Boredom in the desert

Whenever you travel, you´re bound to have your share of frustrating days, or even places that frustrate you. Nasca was one such place. I arrived in Nasca around noon on Wednesday. Everything got off to a great start, considering the hostal I wanted to stay in had free transportation from the bus station. I got there and checked in with no problem. Then I was faced with the question of what to do.

Nasca is famous for the Nasca Lines. That´s it. There is nothing to do within the city. It´s more of a town, really, and it consists of hotels, restaurants, and travel agencies. Everything else is out of town. I wanted to find a tour that went to a pre-Incan cemetery just out of town, but no one could tell me if they had a tour or not. They kept saying they might have a tour, but it all depended on whether or not other people wanted to go. I gave up for the day and decided to try that again on Thursday.

The way to see the Lines is by flying over them. I opted not to do this, for a few reasons. The first and biggest reason is that it is expensive, and I am currently unemployed. I´ve also heard very mixed reviews. Some people think they´re amazing, while others are unimpressed. I´ve never been too terribly fascinated with them. If I was able to parachute out of the plane afterwards, then I would have been all over it. Instead, I took a bus 20 minutes out of town and paid 1 sole (about 30 cents) to climb a tower. From there, I could see a few of the formations, most notably the hands and the tree. I snapped a few pictures, I climbed back down. After about a 15 minute wait, I flagged down a bus headed for Nasca, and went back into town. At least now I can say I´ve seen them (they are, after all, on the list of 1,000 places to see before you die). I spent the rest of the afternoon in the museum, which gave information on the pre-Incan culture that built the lines. The highlight was the to scale model of the Lines, which you could view from above on a platform. I feel satisfied.

The next morning, I finally found a tour company that was definitely leading a tour out to the cemetery, which is a good 40-minutes outside of town. The cemetery was full of old, dead, decomposed bodies and bones. The bodies were buried seated in a fetal position (because they believed in the after-life, so they were ready to be born again) and was certainly unlike anything I´ve ever seen. The skeletons were so well-preserved, I assumed they were fakes, but our guide assured us they were all original, and had not been touched. He seemed insulted we had even asked.

When we returned to Nasca, it was only 1:00, and my overnight bus to Arequipa didn´t leave until 7pm. I spent the afternoon at the Nasca Lines Hotel pool (I paid to get in, but with the admission fee came a nice lunch, delivered to me poolside. I´m not used to such service.) and chatting with Ava, from Denmark, who was staying at the same hostal.

In hindsight, I would have come into Nasca, stashed my stuff at the bus station, went out to the tower or the cemetery, then caught a bus that evening to Arequipa. No need to stay a night, but alas, that is traveling. Mistakes will be made. Moving on...