Nazca

Yesterday we headed south along the Panamerican highway to Nazca, Peru. To see the famous NAZCA LINES!

Our tour guide picked us up in his HUGE, old, stretched out car... "like Al Capone"
7 of us squished into it, but luckily we got to sit in the front.

On the way towards the Lines, the tour guide asked us where we were from. We told him Canada, and he said he had a lot of respect for Canadians... in particular, Engineers and Anthropologists... oh the irony.

Then he gave us an in depth description of the area, including every little thing we passed. Including the women... which he had a special horn to honk at them with (it sounds like a whistle). Two of the people we were with didn´t speak Spanish... and it was very obvious that they weren´t understanding anything... So Kristy started translating, and became the offical English version to the trip.

The tour guide was intensely passionate about the Nazca Lines and the Nazca Culture. When he was little the main lady who studied the lines came and spoke in his class, and since then he said he had been obsessed.

We went to a viewing tower, so you can actually see the lines (·aside· if you don´t know what the Nazca Lines are: they are huge lines drawn in the dirt from an ancient culture from around 200 BCE to 700 CE.The lines carry on for miles... but there are also figures such as a lizard, spider, condor, monkey, etc.There is a lot of mystery surrounding the lines because they don´t know exactly how they were made or why.)

Then we went to a huge hill where a lot of the lines meet. The tour guide told us that he sometimes goes out there at the end of the day and has a smoke, a beer,and watches the stars. What a funny man.

Then our hotel... aparently, since we got such a good deal on the room, certain things aren´t included... like the TV doesn´t actually reach the plug in... etc. We were worried they were going to come and take the furniture because we didn´t pay enough...

regardless, we are sitting in the hotel now until our bus comes. We are taking our first night bus at 7pm. For 9 to 11 hours, to Arequipa, Peru. Its our last city before CHILE!!!!

(we are kind of sick of being in Peru, because we are sick of people trying to constantly rip us off... although, the everyday average Peruvian is extremely nice, and always wants to help out.)