The Last Stretch

We arrived at the bus station in Puno at 1:45am, and by 2am we were on a bus to Arequipa. It was a 7 hour ride, and we spent the majority of it sleeping, until the morning light woke us up to reveal awesome landscapes (video sped up in consideration of your valuable time).

We immediately took a taxi to our hotel, and started our tour of the city.The city is known for white buildings made from sillar (some sort of stone), and it's nightlife. We found ourselves bored. We're truly not urban travelers. Most of what the city had to offer was shopping, and just expensive shopping at that.

We did decide to 'splurge' on one of the cities main attractions: the Santa Maria Convent. It's a small city within a city. Started in the mid-1500's, with little contact with the outside world, remained mostly unchanged and unaffected by modernization. It was also made from sillar, and painted in bright and bold colors. It was full of narrow, walled ally ways to hide it from the corrupt outside world, and tons of 'cells' showing how the nuns lived.

We arrived in the late afternoon, so that we could see the convent by day, and the small streets lit up for an enchanting light show at night.

We left the convent at 7pm, in search of food before heading back to the hostel. Instead of food, we found the Che Cafe, complete with the man himself sitting at the front table. We opted for pasta, which we had long been craving.

We decided Arequipa wasn't worth waking up to, so we canceled our room and headed for the terminal. We were there by 9:30pm, hoping for a 10pm overnight to Nasca. There was a 10pm overnight to Nasca, but we were informed it would be leaving from Arequipa's other bus terminal, and so our only option was a 1am departure. We found out later the other bus terminal was literally next door, no more than 20 meters away. Thanks for letting us know!

So instead we were inline for the 1am to Nasca. It was "Royal Class," which meant the price would be $40 instead of $18. We declined, and as we walked away were "psst'ed" over by the cashier, who offered to sneak us on the bus (unofficially, without tickets) for $29. We offered him the original price of $18, and he accepted.

We arrived in Nasca at 10am, left out bags as the bus terminal, and went to see the Nasca Lines. The Nasca Lines were made by Incas 500-1000 years ago. They were made by displacing dark, surface rocks to reveal lighter under rocks to make drawings. They were discovered in 1970 with a flyby, which turned Nasca from a hot and muggy, deserted desert town, into a top tourist hit for the country. One theory says they were made to please the Gods.

We decided against the fly over, instead choosing the 3 story lookout tower which showed 3 of the figures: a tree, a pair of hands, and a lizard.

The tree

The mirador tower was just down the road outside of Nasca. The road stretched for miles into oblivion in either direction.

Since we didn't see the monkey, and his curvaceous tail (the most famous of the drawings), we found a rock with the engraving instead.

Then we hitch-hiked a ride back to town...

...and caught a cab to see the uncovered tombs.

Mostly the tombs showed unearthed skeletons and mummies, though not as cool as the ones from Egypt.

Back in town, we walked around for a few minutes...

The closest we could get to seeing the monkey drawing.

...before heading back to the terminal at 2pm for a 3 hour ride to Ica, and then another hour ride to Pisco. Pisco is another middle-of-nowhere, desert town with a star attraction. Instead of the Nasca lines, Pisco has the Islas Ballestas, aka the poor-man's Gallapagos.

 

After visiting the town, we took a bus to the nearby town of Huacachina. Huacachina is situated around a small oasis of water, surrounded by mile-high (not literally) sand dunes. The activity there was sandboarding, which I found to be a lot harder than its snowy-counterpart.

Without ski lifts, hiking up the dunes was exhausting, and the ride down was disappointing. You have to wax your board between runs, as the sand destroys the smooth surface which would allow you any sort of speed. Instead, I could hardly get myself going on the smaller hills, with the only option being the steep (and speedy) descents, which I wasn't ready for.

We found that sand-sledding was a much more worthwhile pastime.

The next day, since we hadn't seen the real Gallapagos, we decided to take a boat tour around the Islas Ballestas. We were promised pelicans, Humboldt penguins, and a bunch of sea lions sprawled out on the beach. Oh, and tons of cordorans (spelling??), which are useful because their poop, guana, is used as a fertilizer, and makes the whole place smell awesome.

After out boat tour we were back at the terminal for our last bus ride of the trip: a short 5 hour ride to Lima. We were pretty happy about it...

We were in Lima before dark, and cabbed it to a hostel. We spent the evening shopping, eating, and exploring. The next day, our last full day abroad, we did more of the same. Again, we found ourselves bored in another modern urban setting.

All the names for the upcoming 2011 elections.

 

On Sunday we were up at 4:30am, packed by 5:15, and walked down dark, (almost) deserted streets to the bus station to get to the airport. The bars were still open, and a few stragglers were apparently trying to make it to day break.

45 minutes later, there was no bus, so we took a cab to the airport. We only had $4, which was a third of what a taxi should have cost, but we convinced him that's all we had, so he obliged.

Our flight left 45 minutes late, for no apparent reason. The flight attendants all had a serious chip on their shoulders, probably because they have to deal with lots of complaints because they're a crappy airline. Maybe it's a chicken-egg situation.

Our plane was full of AARP'ers, who I had to continually assist in reaching and stowing their canes as they patrolled the aisles to keep their joints from cramping. We were in row 8, and they continually tried to go to the front bathroom, but were forced to walk 25 rows to the back and wait in line.

Then, on landing in Miami, Abra's neighbor began convulsing, his cheeks inflated, and his fist rushed to plug his mouth. Our budget airline didn't supply barf bags, but Abra was fortunate to get one from a fellow passenger before she found hurl all over her lap.

We landed in Miami with no harm done. After an easy trip through customs, and a 4 hour wait, we were on our way to LA. We arrived at 11:30pm, and Abra's friend Simon picked us up to help us burn a few hours. We went to Subway and Venice Beach, before we were back at the airport at 4:30am.

Unfortunately, we didn't catch that our Alaska flight was actually operated by SkyWest, so we missed our flight, and spent the next 6 hours playing stand-by on the 7:25am, 8:20am, and 10:30am flights before finally finding a seat on the 12:20pm direct to Seattle. Thanks Mr. Michael J. Crawford!


Posted by Hans, Photos by Abra