in the toss-up between that and Chauchilla cemetery, it came out the loser. For those interested, the tour package from Lima to Nazca (and back) varied between $300 and $600, which included a three day excursion with Ballestas Islands, accommodation, coach tickets and flight over the Nazca lines.

The final reservations were done through Hotel Oro Viejo, with whom we will be staying with overnight. Always check with the hotel to see what they recommend, as they can often supply much better guides and suggestions than the tour operators. In this case the rates were favourable, with the Chauchilla cemetery costing just $20 per person for an all inclusive tour, and currently $65 for the Nazca flight. The reason I say currently, is that the flights look to be standardised and capped for the tourist season at this price, and they are unsure as to whether the cost will go up (or down) by time we arrive in September.

It’s becoming increasingly evident on this trip that when you’re travelling on a budget and can’t afford to fly everywhere internally, the buses do offer good alternatives but also languish the itinerary, as it often takes a day to get between destinations. This can be minimised with overnight sleepers where available but be aware, that while these should be safe, there is a higher number of incidents involving accidents and hijacking on the night routes.

Straight to Nazca and missing Islas Ballestas.

Tags

Arequipa, Ballestas Islands, Bus, Cemetery, Chauchilla, Cruz Del Sur, Hotels, Lima, Nazca, Nazca Lines, Peru, Pisco, Tours, Transport, Travel

Of all parts of the tour, the road from Lima to Arequipa has been the hardest to book. Maybe the recent devastating earthquake is still disrupting the area, as the advertised tour guides and a few hotels around Pisco and Ica, were all unreachable online – domains existed but websites were down.

Initially, I had seen a ‘can’t miss’ price that covered the bus from Lima to Nazca, via Pisco and the Ballestas Islands in a few days, all for the bargain price of less than $300. After reading only one review on-line that was far from favourable, these people just had to go. Despite requesting no further contact and confirming no interest in the trip, they continued to send me a string of E-mails, notifying me of expiry of the offer. You would think that if you’re going to potentially screw someone out of money, you’d try to be a little more constructive about it and not hassle them.

With what appeared to be the only option out the window, it was a little hard to find some kind of filler trip between Lima and Arequipa. After a further week of asking around Lima hotels, I did come across another itinerary that covered the whole stretch. There have been great reviews for the organisers, but they asked for an E-mail, with credit card and passport information – I’m too paranoid to offer up that combination in a plain text mail, so that was a show-stopper. Looking at the arrival date and bus times, it was now obvious that Islas Ballestas would not be an option and after reading a few reviews (no unique fauna that I haven’t seen before), it’s not something I’m overly concerned about.

With one stop out of the picture, it was down to booking a Nazca hotel and hopefully some tours. I settled on the hotel Oro Viejo which not only offered a very reasonable rate of around $50 for the room, but they could also arrange the Nazca lines flight and a trip to the Chauchilla Cemetery (which was high on my list). The cemetary could be confirmed at $20 per person but the flight is still a little dubious on price. There are regulated fares these days and the ‘tourist season’ price is currently $65; the hotel couldn’t guarantee the price will be the same in September but I can’t see it being that much more. I have also read that it can be cheaper in the off-season – only one way to find out. Worth noting is that this hotel, as with most of the other private hotels, has not requested any kind of deposit. Of course if you’re pessimistic, you could argue that without the deposit, there’s no real booking. I somewhat agree and just hope that a printed E-mail discussion is enough validation.

Shortly after I booked the hotel, I re-checked the bus times on the Cruz Del Sur website; there was a problem. When I had first checked the times, there were a few options to Arequipa, including a preferred overnight schedule. Now, there only appears to be a 3pm departure from Nazca – I was either looking at another date, or they’ve updated the times. The 3pm bus puts a spanner in the works for a single full day of Nazca tours and the section from Lima to Nazca now has to be re-arranged. Luckily, the bus schedule on the last section of the trip, allows for a full day in Lima before flying out, so, the plan now is to get a hotel upon evening arrival, and then catch a 7:30am bus to Nazca, which should allow for a late afternoon tour of Chauchilla. The following day will hopefully get lucky enough with the weather, to make an early morning flight over the lines, before catching the 3pm bus to Arequipa. Next step is to check with the hotel, if we are able to make the afternoon trip to the cemetary; fingers crossed!