Nazca

The city of Nazca. One of the driest areas in the world. It will rain once or twice every few years, if they are lucky. There is no water, ever. All the rivers are dried up, all the homes have daily deposits of water for about 1 hour. Unlikely that hot water exists here, although considering the immense heat blasted upon the town each and every day, I doubt they would ever need warm water.

All this being said, one wonders why this community continues to exist and has existed in this area for thousands of years, being one of the oldest cultures throughout Southamerican History. Nazca an insane ammount of money solely from the mining industry, one of the best and most expansive in the entire country. Dozens of different types of minerals are exported from this area alone to all parts of the world, one major one being Canada, for Gold.

I was planning on staying for 3 days in Nazca total considering my great expectations for the community to provide me with some cool tours and neat information. There are several things to do in Nazca (Tourism being the second largest money producer, next to mining), although there is nothing about the city that inspires people to stay for longer periods of time and ¨do it all¨ per se. The main attraction here is the Nazca Lines, which one can pay a rediculous amount for a 35 minute flight in a tiny aircraft over the desert to see the various figures. Or alternatively, tourists and pay practically nothing and take a bus to a lookout point where they can see 2 or 3 out of the 15 figures or so. I was hoping to go to Nazca and find a cheaper price directly from the city, the normal price being around 100 dollars. When I got there and found out that cheaper prices did not exist I gave up on the idea and wanted to do alternative tours around the city. Although after meeting a German guy that first night things began to change.

Right from the beginning of my arrival to Nazca I had difficulty getting around and often found myself wandering around in circles. After finally finding my hostel which, had changed names and owners I find suspicious whether the great testimonials and commentaries of this place would stay the same. The director was a young bitch of a woman that constantly put off an aura of impatience which is quite annoying as a customer in a hostel. She would prove later to be even more of a stubborn fool the next morning. The night before the German (Karl is his name) and I agreed to wake up early and go directly to the airport and see if we could find cheaper options for flights from the companies who flew them. Upon waking up at 6 in the morning he told me immediately that he had not slept at all because there were bed bugs all over his bed. He showed the bed bugs to someone down in the hostel and they gave him a different room ¨bug free¨. Although he didnt sleep in that room either because of the paranoia  that more would arrive and take to his back-pack making the next several weeks of his travels an agonizing experience, to say in the most polite terms.

We agreed to deal with it late and went to the airport, where we found prices to be practically the same, We found one flight, saved 5- 20 dollars depending on where you got the tickets and took the flight. I think this was my first experience in a small plane with a capacity of about 10 people, crammed in. The engine, which was right by my sides, roared so loud it felt is if I was inside it. The bumpy ride was what Karl had wanted.  A bit of a rollercoaster rollercoaster through the air that gets you a bit sick hopefully is how he put it. I didnt understand why someone could think feeling a bit sick was fun but I went along with it. The lines themselves were very ¨alright¨ nothing spectacular that left you with a feeling like it was worth 90 dollars.

We left feeling slightly unsatisfied.

Karl likely used this dissatisfaction along with his fatigue from lack of sleep to create a wicked German rage rain down upon this arrogant bitch as soon as we returned to the hostel. The funny thing was that she wanted him to pay 2/3 of the price for his use of the second bedroom the night before. From upstairs I could here him yelling in his harsh angry spanglish with german accent which provided a bit of entertainment for me.

¨Bat Bags!  Bat Bags! Bat Bags!¨ Was what I kept hearing from below. I went down to provide him with some translating assistance although he mainly just used google translator, turn the screen towards her and poke the screen with a grunts and say MAL MAL. This woman didnt care one bit, she wanted her money, even after we threatened to put awful comments about the hostel all over the internet she was not phased one bit. It wasnt until another Irish guy came into the room to use the computer did she completely change face immediately and gave in. In exchange for her cooperation we told the next group of backpackers to down the road before they signed up. That got her panties in a bundle  :)

I left Nazca a day early and I am glad, the heat was beginning to get the better of me. Constant headaches and fevers was not worth staying any longer. The town was shit anyway.

Karl and I took the night bus to Arequipa hoping for something better out of the next leg.