Tim_Day 61-66 (Nazca-Ica)

Day 61
Woke up early in the morning packed up to head out. We put our stuff in storage and checked out of our room. We head out to Nasca at 6:00pm today. We went down to the local restaurant where we had breakfast the previous day. I found some Top Ramon´s in the local store a couple days before and I´ve been wanting to cook them up so bad. So at the restaurant Ana ordered breakfast I had them cook me up two packets of Top Ramon. I was a little concerned but they did a great job with the soup. Man it was great and reminded me of home. My stomach was giving me high 5´s all morning.

We went and drew more money out of the ATM. The stupid city has been very expensive. Nice but really expensive. I´m glad were getting out soon. We´ve been her long enough.

We also stopped into a local store and burned our photos down to CD´s. We also changed some money and watched a movie in the hostel. Basically were wasting away the day doing errands and messing around. It just starting raining again so we´ll see how the bus ride tonight to Nasca goes? We´ve heard the delays can be crippling. Were going to make sure to bring lot´s of food and water. We might be sitting in the bus for a while if there is an avalanche or something stupid like that. Wish us luck.

T*




Day 61 (Continued)
That night around 6:00 we boarded the bus. The bus was actually really nice and reminded me of the buses in Argentina. I was debating on whether I should us a sea sickness patch or just take a Dramamine pill. About 1 minute into the trip I decided to put my patch on. It was the smartest thing I´ve done in a while.

The bus started out on mountain roads. I had expected that for a little bit but not for the next 14 hours. That bus ride turned into the toughest ride yet. The bus was nice it just was the crazy driver and the roads that killed us. For the first couple hours all I could do was stare at the road as the crazy driver slide through the turns. I think he thought he was driving a race car. About 1 in 4 turns you could hear the front tires screeching. Crazy punk. I also think the top level swings and sways more than the bottom so the effects are amplified. Oh so fun.

We were so lucky to get the seats on the front top level of the bus. What that meant was that I had a clear view of the road right in front of me. I keep wiping the humidity off the window so I could keep the view clear. I felt more sick when it got fogged up and I couldn´t see out of it. If I was further back in the bus or on the bottom I´m confident I would have my lunch on the bus.

After 3 hours of being green Ana also started felling not to hot. I told her to stop watching the movie and focus on the road. We sat there watching the driver slide through the wet and dangerous mountain roads. He also didn´t give a damn about the speed bumps. He would barely slow for them. About 50% of the bumps I was getting air in my seat. Crazy punk.

To top things off about 6 hours into the trip and he suddenly stops behind a line of vehicles. Great there is something wrong with the road. Come to find out all the rains has washed tons of dirt over the road so it looked like a dirt road with huge dirt bumps for about 500 ft. There were about 10 vehicles waiting. The driver said we won´t be able to pass till the morning when they come with heavy equipment to clear the road. Great it was 12:00 and morning was a long way away. I´ll have to say there was some relief knowing that we wouldn’t be winding down any more roads for a while. My stomach was really pissed at me.

About 15 minutes into waiting for morning the driver started up the engine and started backing up. He said he had seen a small car make it past the washed out river so he was going to try. Crazy guy. We drove past all the other standing cars and he floored it over the washed out area. Ana just about broke my hand off she was holding so tight. The guy was a pretty good driver and made it through without too much trouble. I gave getting across it a 50/50 chance. But in the end he crossed and we were off down the rain slicked mountain roads at 100 miles an hour. I leaned back and watched the road as long as my eyes would let me. Then I would almost fall asleep and start feeling really sick. I had to open my eyes and stare at the road again till they fell shut on me. I repeated this action all night.






Day 62
Morning didn´t come for about 4,897,675 hours and 23 minutes later. At least if felt like that. Finally after 14 hours we made it to Nasca. It was morning around 8:00. I was so happy to get there. I wanted to kiss the dirt ground when I got off the bus. I would have if I didn´t think bending over would make me barf.

Me and Ana must have looked like a couple of terds coming off the bus because the vender flies were all over us in about 2 seconds. Come to this place, Come with me free this and that. Man what a pain in the ass after a night like the one we had. Eventually we decided to go with one guy who said he was from the hotel we wanted to go to. I think in the end he took us to a different hotel but oh well. The hotel was nice and it was inexpensive.

The guy who taxied us to the hotel said the last two days were bad to fly in the plane over the Nasca lines and that this day was a good day. He recommended we take it this day. He had a plane ready to go if we wanted to go directly to see the lines. We said hell no and that we needed to lay down for a while. We agreed in two hours we would go to see the lines. Not sure if he was lying but the price was decent (45 American each) and we said ok.

After a short nap we felt a lighter shade of green. I was wearing my sea sickness patch so when I woke up the side affect of the patch was apparent. My mouth was dry like beef jerky and tasted like the thing dogs leave all over the floor. I ate a lollypop to hide the taste and bring back some of the water in my mouth.

We headed out to the airport in a small taxi. When we got there the little Cessna plane was waiting for us. There were also a group of three German’s a dad and his two kids that would be joining us. We got on board and I told Ana don´t worry if the plane bounces all over the place it´s normal for them. She didn´t want any sea sickness pills. Probably was a mistake not to give her something. I had my trusty patch on my ear.

Right after the plane took off I could tell it was going to be an interesting next half an hour. There was allot of turbulence and the plane keep falling in short burst from the sky. Nothing out of normal just rough skies. Probably the roughest I´ve been in on a small plane.

We proceeded to fly over about 10 different distinct formations on the ground. It was a really magical experience. The shapes were very visible and no chance they weren’t man made. We saw a monkey, spaceman, tree, hands, flower, spider, condor, hummingbird, and a formation they called Alcatraz. There were a few more but I can´t remember them all. There were also lines that spanned the whole desert all over the place. There were so straight and clear. Not sure what they were for. Some believe they were runways for spaceships. I don´t think so but it is an entertaining idea.

Although in the end the flight was amazing it was a thought flight. The pilot was constantly banking either to the right of left to show us the lines. He would bank pretty hard and at times was pulling some pretty good g´s.

I keep focusing on the lines and tried to ignore my stomach that was yelling at me in a deep satin like voice "get me out of her you idiot. You´ll pay for this later". Ana was trying to be ok but she wasn´t doing so hot. I watched as she smiled her fake concrete smile saying everything is ok. By the end of the flight she wouldn´t even acknowledge me. She had her eyes closed and was focusing on her stomach. She said later her stomach and the sense of being in a cramped space was killing her.

We finally landed and it was nice to be on the ground again. Damn after 14 hours on that bus a 2 hour break then the flight we were pretty beat. We headed back to the room and laid down for a few hours and tried to get our color back.

The rest of the evening we just pretty much sat around and tried to get better. I had to fight to not fall asleep. I didn´t want to sleep too much before the night since we had to take another malaria pill and that might make for another rough night.

Toward the night when the city cooled down we headed to the Plaza Del Arms (center of the city) to grab dinner. It´s funny but I think every city in Peru has a Plaza Del Arms. Same name has been used in every city we´ve been in so.

We found a little restaurant in the center of town that had an eating area on three floors up. It was really nice. The wind was actually a little cold but the view was great. We ate and watched the crazy city unfold before us. It was a really fun and magical dinner. One of those experiences you find that while traveling. Something you could never create you just stumble upon them.

The food was ok but we had a great time watching all the crazy people and taxi drivers down on the street. There was a constant honking in the air. I don´t think 3 seconds ever past without a horn being blown. It was actually quiet crazy but was fun to match from our perch above.

We grabbed a little ice-cream to top off the evening and headed back to the room to sleep. We set up another ground tour to see the lines for the next morning. I wanted to see them closer and not just from a plane.

We sleep pretty good that night. No real problems other than idiots parked right outside the door talking and drinking. Ana sleeps like a log but those kind of things bother me. Overall though was pretty good sleep.





Day 63
Woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. The usual breakfast of bread, butter, strawberry jam, orange juice and coffee. I don´t think anyone in the history of South America has ate a different breakfast. It the staple and I would kill for a regular Denny´s Omelete or Grand Slam breakfast. Hold on a sec. I need to clean the drool off the keyboard.

Anyway we headed out with out guide in a small car. The guide was a nice guy and spoke Spanish. I understood about 50% of what he was saying. The rest I got from Ana.

The first part of the trip was a stop at a small mountain. Or maybe it was more of a hill. It was from there that we were able to see a bunch of lines spreading outward to the horizon. They think that hill might have been the spot from which they viewed the lines that made up the calendar. The hill was only about 100 feet in the air.

Before we went up he showed us a line on the ground. It was a little hard to recognize and I would have walked right by if he didn´t stop us. Sure enough though when you looked down the horizon you could see the line stretching all the way to the mountain and further than you could see. It also was perfectly straight which was really amazing. I don´t know how the hell they did that. The line from the ground was only about 3 feet wide and was simply the moving and cleaning of the ground that created the lines. Funny but somehow that was enough to make a clear line that was lighter than the darker untouched rocks all the way across the desert. Also it was amazing to think that the lines have stayed there for thousands of years. I can´t believe the wind and rain haven’t whipped them out? Very strange and also very cool.

After looking at the line and talking a little more with the guide we went up the small hill to the top. It was really amazing to see the lines from this close. Also sure enough about 8 different distinct and straight as an arrow lines took off into the distance and disappeared. Was very cool and gave me a magical and spiritual sense. Also a very powerful sense. The idea that this might be the central place in which to view such a massive calendar. Wonder how many people have the privilege to stand there in ancient times. It definitely was like walking back in time.

The guide explained to us that there are some that believe the lines were built as runways for aliens. Sounds a bit out there for me. I´m more in line with the idea that they used the lines an figures for two things. One to build a massive calendar to track time and the seasons for growing crops. Also the large calendar served as a sacred place to communicate with the gods. They had gods that were in the sky and what better way to communicate with them then large figures on the floor. I think they built wooden platforms to view and construct the images.

The lines were build around Christ birth and I think they were a pretty advanced civilization. They had underground aqueducts, advanced pottery, and were growing and harvesting crops and animals.

We headed off the mountain and to the next stop which was a 4 story metal platform where you could view two shapes. One was a large tree and the other was what they called the hands. Climbing up the Peruvian platform was a little scary but I was a great way to see the figures. Once on top we could see on the right the large tree which was about the size of a football field and on the left was the hands which were about half the size of a football field. Both were very visible and fascinating to see.

The tower was about 30 feet from the tree and 100 feet from the hands. From that distance the actual lines that made the shape up looked about 1.5 feet wide and about 6 inches deep. They looked like they had dug the dirt a little to make those shapes. The lines that we saw didn´t look dug down just that the rocks were pushed to the side and the ground cleaned.

We got some photos and headed back to our room. I was really glad we took the tour on the ground. Gave me much more of a 3d understanding and experience of the lines. We ate lunch and checked our internet for a while. Then around 2:00 we decided to head to our next city Ica about 2.5 hours north of Nasca.

We got to the bus station with all our heavy gear on. I was sweating pretty good but I enjoy this heat much more than the humid heat. It´s drier and reminds me more of the heat in LA. We gave our bags to the guy who put them on top of the bus. I always feel like I´m rolling the dice when I hand our packs to those guys. You hope they stay up there the whole trip and that they tied them down well. I won´t be surprised the day they aren’t there when we get to the next city. I´ll just say we were lucky for a long time before this.

Anyway we got on the bus. When I say got on the bus imagine walking into a crowded oven and shuffling your way down the isle to find a crocked seat in the back. I love the way people don´t move out of your way. Drives me nuts. Luckily I´m about 200lbs heavier than most of them so I just grab my bag like a football and mow the old ladies and kids down to get to the back. There´s no being polite. In fact I don´t even think they see me as rude. I think they just see me getting to my seat. Crazy people. I think I´m going to buy a jacket with spikes all over it for ridding on the bus. Maybe they will move then? Probably not there would just be more blood on the floor.

Anyway we did the 2.5 hour ride on the bus. It´s nothing for us. I could do a 2.5 hour bus ride holding on the ladder on the back. Were getting so used to long rides that 2.5 hours is a joke.

We made it to the city around 4:30 and hopped off the bus. To my surprise the bags were still there. Man I´m getting lucky. I saw some ropes as we were driving start falling down the side of the bus and was waiting to see the bags fall off the back of the bus. But not this time. We had some friends in Cuzco say that a couple people lost bags off the top of there bus they took. The bus driver just says sorry and that´s it.

As soon as my first shoe hit the pavement I had about 500 vendors selling me stuff. I play like I can´t speak Spanish and point to Ana. That usually cuts a couple hundred of them off of me. We ended up getting a taxi to the hotel we read about in the book. Hopefully it would be ok.

Of course right as we got in the taxi the driver is trying to sell us another hotel for double the price. We say no and he keeps talking. Then he starts talking about the sand buggy rides he has. That lasted for another few minutes and I keep saying I don´t understand and pointed to Ana. By this time Ana was getting annoyed and short with him. After he realized we didn´t want anything from him he shut up and had nothing to say for the rest of the ride. He tried to lure us one more time to his hotel at the end but we said no and paid him for the ride. Peruvians have vendor blood in there souls. I don´t think I´ve meet one regular person in this whole damn country that hasn’t tried to sell me something. I would probably faint if someone just said hello and just meant hello. Not hello would you like to buy a finger puppet, or hello would you like to buy a cook book, or hello would you like to buy a beanie even though I´m wearing one on my head.

Anyway we got the room and it was ok. The place was a little run down and we were being charged too much so we decided in the evening to walk around and find another place that was nicer. We settled into the room and headed out to see the town. The small town was really nice and situated right in the middle of a huge sand dune desert on a lagoon. It was truly an oasis in the desert. Very cool and I love the little cities like this with lot´s of character. We decided to check out a couple hotels and found a nicer one that was cheaper. We made reservations to move there the next day.

We ate dinner at one of the 4 places available to eat at in the little town. We had some spaghetti that tasted like it had Chinese herbs and spices in it. It was a refreshing change in taste. I was hoping they had some kind of Chinese tasting food but the menu was pretty standard. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to chill for a while on the hammocks and chairs in the back yard.

I bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked one since I couldn´t find any cigars in the town. Ana got a mango and I cut it up for her and she ate it with salt. Was nice just to chill swinging and talking for a good hour or so till we got to tired and headed to bed. Ana wasn´t filling the best and thought she might have a cold coming on. We headed in early and crashed for the night. If Ana was filling sick I wanted her to get some good sleep so she didn´t get even sicker.








Day 64
We woke up in the morning and lazed around till about 10:00 when we checked out. We paid up and headed to our new hotel. We settled in and headed out to have breakfast at the local place. We ate at a little at the same little place we had dinner the night before. Breakfast was ok. The usual ¨Desayuno Americano¨. Bread was good but the mixed juice sucked.

After that monster breakfast we headed out to visit some more of the local town Ica. We took a taxi into the center. It was funny but once we got to the center about every car on the street was a taxi. It was heavy traffic and all of it seemed to be small car taxis or the small 3 wheeled taxis. The three wheel taxis were basically motorcycles with a box on the back for two people to sit in. Pretty fun to ride in also. Kind of like a go-cart.

We first went to the bank and waited in line for about 45 minutes to exchange money. It was ok though since Ana wasn´t feeling to good and the place was air conditioned. That was a nice break and probably the second time I´ve felt air-conditioning in all of South America. No kidding.

After the bank we took a small three wheeled taxi to the local museum. It was a nice little museum and had a really nice collection of mummies. Surprising how well they were preserved. I can only imagine they are going to be similar to the mummies in Egypt. We´ll see.

One thing that was really interesting about the mummies was that many of the skulls showed a deformation that made there skulls really tall and thinner than the normal skulls. This was something they thought was really great back then so from birth they would tie really tight bandages and sticks around the babies heads to deform them. They would tighten the bandages everyday to eventually make the skulls really deformed. Very interesting and I wondered if it caused any mental problems? Maybe that´s why this country is the way it is?

One other thing that was also interesting was they did brain surgery. They would actually cut part of the skull off to relieve stress. They said they usually did this to people who had head injuries. The holes were up to 4 inches in diameter and were made by using sharped stones and shells. I bet that felt good. They said they would use medications to sedate the people. I can´t imagine they were to good at that. Interesting and very advanced for such an old civilization. This was around later BC and early AC.

After the museum we headed to the center to eat. Through a stroke of sheer luck I found a Chinese food place! Can you believe that. Man I was so happy. I found one in Cusco and now in Ica. Damn there everywhere. I convinced Ana to give it another chance. It was that or more rice and meat which we´ve been eating for the last 50 years. We headed in with me smiling like a kid and Ana frowning like and old grumpy women. We both ordered and Ana got fried rice and I got a whole meal that included wanton soup, fried rice, noodles with chicken, and fried wantons.

I sat there like a kid on Christmas morning. The food was wonderful and my stomach was congratulating me for finding the place in the mist of all the city madness. Ana enjoyed the meal as well which I was surprised to see. It was heaven and nice to eat something so light and with tons of vegetables. It felt so healthy and I was loving every bit.

After eating we headed to back to our hotel. We chilled there for a the evening and just enjoyed the city and the evening by the lake. Ana continued to burp up the Chinese food all evening and said she never wanted to go to the Chinese place again. I said that was fine and that we would be eating separate dinners the following day.

Sitting there looking at the town and the sand dunes was killing me. There were people all over the hills having fun and we were just sitting by the lake side chilling with Ana burping Chinese food. Nice but a big part of me wanted to get a board and go try and kill myself on the slopes.

I jumped in the pool quick and it was nice. There were no tin cans or dead birds in it which was really nice. It actually was about as clean as a pool in the States. We headed off to bed early again so Ana could get some sleep. She wasn´t feeling to good again and was having head aches and body aches.





Day 65
Ana woke up feeling better and I was glad to see that. I don´t like seeing her that way. Especially in such a fun city. We headed out and had breakfast. I could barely sleep the night before thinking about that yummy breakfast of bread, coffee and juice. I was dreaming all night of bread jumping over a fence. Wowzers.

We hit the town just before noon and then to a local winery where we did a tour of the place. Was interesting and was a smaller winery. It was old and wasn´t the sterile clean image you imagine of a winery in the states. It was more old school and I don´t think they have ever cleaned much of that place in the last 100 years. Had that old sort of rotting grape smell to the place. We tasted some of the wines they produce and they were ok. They are well known of the Pisco they produce. Pisco is a little different alcohol created from the same grape as wine is made. They put it in jars rather than barrels and cure it for less time.

At the end of the tour we bought a large bottle of mango juice they also made and drank it. Was fun and we headed back to the city. We got a taxi and was able to avoid being burned on the price because the guy at the winery told us how much it should cost to get there. Pretty much the whole day we had been getting burned on prices and it was starting to get to me. It sucks knowing your getting charged 2 to 3 times as much as the guy in the car right next to you. It feels like you got a big SUCKER sign on your forehead. Oh well got to roll with the punches.

Once we got to town we started walking and same taxi driver we used before said hi. We jumped in and said we wanted to go to the chocolate factory he mentioned on the earlier ride. Bad move on our part. He basically took us to a factory that had a shop to buy chocolates. We went in and the girl showed us candy to buy. Not exactly the tour we expected. We bought a couple candies not to offend the girl and headed out. It was such a tourist trap and I can´t believe we paid for the taxi ride there. Punk ass driver. Got to give him props though he did swindle us pretty good. I guess he deservers the money. Punk. I hate the way they lie and cheat you but were in their territory and that´s the game here. Just got to play it better in the future.

After the factory we decided to walk back to town. After 20 minutes of interesting side streets we found our way to the center where we found a nice internet place next to the Chinese place we ate the day before. I was happy to see that. We checked our email for a while and then headed to the Chinese place for lunch again. Two days in a row who could have dreamed. I was able to convince Ana to go again and this time only get white rice and vegetables it would be lighter for her stomach. She agreed and we ate together. Was just as wonderful the second time as the first.

After eating we floated back to the hotel to relax and try some sand boarding. I´d been wanting to since we got there the first day and Ana was finally feeling up to it. We got on our dirty cloths and headed out. We rented one board for the both of us and hit the bunny sand slopes. I´ve never skied before so it took allot of falling on my butt to get a decent ride in. But I was determined. Toward the end of the two hours we spent boarding I was able to get going pretty fast and cut back and forth with some kind of sense of control. It was really fun and Ana even got a couple small rides in. I think she averages about 4-5 feet on each fun. My runs at the end were about 100ft or so. The hill wasn´t very huge since we were just trying to get the hang of it. A few times Ana just went down on the board on her butt.

We had a blast during those two hours we spent on the dunes. We were both dead tired, had sand in every crevice possible, and extremely thirsty. We were like little kids in the sand not caring how dirty we got. Good times.

We headed down and returned the board. We got two large bottles of ice cold water which were heaven. We both drank the water too fast and got brain freeze. It was great though and I almost drank all large bottle of water myself. We went back to the hotel and jumped in the pool to rinse the sand off. Something I can´t do in my mom’s pool or she´ll shoot me.

We were pretty exhausted and decided to go to the local restaurant and get a fruit salad. I keep forgetting to not have an image in my head when I order something. It´s a golden rule here and when the fruit salad came I remembered the rule. The fruit salad looked more like ice-cream than a fruit salad. Basically it had chocolate, sugar smacks, and sprinkles on top hiding all the old brown fruit underneath. We smiled and ate enough not to show that we hated it. After that I bought a little ice-cream to hide the taste of the fruit salad and we headed back to the hotel.

We chilled by the pool for a little bit and I had a smoke. It started to sprinkle a little and it was nice. Not enough to really wet anything. The nights have been nice and usually are a little cool. Weather reminds me allot of Californian summers. Dry hot days with cool nights.

We headed back to the room and I found a 3” cockroach in the bathroom. After killing that Ana said she would give me a massage on my back since it was sore. She said there was a worm on the back of my shirt. Sure enough there was a caterpillar on my shirt. I got it when we were at the pool. Was an insect filled evening. I flicked the caterpillar off and Ana grabbed it outside the door with some toilet paper to throw it away. Right as she was picking it up I touched her neck like it was another worm. She freaked out and was so mad she threw the toilet paper right at my face. Was pretty funny and it´s hard to get Ana that mad.

We laughed and chilled the rest of the evening. We were beat from boarding and fell asleep really quickly.





Day 66
Woke up in the morning and had another power Americana breakfast. Had to get my daily bread, butter and jam in the old stomach. I might drop dead without it.

After that we headed to town and watched a small parade that was going on in the center square. I guess they have it every Sunday and it has something to do with the country and the flag. I always fell really American around those things and kind of a target. I don´t think I am but I always wonder what people are thinking.

To make things worse just a few days before a couple of crazy American’s bombed a hotel in LaPaz. They were insane and acting alone. It was funny to think we were in a hotel in LaPaz just a couple days before the bombing. Lucky for us we were out of there. To close for comfort. But there is no way to predict that and the same thing could have happened to us in the US.

One thing that was really funny to see on the TV was the Bolivian president reacting to the incident. He was saying that America was so against terrorism but now they were sending Americans to bomb them. It showed how juvenile even the president of the country was. Having traveled there and dealing with the people made me understand why it was the way it was. There a country full of people with no real education and it´s almost like a bunch of 6 graders trying to understand the things that are happening to them. They don´t really have the ability to see outside themselves. There minds just don´t work the same as developed countries. The good thing is they are no real threat to the world and there actions really don´t affect the international community that much.

Anyway we got some more money out of the bank and headed the internet café where we are now catching up on our blogs. It´s been tough to keep them up but in the end it will be worth it. It´s nice to share our experiences with people and it will be nice to build a book with coordinating images out of blog later.

Later today were headed to do the buggy ride and some more sand boarding which should be fun. After this internet session I´m going to try and ease Ana subconsciously into the Chinese food place again for lunch. I´m been very quietly whispering ¨Chung King¨ for the last hour. Wish me luck.

T*