Travelling in Peru - and the road to Nazca

Getting around in Peru can be an interesting experience. First of all there are the taxis, and lots of them. Some look pretty much you´d expect taxis to look, albeit rather tiny at times - so much so that my backpack fell out of the boot of one, fortunately after it had stopped! Others claiming to be taxis are clearly well worn family cars with a reportedly easy to purchase taxi sticker in the window. Then there is the shared taxi idea; we got in one cab towards the centre of Lima one afternoon, which promptly stopped to pick up a few other people, so it was a bit like getting on a small bus. The buses themselves also seem a bit haphazard - we were advised to use cabs not because buses are unsafe (we really haven´t felt at all threatened here) but because you get the distinct impression that the destinations listed may not be the eventual calling points. And then there´s the driving. It pretty much fits the stereotype - excessive use of horns and complete disregard for such pointless inventions as road signs, road markings etc.

So, suffice to say, we were a little apprehensive about choosing from a long list of available bus companies to take us the 8 hours to Nasca (or Nazca, depending on where it´s written). Not quite ready to throw ourselves fully into the backpacker experience, and still having plenty of dollars in our pockets, we went for the most luxurious and highly recommended option. Cruz del Sur is one of the biggest bus companies here and in short luxury really is the word. Even Andrew had enough space to stretch his legs out, we got a hot lunch and if it wasn´t for the driver´s constant overtaking with very little room for error (we had the top deck front seats, won´t be doing that again) it would have been as good as bus trips can get.

As for Nasca itself, I´ll leave that to Andrew - but all I will say is that I really positively enjoyed going up in the little Cessna plane, which has been one of my biggest suprises of the trip so far.

Cath (& Andrew)
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