Nazca Lines

Trip Start Sep 15, 2007
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Trip End Dec 13, 2007


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Flag of Peru  ,
Thursday, October 11, 2007

10 hours on Cruz del Sur's 'Cruzerio' service, which surpasses Chile's Turbus for quality and I'm in Nazca.  It's 5:50 and sure enough the guy from the Nazca lines tour company I booked in Arequipa is there to meet me.  Eventually there are eight of us and we head to the aeropuerto but not before he and one other fellow from a different outfit tries to sell us an additional tour of the cemetary and a smattering of other 'attractions' for 10 bucks (no thanks).  At the airport, we break into a couple of groups and by about 8:20 I´m sitting next to the pilot in a Cesna 180 six seater and we are taxiing down a pothole pock marked runway.  It's a perfect day.  The lines are amazing and the 30 minute flight is well worth the journey and the money.  The plane dips from side to side so passengers on both sides can see everything and travelers' lore says you might get sick.  I think people get psyched.  No one on our plane experiences any stomach discomfort.  The same cannot be said for those on the other flight.

Not much can be said for Nazca.  It's a bit of a dump.  Like Niagara Falls, it's probably come to be primarily what it is because of one attraction.  And it's seedy like Niagara Falls, sin wax museums and arcades and cheesy casinos.  Apart from that, I also get the distinct feeling the gringo is generally viewed as only good for one thing, $$$.  And it would seem they think we have shitloads of it.  Little wonder I guess, given that we line up to pay 150 soles, the equivilent of a week's wage for most of these folks, for a thirty minute flight to look at these lines.  I wonder if many of them have never had the opportunity.  What a shame that would be.  Regardless, they are not openly friendly and sometimes an hola or buenos dias from the gringo (me) goes unanswered.  Maybe they'd just rather we stayed the fuck away.  Besides all that, there's just nothing to do here.  Lunch, four hours on the computer, a couple of cervezas, dinner and I'm outta here.  8:00 p.m. and I'm on a bus to for a nine a.m. arrival in Cusco.
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