Gringos, Ica, Nasca y Pisco

19 Mayo 05

Headed to Lima...again...to snag a bus to Nasca. I plan to meet Dan and Ibar there in a day or two. I just love traveling around by myself for a while (though sometimes it can be scary as hell!). It forces me to speak the language and I love being able to decide my own schedule...in the same breath...I miss the gents tremendously and really look forward to seeing them soon.

The bus ride...I thought that I would be the only Gringa...turns out there was a Gringo that was very conveniently seated next to me. Stick the Gringos together! Darrin turned out to be a really sweet guy from Dublin, Ireland...a very handsome companion as well...

We chatted the entire trip down to Ica, his destination, at which point I impulsively jumped off of the bus, raced into the bus station to get information on whether or not I could catch a later bus to Nasca the following day. Darrin had lured me with promises of the Ica Oasis in the desert and Piña Coladas by the poolside...but...there was no bus that would arrive in Nasca in time to meet the gents. So...I got back on the bus and continued on my way.

So, now, here I am...all by my lonesome hoping for a little bit of trouble to liven up my first evening in Nasca....

Um...I found it! It came in the form of two Mormon missionaries from Utah...I was nearly molested by them! Needless to say, I excused myself from that situation very quickly and went back to my hotel to find, none other than...Darrin waiting for me in the hotel lobby. Creepy or just plain cool? Turned out to be just plain cool, I think he just wanted to hang out with someone else.

We had a great night out, dinner and drinks, then on to check out some unavoidable live music that was blaring until 3am at the hospital across the street from our hostel (a bloody hospital of all places...insert geriatrics wobbling about with walkers...how did all the sick people sleep?)

Got completely abused/scammed at the hostel. I was shown a room and told that it would cost 30 soles with breakfast included (as it turned out, it wasn´t included when I attempted to get it in the morning). I stepped out for a beer and came back to my things all moved into a broken up, closet sized room that had a window wide open just above my backpack which just so happened to contain all of my important documents, camera, etc...I was absolutely livid and made a huge fuss with the owner...unfortunately it was just too late and I was just too tired to demand my money back and find another hotel at that hour...tomorrow I will be energized enough to raise a bit of hell.

20 Mayo 5

So sleepy, I wake after only four hours of very interrupted sleep with earplugs in to prepare to collect the gents at the bus stop. I set out but am told by the guy at the front desk that they have yet again missed their bus and that they will not be joining me in Nasca until the following morning. So, I head out to breakfast, after being denied the "free desayuno" in my hostel, with Darrin who was awaiting the weather to clear for his morning flight over the Nasca Lines.

While chatting over breakfast three locals in a car hop out and come into the restaurant asking if I was Daniel...not the last time I checked...I said my friends name was Daniel at which point they let me know that he and Ibar had arrived in Nasca and checked into an alternate hotel. Are they here or not?...Yep! Big hugs and smootches, I am really happy to see them both.

Unfortunate news, however, Ibar has had his backpack lifted in Arequipa. He has lost all of the most important items, his glasses, his passport, etc., etc. What shit luck. Now he has to contact the Consulate to see if he can replace his passport before he leaves Peru on the 3rd of June as there is no way he will be allowed to enter the United States en route to England without it.

After attempting a few phone calls we headed to the airport and boarded a 6 seater airplane in which to fly over the Nasca Lines.

An absolutely incredible feat, the Nasca Lines span about 500 square kilometers in the Pampa Colorada. They were made by the removal of the black stones from the desert´s surface and with the piling of them on either side of the lines exposing the light in colour gypsum soil below. There are elaborate animal designs...a lizard (180 meters in length), a huge monkey, a condor (130 meters across), a killer whale, a hummingbird, a spider and this alien-like figure which creeped me out a bit....Dave, they really are out there, even the people of Nasca were trying to contact them!

Their purpose is still a total mystery, though there are a few different speculations. One is that they are some kind of astrological calendar developed for agricultural purposes. Others say that the people of Nasca knew how to construct hot air balloons and that they used them to observe the designs from the air...that guy has probably been admitted to a psychiatric ward in my humble opinion...Yet others think that they were created and dedicated to the worship of water in this sun-baked desert...which is ironic because the Nasca culture met its demise due to an immense rainfall...

In the afternoon this fantastic boat of an old Dodge shows up to our hostal, 1972 olive green with gold detailing...Serious bling! This grinning Peruvian gets out with the hugest, most perfectly round belly, with booming laughter and wide bright energetic eyes! His name is Jesus! He gave us a tour of some of the local highlights here in Nasca, with repeated claims to be the local specialist! What a character.

He brought us to tour a local ceramics factory...not so interesting and the guy presenting his work seemed absolutely bored stiff with us. Then a gold processing center that was quite interesting. The process seemed rather complicated and involved what appeared to be rather terrible mining conditions and the handling of mercury. The most interesting part of it was the final filtration part of extracting the ore from the rock which involved the use of a large scale mortar and pestle if you will, designed large enough for a person to stand on top of it and rock back and forth on a huge stone crushing a mixture of minerals and water beneath them in the large manmade bowl. They rock back and forth in the most artful way...they appear to be dancing. Apparently after several hours of this process the ore and mercury sink to the bottom of the "bowl" being the heaviest...it seemed like a lot of work.

Then on to the cemetery of Chauchula on the outskirts of Nasca where we walked around a series of old tombs that had been opened and ransacked by tomb robbers and scattered haphazardly across the desert at one point. The tombs date back to between 1000 and 1300. The mummies have now been rearranged inside of various tombs with clothing fragments, bones and pottery still scattered all over the earth outside of the tombs...Overall really eerie and I felt really wierd traipsing about on top of and through this cemetary.

Later that evening we headed to a lecture at the Maria Reiche Planetarium on the Nasca Lines. Absolutely stunning show...would be an incredible date spot! After the show the lecturer allowed us to view Jupiter and four of its surrounding moons through this amazing telescope he had...I have decided that I now need one! We were able to zoom in to Jupiter close enough to fill the eyepiece with the entire planet, witnessing its crystalline surface...it made my belly flop as it was so stunning and I had a nonstop smile on my face, not sure I have ever experienced anything like that before. I kept sneaking to the back of the line to view it one more time! Currently adding one more must have to my next partner in crime...must have a telescope!

Off to a beautiful local restaurant where we ate huge portions of local food for the equivalent of $3 followed by beer and more mad skill lacking sessions of pool.

21 May 05

Found Jesus (just like saying that!) for a 7am tour of the Paradones Ruins, then on to a viewing place down the road that just happened to be another cemetery...it is so wierd to walk through scattered bones, ribs, skulls, pottery (which I contemplate knicking to bring home to Dad but can´t force myself to do so...it just seems so wrong). From here we were able to view, as the people of Nasca did, long lines on the soils surface and triangles delineating the direction of water sources.

Off to the Cantallo Aqueducts. These are still in working order and used for the irrigation of nearby agricultural fields. A series of spiraled (for air intake) and concentric circles (for air output) both descending into the earth over the aqueducts. These spiraling ventanas (windows) are still used today by the locals to clean the aqueducts out.

Bid Jesus goodbye and gathered our things to load a bus to Ica then to Pisco. The bus had some fantastic music playing. Dan asked what the name of the musician was and the bus driver took the tape out, which was an unmarked copy, and gave it to us to keep. Now we need to figure out who it is that is playing on it, high hopes that Manuel can help us out.

We get into Pisco, and immediately get a hostel that has a full game room as well as a swimming pool! Pool tables, table tennis, and Fooseball sessions then Dan and I brave the swimming pool which turns out to be quite nice though I had to do it in my underwear!

22 Mayo 05

Picked up at half seven to tour the Islas Ballestas by boat. We saw the Candelabra, a giant figure carved into the coastal sand dunes (150 meters high by 50 meters wide). Again, one can only speculate what its purpose was... some connect it with the Nasca Lines, some say it was a navigational guide for ancient sailors, others yet say that it was linked to the star constellation - The Southern Cross. Still others think that it represents the local Peyote Cactus.

I bought a new baseball cap especially for this boat trip as you are gaurenteed to get pegged by one of the many guano producing birds on the island. Guano is in fact what is harvested from these islands as it is great for the local agriculture and is so thick on the islands that they are continually white in colour. (I resist saying that would be a shitty job...and fail) We saw arches and caves, sea lions, dolphins, pelicans, penguins, the Guanay Cormorant and the Peruvian Booby...sounds a bit naughty doesn´t it?

We wrapped up our day with a visit to the Reserva Nacional de Paracas. Lovely desert landscape and cliff side views over the ocean. Our guide gave me several tiny clam shells that he said were four or five million years old (that seems like a lot of time for error if you ask me). Beautiful rock colours, rich in various minerals, producing rich tones of reds, greens, yellows and blacks...local Peruvian colours.

Lunch at what the gents refer to as a fantastic restaurant. Fish pulled out of the sea only meters away...fresh ceviche...the rabbit ate a squishy salad fortified by Cusqueña...sometimes you have to make the best of things! The sun warms my body, I smell and hear the ocean and sounds of a sexy, smoky voiced Peruvian man playing drums, guitar, and belting out Musica Negra...dressed in his proper clothes looking like Stevie Wonder...warrants a ten sole note from me.

Hopeful bus back to Lima only to end in disappointment as we were unable to see Star Wars III and there was no fried yucca to be found.