Day 19-20 / Nazca

We arrived in Nazca in the afternoon. Our hostel was nice and very centrally located, just 2 blocks from Plaza de Armas. After checking in, we walked through the city to an Inca museum. There, we got information about the Nazca Lines among other things. On the bus ride to Nazca, we passed a small observation tower. However, reviews on the internet explicitly recommended taking a flight if you want to see the lines in their full extent. So we asked our hostel and various airlines about the offers and prices.

In the end, we made a reservation with movil air and the next morning, we were picked up by a van 10 minutes before the agreed time to take us to the airport. The airport is mainly used for flights over the Nazca Lines and it looks quite small. There, we had to pay an additional 'airport fee' of 30 Soles per person. After a relatively short time, we went through a very poor security check and then boarded our small plane with about five other people. The flight lasted about 30 minutes and we were advised to have a light breakfast beforehand. In order to see out of the window better, we tilted to the left and right over the individual figures. It was truly amazing, considering the largest figure is over 300 meters long. The Incas really did precise work, even though it is still unclear today how they managed it without an aerial view.

From Nazca to Cusco, there were only night buses available, which were also too expensive for us. Therefore, after nightfall, we took all our luggage and went to a main road in the direction of Cusco to hitchhike and find a cheaper bus. There, surrounded by strange characters, we waited for two hours and in the meantime, we gathered information from other people. We would have had to wait at least until 9 pm for the first buses to arrive, and it wouldn't even have been much cheaper because we were only 2 km away from the actual starting point of the buses.

Then we decided to take the cheapest bus from the many companies at 9 pm from the terminal. The bus arrived from Lima with some people and a very strong smell. Lenja and I didn't have a pleasant night and could at most doze off in half sleep. The reason was the very cold air conditioning during the night and the winding road, which made me sway back and forth in every curve. During the 14-hour bus ride, we covered a height difference of over 3000 meters until we finally arrived in Cusco.

~Viktor