Nasca is relatively close to Lima. I boarded on an early bus with Cruz del Sur, which is an amazing bus company. The seats are better than on the plane and there is even breakfast served.
I stayed at a small homestay which was basic, but had the things you needed. There was a young man with (probably) his two kids. His parents help to run the hostel as well.
The main attraction here is the Nasca lines. Some traces left by ancient people, apparently to conduct rituals to pray for water. The planetarium explains it pretty well. The German researcher dedicated her whole life (I believe somewhere around 50 years?) unveiling the lines and the planetarium is now named after her. At the end, there was a star gazing session where the guide showed us different star constellations for the southern hemisphere. Also we were able to look at the moon through the telescope.
After the tour, we went to eat chicken together. There were a couple, one French, one English and another LA guy originally from Taiwan. The couple were doing some farming (workaway) somewhere around Cuzco area and is now travelling on to there next work-away spot. Apparently they were able to see the local culture which was pretty neat. The LA guy was dressed in a poncho which is normal for the Cuzco area, but not here in Nasca. I first thought he is somewhat a hippie before he explained that. Actually, he is a photographer and does some marketing campaign back in LA. His clothing were quite atypical I would say and his camera not really confirming his photographer identity.
It was pretty cool to actually sit together after a such short tour. Even though we will probably forget about each other soon, but I was a nice chat nevertheless.
After the dizzy flight over the Nasca lines (actually Peru was playing a football match, and I was worrying whether this is the right moment to board the plane since no one will really pay attention, but in the end it went well, the poor Israeli girl felt sick after the first turn and was puking the whole flight. And the company is taking their job seriously and even was weighing people before assigning seats), I also went on a Buggy tour before going on the night bus to Cuzco. Some archaeological site looked pretty fake and the more interesting part were actually driving up and down the dunes and the sandboarding afterwards.
There was a Chinese guy, who was working in Brazil for some weeks and now taking some days off to see Peru. Usually, you don’t see many or any chinese tourist travelling alone, especially here in nasca, which is not that popular. On the buggy, there were also 2 brazil guys from my hostel. They were really not that social and never talked to anyone on this trip. I roughly remember some Germans where I was confirming the football score to them but now, after some months, I don’t remember much about them at all.
At the night bus station, some drunk Argentinian guy talked to me, who smelled really bad. I was somewhat nervous but in the end, he just wanted to have a conversation. Also, there were many Koreans taking the bus to Cuzco as well.
I guess this is a post after 2 months already, and being working for 3 weeks, I feel very neutral about things happened back then …
