Quick facts: Locals built runways here for aliens; GPS: -14.82759, -74.93705; GMT-5; Altitude: 1710′
Nazca – The next morning I got up and tried to have breakfast somewhere but most places didn’t open until 07:30 or 08:00 so it was a little later than I would have liked. I found a place near the beach and ate quick so I could get back to my room and get ready to catch the next leg.
I opted to skip this part with Peru Hop and the bus company I did find only had one bus going to Nazca, however it left at 09:45. So because of that I couldn’t go on the Ballestas Islands tour which would have been cool as it’s called the poor man’s Galápagos.
I caught the bus with no issues and made a bee line for Nazca. I decided to do this because I was much more interested in seeing the Nazca lines than going to Huacachina for a day like I would have if I had followed the Peru Hop itinerary. The bus ride went by pretty quick and I was in Nazca before too long even though it was several hours later. From the bus stop I caught a taxi and went to check in at my hotel.
After checking and getting some laundry started I walked around Nazca a little. There are a few things to see here other than the lines but really I wasn’t interested in them and decided to take it easy instead. After having dinner at this place called Rico Pollo, I went to the Nazca Lines Hotel and checked on the tour/light show that the hotel offers. The English show started at 19:30, so I just waited around the 45 minutes or so looking at the photos and enjoying a Pisco sour.
At 19:30 the guide came and got the group. We started by looking at the big scale model that is in the lobby, pointing out where the lines are, why they are there, and some of the history behind them. After that he took us to see the outside of the room where Maria Reiche lived for the last 25 years or so of her life. She’s an interesting woman and it was cool to learn a bit about her and what role she played there in Nazca and with the Lines themselves. The main attraction though is a light show in the planetarium and the guide talks more about the history and how the lines were discovered. Over all it was worth the hour and S/20 for the ticket even though he never collected them. I’d do it over again. By the time the show at the planetarium ended it was getting late so I caught a taxi and went back to the hotel and went to bed.