The South American Adventure - Day 7!!
Day 7 - It's Kind of a Funny Story
While traveling, if you can't adapt, you won't make it long...
We woke up early enough this morning. And then came to the horrible realization. The mountain kicked our asses mightily. Turning over to one side took a Herculean effort. Getting off the bed was excruciating. And let's not even discuss how we looked/felt going down the stairs for breakfast. Oy.
But we had places to go and people to see. Today, we hopped (painfully so) on a bus to Nazca. Now I will freely admit, I had never heard of Nazca before Adele said we HAD to go. I'm game for going places (obviously), so let's do this. As for Nazca itself...more detail tomorrow. If you want to go today, feel free to go to your public library...or Wikipedia.
We had plenty of time before our bus to Nazca, which was good because we were walking like old folks after a hip replacement. Our check out was 9a, but we stretched the limits a bit. Packing is becoming more interesting as we go along. Souvenirs have taken up valuable space and we don't want anything to break. Post packing/breakfast, we hung out in the common area for a while, utilizing the free WiFi for just a bit longer. We think there's WiFi in the next hotel, but we have been fooled before.
Our hotel in Nazca was always our biggest worry. We had a confirmation, but not in an email. And they were notoriously difficult to get a hold of. So in "downtown Cusco" we called the hotel. Voice Mail. We tried the New Jersey number. Voice Mail. We had a back up hotel, whose sister hotel was next door to where we were making calls. We walked in and spoke to the front desk guy. The Casa Andina Nazca would be an additional $20 per night, but it was confirmed. We were both fine with this, so we made a change.
If only that was the only change we had to make this day.
The bus station was pretty nice. I didn't know what to expect when we got there. But it was clear and modern. I couldn't complain. We had to change our voucher into tickets and there was a bit of confusion/concern about whether or not the bus stopped in Nazca. We got that straightened out and asked the woman at the counter when we were going to arrive in Nazca. She said about 6a.
Stunned silence.
Surely she meant 6a for the Lima stop. Right??
We didn't let the information faze us for too long. After checking our bags and triple checking that the bus stopped in Nazca, we grabbed a quick sandwich. There was a quick conversation with a German girl at a table and asked if she knew when the bus stopped in Nazca. "Oh, it takes about 16 hours."
Stunned silence plus quick math equals 6a.
Well...that changes our plans a little. No, a lot.
The good news is that we are quick on our feet. Between the time we boarded and the time we rolled out of the bus station, both the hotel and the tour line (to fly the lines...more tomorrow) had been contacted. All we could do at this point was to sit back for the 16 hours.
They played movies (The Italian Job made me miss my MINI), but I didn't realize until the end of Avatar that they were playing English on one of the channels. Dammit!! Luckily, I had plenty of books on the iPad and the charge was still pretty good. Unluckily, Adele was dealing with an unfortunate case of motion sickness. And she was in the window seat. We were both hoping to fall asleep and stay asleep for a long while. 6a can't come soon enough.
3a - Somewhere in the bowels of the Peru Countryside...
I wish someone would have knocked me in the head with a mallet. Or maybe a tranquilizer gun used for farm animals. I've been on a La-Z Boy-like chair for 11 hours now and maybe have gotten an hours worth of sleep. The only thing getting me through at this point is the knowledge that there is a pool in our new hotel. That will be an excellent way to spend the afternoon.
And hey!! We were two hours early!! We are now safe and sound in a hotel room, hoping to get a small amount of sleep tonight before we go fly the lines. I'm also jazzed cause we're going to hand over some clothes to get cleaned. After yesterday at Machu Picchu, we need laundry to happen. Desperately.
While traveling, if you can't adapt, you won't make it long...
We woke up early enough this morning. And then came to the horrible realization. The mountain kicked our asses mightily. Turning over to one side took a Herculean effort. Getting off the bed was excruciating. And let's not even discuss how we looked/felt going down the stairs for breakfast. Oy.
But we had places to go and people to see. Today, we hopped (painfully so) on a bus to Nazca. Now I will freely admit, I had never heard of Nazca before Adele said we HAD to go. I'm game for going places (obviously), so let's do this. As for Nazca itself...more detail tomorrow. If you want to go today, feel free to go to your public library...or Wikipedia.
We had plenty of time before our bus to Nazca, which was good because we were walking like old folks after a hip replacement. Our check out was 9a, but we stretched the limits a bit. Packing is becoming more interesting as we go along. Souvenirs have taken up valuable space and we don't want anything to break. Post packing/breakfast, we hung out in the common area for a while, utilizing the free WiFi for just a bit longer. We think there's WiFi in the next hotel, but we have been fooled before.
Our hotel in Nazca was always our biggest worry. We had a confirmation, but not in an email. And they were notoriously difficult to get a hold of. So in "downtown Cusco" we called the hotel. Voice Mail. We tried the New Jersey number. Voice Mail. We had a back up hotel, whose sister hotel was next door to where we were making calls. We walked in and spoke to the front desk guy. The Casa Andina Nazca would be an additional $20 per night, but it was confirmed. We were both fine with this, so we made a change.
If only that was the only change we had to make this day.
The bus station was pretty nice. I didn't know what to expect when we got there. But it was clear and modern. I couldn't complain. We had to change our voucher into tickets and there was a bit of confusion/concern about whether or not the bus stopped in Nazca. We got that straightened out and asked the woman at the counter when we were going to arrive in Nazca. She said about 6a.
Stunned silence.
Surely she meant 6a for the Lima stop. Right??
We didn't let the information faze us for too long. After checking our bags and triple checking that the bus stopped in Nazca, we grabbed a quick sandwich. There was a quick conversation with a German girl at a table and asked if she knew when the bus stopped in Nazca. "Oh, it takes about 16 hours."
Stunned silence plus quick math equals 6a.
Well...that changes our plans a little. No, a lot.
The good news is that we are quick on our feet. Between the time we boarded and the time we rolled out of the bus station, both the hotel and the tour line (to fly the lines...more tomorrow) had been contacted. All we could do at this point was to sit back for the 16 hours.
They played movies (The Italian Job made me miss my MINI), but I didn't realize until the end of Avatar that they were playing English on one of the channels. Dammit!! Luckily, I had plenty of books on the iPad and the charge was still pretty good. Unluckily, Adele was dealing with an unfortunate case of motion sickness. And she was in the window seat. We were both hoping to fall asleep and stay asleep for a long while. 6a can't come soon enough.
3a - Somewhere in the bowels of the Peru Countryside...
I wish someone would have knocked me in the head with a mallet. Or maybe a tranquilizer gun used for farm animals. I've been on a La-Z Boy-like chair for 11 hours now and maybe have gotten an hours worth of sleep. The only thing getting me through at this point is the knowledge that there is a pool in our new hotel. That will be an excellent way to spend the afternoon.
And hey!! We were two hours early!! We are now safe and sound in a hotel room, hoping to get a small amount of sleep tonight before we go fly the lines. I'm also jazzed cause we're going to hand over some clothes to get cleaned. After yesterday at Machu Picchu, we need laundry to happen. Desperately.
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