Nazca Lines & Huacachina

Since we crossed into Bolivia nearly 6 weeks ago, Ryan and I have been traveling what is known as “the Gringo Trail”. For those of you who have never heard the term “gringo”, it is what the locals refer to the foreigners down here. When I first heard this back in January, I was bit offended, as I consider myself more of a traveller than a tourist, but I have come to accept the term over time. Let’s face it, it’s better to just say it as it is – I am a gringo, and there is no denying that. Since being on the Gringo Trail, we have found that we tend to run into the same people over and over again, and everyone tends to be on the same path heading through Bolivia and Peru. I’m torn about my feelings towards this. On the one hand, it is always nice to see a friendly face at a hectic bus station. One the other hand, being constantly surrounded by fellow gringos certainly takes away from the authentic experience. It only makes sense that this would be the common route though, as there is so much to see and do. I have found that over the last month, I have been very caught up in packing all of our activities into a blog post that I haven’t spent much time capturing anything other than the experience itself.

A brief recap of our experiences outside of the activities that we’ve done should begin with the people. Although Peruvians are slightly more friendly and outgoing than Bolivians, they are still much more reserved than Argentinians. And although it seems slightly less acceptable in Peru (compared to Bolivia) to use the street as a toilet, and the side of the road as a trash can, this definitely still happens. I have to be honest in that my view of Peru has changed quite a bit since the first time I was here. I still love the country, the food, and the people, but bus travel has opened up my eyes to the way the people treat their country. The sides of the roads are littered with trash, ruining the unbelievable scenery in the country. It’s sad to see, and it’s sad to think that the people here simply don’t take any pride in their country. Being in Peru has been a refreshing change, as the fruit here is delicious. It is definitely no Colombian fruit, but it’s better than what we get in Canada! We’ve eaten our fair share of bananas, pineapples, papayas, and of course avocado. As we begin to make our descent to the coast, I am also looking forward to eating more than my fair share of sea food. In terms of how Ryan and I are feeling in Peru, we are both very comfortable. I’m not sure if this is simply because we’re confident in our level of spanish, or if it’s from being in Latin America for 6 months. Perhaps it’s a mixture of both these things, or perhaps it is because of the number of tourists. Either way, it’s a nice change after feeling a lot of (unnecessary) anxiety in Bolivia.

Moving onto the details of our last few days, we took our last overnight bus of the trip from Arequipa to Nazca almost immediately after returning from the Colca Canyon. When I realized that it was our last overnight bus, I felt a pang of sadness, as I have definitely become a pro at sleeping on overnight buses. Bus rides through South America have also been a great time for thinking, reading, and writing, and having that time to myself is something that I have enjoyed immensely down while being down here. Nevertheless, I was happy when we reached Nazca, and super excited to see the Nazca lines. Our bus arrived at 6:30am, and our flight was scheduled to go at 9:00am, and our bus onwards was scheduled for 12:30pm. Arriving to a very cloudy sky, it was immediately obvious that this plan was not going to happen. The company sent us to get some breakfast, and then took us to the Nazca lines airport around 9am. From there, we proceeded to wait until 2pm before it was our turn to fly, having to push our bus back twice. The entire process was annoying, and in typical Latin American fashion, we kept getting promised that we would be going in 20 minutes, and then when that didn’t happen, it would be only another 20 minutes, and so on… until 5 hours had passed.

Regardless of the time spent waiting, the flight was completely worth it. We went up in a 6 seater prop plane that turned dramatically from left to right, making me feeling like I was on a rollercoaster. I loved every minute of it. The famous lines stretch across 500 square km of desert sand, and look as though they have been carved into the ground with a laser beam. It was interesting to learn that there are actually more than 800 lines spreading across the area in all different directions. Amongst the lines are the intricate figures of a dog, a monkey, a condor, a strange human figure that they call the astronaut, and a spider, just to name a few. The lines are in pristine condition, perfectly symmetrical, and completely outerwordly. For me, the coolest thing about the Nazca lines is how little they know about them. Although there are many theories as to how they came to be, no one really knows how they got there.

After 35 minutes up in the air, we returned safe and sound on the ground, and made our way back to the main town to catch our bus from Nazca to Huacachina, two hours away. Arriving in Huacachina was another strange experience, as it is a tiny oasis nestled amongst the desert sand dunes. The town has a population of 200 people, and has only about 5 restaurants and hotels that circle a small lake with palm trees. Although there isn’t much in Huacachina, we liked it immediately, as it was quiet and peaceful, and it made me feel like I was on vacation somewhere tropical. After checking into our hostel, Ryan and I went for dinner with an older South African couple from our Colca Canyon tour. We went to an amazing restaurant that served delicious Thai food, chatting about anything and everything over 3 courses. When dinner ended, I was sad to say goodbye to our South African friends; despite the age difference, we had definitely built a nice bond and had some great conversation.

Because there isn’t much to do in Huacachina, most people only stay one night, but Ryan and I decided we wanted to spend a day doing nothing. That is exactly what we did, and somehow it still went by super quickly. Before we knew it, it was 4pm and we were heading out to do a dune buggy and sand boarding tour (the main attraction in Huacachina). I was a bit skeptical about the tour at first, but the dune buggying was awesome. Once again, I felt like I was on a rollercoaster, squealing with happiness as we tore over the sand dunes. We stopped 3 times to sandboard, whipping down on snowboards on our bellies. It was like tobogganning, but on sand. We spent 2 hours ripping around the sand dunes before we headed to the top of a high one to watch the sunset. The sun lit up the desert beautifully, making me wish that I was riding around on a camel. I found myself once again mystified that this continent can literally have every landscape. It’s truly amazing.

Once we had returned from our tour, we grabbed some dinner, and packed up our bags for our bus to Lima the following day. Adios desert, we’re off to the coast!