Day 429 – Nazca to Arequipa
Today we bought our bus tickets to leave Nazca using the Redbus App. The tickets for the 8.35pm night bus with Civa, cost 70 PEN ($30.67 AUD) per person (p/p). Following this, we packed and had breakfast before leaving on our 9am tour. We checked out of the room, leaving our bags in the lobby.
Cantalloc Aqueducts Tour
Our tour was booked yesterday (Day 428), from the Aero Santos office close to the Civa and Oltursa Bus Terminals for 35 PEN ($15.33 AUD) p/p (not including entrance fees).
Los Paredones
Our pick up arrived at 9.10am and we drove to the first destination. The driver/guide brought her daughter along, but she was super well behaved. It turned out to be a private tour. At the Paredones office, we paid 10 PEN ($4.38 AUD) p/p for a single ticket that is valid for all of today’s sites.
The Paredones were an administrative centre for the Nazca people. There is a collapsed pyramid and several buildings that are thought to be for rituals. The guide told us that some of the Nazca lines are used to help the common people (who live in the mountains) to walk to the pyramids.
After a brief description, we were able to walk around the site. This took around 10 minutes, as the site is pretty small.
Cantalloc Aqueducts
Our next destination was the Cantalloc Aqueducts. We had seen these from above, yesterday, but they are just as impressive up close. The channel that is open in parts is apparently 300km long, and brings water from the mountains. There were 18 spiral entry points and one small entry point. Apparently the water is always flowing, and in the months of January to March, the water level is meant to be a lot higher. The round shaped rocks are meant to be earthquake proof.
We spent around 20 minutes walking around the aqueducts. They are really cool and unique. We think that our guide wasn’t an official guide, as she would stay outside of the archaeological areas.
El Telar
The final destination on the tour is El Telar, which is part of the Nazca Lines. All photos of these lines on promotional material shows a grid shape. We could not see this grid. I assume the photos are taken from a drone.
After a short walk to the viewpoint we could see a large line going to the mountain. The views of the surrounding mountain range including Cerro Blanco (massive sand dune) were nice.
Following this, we were driven back to town and dropped off at the Plaza de Armas at our request. The tour finished just before 10am.
Rest of the day
This left us with heaps of time until our bus ride later in the night. We had lunch at La Kasa Rustika (the chicken spaghetti and lemonade is really nice) before walking back to our hotel to chill in the common area.
Chicken Spaghetti
My wife went for a swim in the pool, while I just dipped my feet into the refreshing water. Besides that we just relaxed as the sun went down.
At 7.30pm, we asked the hotel to call us a cab. The ride to the Civa terminal cost us 5 PEN ($2.19 AUD). At the terminal we were told that the bus would arrive around 9pm or later, instead of the scheduled 8.35pm.
Therefore we headed across the road to Mom’s Cafe for some snacks. At 9pm, we went back to the terminal. The bus arrived at 9.30pm. It was almost full when we got on. We were provided with a small dinner of chicken and rice. We fell asleep as we rode 560km further south.