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Flag - Peru Deserts, cactii and banditos
7 May 2000

The dust clouds billowed up and we were jolted out of our seats again. Another cactus bounced past, and we careered around another blind/hairpin corner on the mountainside. The unreassuring view out of the window continuously showed Andean mountaintops and the huge drops, but didn't always include the road surface.

This bus journey from Cuzco to Nazca was a real paranoia trip. We'd taken a taxi to Cuzco bus terminal and congratulated ourselves on avoiding the Cuzco Taxi Strangle Mugging. This particularly nasty form of mugging is a recent Cuzco speciality - it sounds ridiculous, but anyone can buy a 'Taxi' sticker to put on their windscreen. Typically you get in the 'Taxi', a few blocks later the driver's friends get in, you get strangled to unconsciousness and robbed.

Forewarned is forearmed - it had happened to friends of people we met, so we avoided taxis whenever possible. So, still congratulating ourselves, we walked over to our bus, and immediately clocked that it was the only one in the Terminal with raised suspension and huge tyres. The fact that we were having to take a nightbus was bad enough (strongly advised against in the Lonely Planet because of theft), but getting a 4WD overland encounter into the bargain?

In an attempt to find out more about the likely road conditions across the Andes we re-read the Nazca section in our Lonely Planet. Quote - "Cuzco to Nazca via Abancay is not recommended because of banditry" - how we missed this sentence before, god only knows.

The first time the bus had to manoeuvre around huge boulders in the road, we were thinking, landslide or bandits??? Suffice to say, not much sleep was had. And we now know that hiding banknotes in your (well, our) socks makes them smell cheesy.

At Nazca we went up in a tiny plane over the world's driest desert - a pathetic average rainfall of 50 minutes/year - to see the amazing Nazca Lines. These geometric drawings were made with stones by the Nazca people c.2000 years ago, and are only visible from the air. Representations of animals and humans, 100-280m long - fantastic.

After touchdown we headed into the desert overland to a Nazca cemetery at Chaucillo. The arid conditions make for near-perfect preservation, so we came face to face with open tombs with sun-bleached human skulls, bones and mummies. Some still had skin, hair and clothing intact, years old, all in the middle of the desert - spooooky and slightly surreal!

From Nazca it was south on another nightbus (living dangerously) to Arequipa. Not the 4WD variety this time, just an incredibly cramped one, for 9hrs down the coastal desert strip. Peruvians do NOT have long legs. Had ½hr to stretch our legs before connecting with an 11hr journey across more desert and back over the top of the Andes to Puno. This time our cramped seats, right beneath the TV loudspeaker, refused to recline. Having endured a shouting preacher for over an hour, a deafeningly loud film came on. Cue dramatic music and the opening line: "YOU HAVE 48HRS TO FIND ME ANOTHER CHAMPION KICKBOXER!!". Nothing but Hollywood's best on these buses!

Covered over 1000 uncomfortable and sleepless kms in the last few days, and now we're off to try to catch up on some zzzz's ....

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