Day 16-17: Nazca, Peru

Nazca is noisy! There are always dogs barking in the street, people honk their horns at EVERYTHING, and street vendors have megaphones projecting what they are selling.

We just got back from flying over the Nazca lines. If you don´t know what they are, they are ancient drawings in the Nazca desert. They date back to 300BC and no one knows who made them or what their purpose is, although there are different theories. We went up in a 8 man cesna plane and the flight itself was only about 30 minutes. The plane banked very hard to the right and left and a couple of people felt very sick, Dana included. Our hostel that we stayed at here has been the worst yet unfortunately. We slept in a plywood box pretty much and there is only 2 bathrooms for the entire hostel. The roof top is well decorated with paintings, pictures of Che Guevarra, wicker furniture and is open air which is nice but everything else we had to struggle through.

Tonight we are taking a bus up to Cuzco. Dana, Isabelle, and I all opted for the first class bus on which we get dinner and breakfast and they play good movies too. The seats will be very wide and leather and will be more comfortable on our 18 hr. ride up to Cuzco. (We felt like we deserved it after our ordeal in Nazca.) Jorge is taking the second class bus which is still nice but leaves later at night. Honestly, Dana and I can´t wait to get up to Cuzco. We´ve heard such good things. Also it will be good for us to have a couple of extra days to acclimate to the altitude. The city is 11,152 feet above sea level and will take several days for us to get used to.

All in all, seeing the Nazca lines was definitely worth the $45 and if you´re down here you might as well do it, but my advice to someone in the future would be to come in early, take the flight and enjoy it, and then leave Nazca behind. We´re ready to get out of the sandbox!