We parked ourselves on a verandah overlooking a neighbouring square where several of the groups were assembling. We thought we had better have coffee just for appearances, and then found some interesting looking snippets on the menu and ended up ordering a trout ceviche and a nachos and guacamole, which we thought would be little snacks.
The cappucino turned out to be 90% hot milk and froth, separated by a thin band of coffee. They do like to serve stratified cappucinos here. Predictably, the first 2 sips took care of the coffee and left me with a glass of warm milk mmmmm. The guacamole was light on garlic but came with very large, blistered nachos on a large plate. The ceviche had thick medallions of trout that had been cured in lime and onion with more coriander than I would have put in there. It sat on a bed of the pickled onion and came with medallions of sweet potato and bits of corn on the cob. The Peruvians have HUGE corn. Each corn thingie was the size of a fingernail - you should see how big they get when they make popcorn! We felt quite stuffed after these two snacks.
By then the parade was getting ready so we headed them off at the entrance to the square and watched the first few go by. We will let the photos do the heavy lifting here, but suffice it to say that a lot of work had gone into the costumes and the dance steps. The dancing was old folk/peasant farmers dancing - very vigorous and accompanied by gesturing with the simple farm tools that many of them carried. The women wore pleated skirts that flared up when they twirled round. Most of the groups had bands and there was a 2 man bull. This was obviously a cultural tradition that was close to the hearts of a lot of Peruvians.
Bakers
Pampas grass hats
Bull fight
Mardi gras time
Traditional
More mardi gras fun
From there we split to perform our individual duties - I went to the bank to draw another heap of cash and J went to tick off the final museum. We sat around the hostel until 5 then went to catch our Cruz del sur (Southern Cross) luxury coach.
We had been looking forward to this ride but it was generally a large disappointment. The agent had booked us the two front seats downstairs, which face the toilet bulkhead and receive the main thump each time the cabin door is opened. The chairs were well padded and reclined almost completely, but we were both short of about an inch in leg room, which made for uncomfortable rest. The windows were heavily smoked and they suggested that we keep the curtains closed "for our safety?"
It was noticeable that we were all videod as we were scanned by the magnetic wand before getting on, and then the security man came on board and videod each of us sitting in our seats. This might be to facilitate recognitin of shattered and charred corpses, or to discourage terrorist/bandits who have been known to hold up these long distance coaches in the middle of nowhere and hold passengers to ransom.
We couldn't see anything and the bus soon took to rapid left and right turns as we climbed out of the hills round Cuzco. This continued throughout the 15 hour trip. The speed was displayed on a screen at the front and it was nearly always 35-45 kph. If the drivers got above 90kph the alarm sounded but this only happened 3 times. J was sick after about 2 hours and it was certainly a very strange and unsettling experience to be shaken around like that. The coach was very well stabilised but the direction changes were constant. Going to the toilet (#1 only!!!) was fraught with peril while you were standing up and urinating upright was totally impossible.
Dawn found us out in a desolate landscape of soft sedimentary rock that had been heavily eroded. Each ridge had adopted the shape of a hand laid flat with fingers outstretched and the road followed the contours around each finger - hard left, hard right etc. Moving on to the next ridge entailed a series of switchbacks to get down to the base level, then more to get up the other side. There was scarcely a tuft of ground cover to be seen, but at the floor level it was quite green in patches, with the odd dwelling, usually of adobe.
We arrived at Nazca an hour early and were so keen to get out of the compound that I forgot to ask any of the upstairs passengers how they fared. For me, the experience was a prolonged period of seeing reality through the lens of a camera that was being swung energetically from side to side.
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