October 12, 2005
Day 14
This was a travel day. I got up early because there was so much noise. Every morning here there are barking dogs, honking horns, and Cock-a-doodle-doing roosters. This begins at sunrise, so it has been very difficult for me to get enough sleep lately. It's a very noisy culture.
My morning was spent updating my website. I had a lot of pictures to upload from the Islas Ballestas tour, so it took several hours.
In the afternoon, Morad and I took a bus to Nazca, home of the famous Nazca lines. We found a hostel to stay in for $5 per night for a double room with a private bath. Not as cheap as Huaraz, but still I can can't complain.
Before we could even get to our room, we were taken to another room and given a big speech about the Nazca Lines flight. We had been asking various people about the price for a few days, so we already had a good idea of what to expect.
Back in Huaraz, a crazy bartender told us that most tourists get charged about $60, but if you go directly to the airport, you can go for as cheap as $10 if there is a vacant seat on a plane. He then proceded to extend his arms in roughly the shape of airplane wings to show us what a wild ride it would be. I left there wondering if it was the plane or him who was flying.
In Pisco, the same guy who sold us the islands/national reserve tickets for $12 offered us Nazca flight tickets. He gave us a brochure that quoted a price of $79. When we laughed in his face, he revealed that he had in fact given us a competitor's brochure and that his company only charged $55. We told him thanks, but we were going to shop around in Nazca.
When the tourist agency guy sat us down at our hostel in Nazca, he gave us a $55 quote. We said that it was too expensive, so he reduced it to $40. It's funny how they always lean in and lower their voice when they lower their prices, as if they are risking their job just for us. We still said that we could go cheaper. He said, "No way you will find cheaper tickets." We told him that we would shop around and go with him if that was indeed the case.
It was already getting late, and I was still exhausted, so I just went to bed early in hopes of finding a better deal tomorrow.
I hope you tried Pisco "the drink" before you left Pisco :-)
Hi Rohit. Yes I tried Pisco, the national drink of Peru. Of course, the people in Chile also consider it to be their national drink as well. Maybe I'll even have a few more Piscos tonight.