We felt like we were starting to get the hang of things now. We remembered to put tissue in our pockets every morning before we left the hostel, because even fancy restaurants didn’t offer toilet paper (in fact they often didn’t have toilet seats). We felt confident in our abilities to get from point A to point B safely, as well as a feel for the people themselves. It was time to move on!
We grabbed a quick lunch at Dunkin Donuts, noticing that even this restaurant had a hired security guard at the door, and checked out of the hostel to begin the next leg of our journey. A taxi took us to the bus depot and we bought one way tickets to Nazca.
It was a two hour wait at the bus stop, but at last we were loaded up and on our way.
The trip to Nazca was not exactly scenic in the common consideration of the term, but it had a rugged beauty that I appreciated. There was nothing but miles and miles of sand with an occasional sand covered mud hut and a few chickens to break up the view. The squatty structures barely able to keep their windows above the level of the sand, looking almost as if they are sinking back into the earth even as we watched.
It was an all day bus ride, and night when we arrived at Nazca, only to discover that our bags were not on our bus. It was very dark, and Nazca is a notoriously dangerous place to be after dark. We didn’t really want to be running around looking for our gear in the middle of the night. In fact, it appeared that even locals didn’t want to be out running around. The few people that did stand on the street were hugging to the lit areas.
Thankfully the bus company had discovered the error in luggage before anyone was able to walk off with our stuff. The bags had arrived an hour before us and were being stored at the company’s headquarters. We gratefully retrieved them from the office and turned around to find an armed guard standing behind us.
He recommended that we allow him to escort us to our hotel, and we were not about to turn that offer down. The guard walked us down the street and across to the Hotel Alegria where another guard stood waiting at the door. The second guard opened the gates for us, walked us to the desk to check in, and then up to our rooms.
The Hotel Alegria is beautiful, even in the dark of night. It has a gorgeous pool and courtyard area. The rooms are adorable with little windows into the courtyard that latch for security. I’m very excited to see how it looks in the morning!
No comments:
Post a Comment