Nasca Peru !!

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I'll pick up where she left off, after the glorious sunset on the dunes of Huacachina. We climbed down from the dunes, showered, packed and relaxed the evening away by chatting with our Swiss roommate and other people at the hostel. The most popular question people have for us, when they discover we are from the U.S., is whether we are voting Trump or Clinton. Every single European person has asked, as always U.S. politics are all over their news as well. Believe me, I knew these questions were coming long before we left home. The topic has lead to some very interesting conversations to say the least. 

Anyway, after a bit of gabbing at the hostel we went to sleep. We woke up early the next morning (October 30th) to find out the entire town of Huacachina was out of power. This meant no electricity and no water. We are three some what spoiled girls and are not used to living with out these things, especially with no wi-fi ;-) Apparently this happens a lot in this town so we rolled with it. The staff at the hostel were still so nice and accommodating. Luckily for us the stove was gas so we still had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bread and coffee. 

Maria and I played cards (we played a game called Nerts, other people call is spit, dutch blitz, or pounce. It is extremely fun and I swear I could play it all day) and Andrea took a nap. Even with no water or electricity it was super relaxing and time passed easily until we left Huacachina for Ica in order to catch our bus to Nasca. We arrived at the Cruz del Sur bus station and learned the entire city of Ica was also out of power. Ica is a much larger city than Huacachina. It did not seem to effect the bus station though and we were soon checked in and waiting for the bus. It was a bit challenging to know which bus we were waiting for. We arrived early, but there were no signs and the announcements were only in Spanish. We had previous checked our bags in and we assumed it was our bus when the bus station worker moved our bags to a luggage cart  and sat it next to a particular bus. A few minutes later we heard a long announcement in Spanish and were able to pick out the word "Nasca". They checked our tickets, let us through and we found our seats. It was a double decker bus and we were on the top, AKA the cheap seats. The view was killer from the front windows and they played American movies in Spanish with English subtitles. It was a quick, comfortable and picturesque 2.5 hour bus ride to Nasca city.

Culture shocked occurred quickly when we arrived in Nasca. Full disclosure, we were actually thinking about changing our plans and wanted to skip over this town. We had heard it is boring, dumpy and there were no good places to stay. People said an afternoon is all you needed there, and to not spend the night. I believed what they said 100% our first 15 minutes of being in this town. The bus station was basically a folding table with people milling about everywhere. There seemed to be no structure or organization what so ever. We quickly grabbed our bags and bolted. We were stopped by several people trying to sell us excursions to the Nasca lines and there were no taxis in sight. Side note, due to the wi-fi being out at the previous hostel we did not have time to confirm a ride or download a map, we felt completely lost. The streets seemed crowded, filthy and stray dogs were everywhere, we had no idea what direction to go in. Then life/attitude/perspective changed 180 degrees. A kind lady saw three confused girls, loaded down with luggage and found us a taxi. We were able to tell the driver where to take us and five minutes later we were there. Our hostel is named Nasca Lodge and we were greeted by the owner and she even payed the 5 soles for our cab ride. The owners name is Maribel. She is young, kind and funny. She is extremely proud of her hostel, and no surprise why, it is so clean and comfortable. We were thrilled to have a private room with a private bathroom. We had been sharing dorm style accommodations since arrival in Peru and we were happy to have a room to ourselves. Yay to no middle of the night door slamming or walking across the court yard for the bathroom!!

After celebrating our wonderful accommodations (which in a town this small a private room was as cheap as the dorms in the bigger cities) we threw our stuff down and left to go explore the city. Maribel made us a very detailed map and we headed for the town square, to the grocery store and then a restaurant she recommended. The street the hostel is on is a mix of nice and run down buildings. It really is something to see, pictures are down below. To say this area isn't touristy is hitting the nail on the head. There are zero other hostels or restaurants in this area. It is all people's homes and local businesses. Walking down the street we noticed a nose of cow laying there with half of the teeth still in place, like...just a cow nose laying there just on the road lol. It was weird and comical. I do not want to scare our mothers with further details but this neighborhood has been an experience. A few short blocks away it opens up to the town square. This area is packed with towns people, restaurants, shops and markets. It is a beautiful town square with a church, fountain and plenty of benches to sit on. The people in Nasca are what make this town so phenomenal, people smile and say hola all the time. They wish us good day and have been the friendliest we've encountered in Peru. We ate a place called La Estacion, dinner was cheap and delicious, there are pictures down below. We went to the grocery store before to stock up snack foods and water. We did a bit more exploring and headed back before dark. On the way back we encounter an anti-halloween parade a block over from where there was a costume shop and people trying on costumes...awkward lol. We were once again greeted by Maribel and we planned our next day in Nasca. We then retreated to our nice, clean and private room. We caught up with family and friends and relaxed. We heard beautiful live music from the street and saw fireworks off in the distance. This is a big celebration weekend in Nasca and we were happy to see and hear some of the celebrations. 

The next day, is today !! It is Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, in fact it is the first time in a long time I did not have a halloween costume or go trick or treating with my little brothers. It is the first of many U.S. holidays we will be missing but we could not have spent the day a better way. We visited the Cemetery of Chauchilla, which is a sacred Nasca place where there are tombs filled with 2,000 year old mummies. The place was way out in the middle of a nowhere desert. It was a long bumpy ride, over 19 km from Nasca city to be exact, but totally worth it. We had a guide named Carlos who studied three years at college to be tour guide. Carlos knew as much to know about the ancient Nasca civilization as there is record. These people had no written language and only left behind the mysterious Nasca lines, Nasca pyramids and the tombs we visited today. There are numerous theories of how the lines and pyramids were built but nothing concrete. They were a very mysterious civilization who were extremely spiritual. The desert they called home is an extremely difficult place to live, but they considered it sacred. This civilization existed even before the Inca's and long, long, long before the Spanish arrived. Every person who died was mummified to ensure an easy transition to the after life. The ancient Nasca people usually only lived to be 35-40 years of age, they usually died of starvation, malnutrition and lack of water, desert living is tough people!! They were buried in tombs after their organs (except the brain) were removed and they were covered with salt, minerals and oils. They were wrapped in thick cotton cloth and arranged sitting up in the fetal position, always facing east toward the sun. What a history lesson lol. Their bones look so white. You can even see their skin and nails on some. The dry desert heat have kept them extremely well preserved. The weirdest part about this cemetery was the fact that grave robbers came and scattered bones everywhere!! We almost stepped on them. It was creepy. The grave robbers wanted the fancy Nasca pottery and textiles this civilization was famous for, they didn't care about the mummies, they just left them scattered. It was quite the learning experience. Edwardo also took us to see a family who created pottery the ancient way the Nasca people did. Their work is a labor of love and was really cool to see. We also saw textiles made from Llama and alpacas and jewelry made from the precious stones surrounding Nasca city. All in all it was a very educational and spooky day. It was a very fitting place to spend Halloween :) 

       We went to another local restaurant for lunch, it was delicious. For $2.50 USD we had a drink, appetizer and an entree. It's unreal how affordable this town is. I am so happy we weren't scared off. For a minute in the beginning I thought about running back to the bus lol. We are relaxing now before we catch our overnight bus to Arequipa at 10pm tonight. We should arrive early tomorrow and will be staying with Maribel's cousin Rosecia at her hostel!! We are excited to be heading to the second biggest city in Peru. It's nickname is the "White City" and other travelers we have talked to said they loved it. We found an unexpected gem in Nasca and hope for equally great things in Arequipa. Stay tuned!!!