This is a sad and sobering post. But also, what the hell, Nazca?
We came here expecting history, mystery, and a bit of that ancient wonder you get from a place steeped in legend. What we found was a town that feels like it’s been left behind forgotten by time, abandoned by hope, and, apparently, by any sense of basic sanitation.
Nazca greeted us with torrential rain, which we later learned is about as common here as a tourist walking away saying, “That was totally worth it.” Luckily, our bus dropped us right at the hotel door, which turned out to be decent clean, comfortable, and mercifully a little out of the way. That, as it turns out, was a major win.
Because the town itself? Oh boy.
Nazca, without a doubt, is the most run-down place we have ever visited. And not in a charming, rustic, “oh look, the paint is peeling” kind of way. This is a town that has straight-up given up on itself. Missing sewer covers reveal murky streams of filth running down the roads. Kids splash in what we can only hope was just rainwater (but, deep down, we know it wasn’t). The general atmosphere? Somewhere between dystopian future and that place your mum told you never to wander into alone.
You ever get that feeling that you’re being watched, and not in a friendly, curious locals way? More in a “I hope my travel insurance covers being mugged” way? Yeah, that was Nazca in a nutshell.
We had one solid plan in Nazca visiting the ancient aqueducts. A bit of cool, old school engineering that actually works! But the flooding? It had other ideas. Trip cancelled. So, we did what any sensible travellers would do we wandered the town to see what was what.
We wanted to visit an Inca site, because of our cancelled trip hey, if you’re in Peru, you chase history. We didn’t make it even halfway there, we made the executive decision to turn around in the interest of keeping our belongings and possibly our lives. Turns out, we weren’t the only ones. When we were on the bus to Arequipa, we met others who had the same experience. One couple walked the full hour to get there, only to find it shut despite the door saying open :P. A Peruvian girl travelling on the bus we met told us the town made her cry not out of awe, but out of sheer sadness.
Alright, let’s talk about the big draw, the Nazca Lines. These world famous geoglyphs, etched into the desert thousands of years ago, are one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all time.
And yet.
No other country on Earth would look at a world wonder and go, “You know what this needs? A highway through it.” But Peru did. There’s a literal road running through the Nazca Lines. Incredible.
And as for seeing them? You can take a flight over them, for a price. Or, you can stand on a viewing platform that gives you a very underwhelming glimpse of just a couple of them. Either way, the whole experience left us feeling like we’d just fallen for the world’s most elaborate tourist trap.
Nazca could be amazing. It has history, mystery, and should be a place that leaves you speechless for the right reasons. Instead, it left us speechless because we just couldn’t believe how rundown, unsafe, and neglected it felt.
If you must visit, do it fast. See the lines if you’re determined, spend as little as possible, and move on. Preferably before nightfall.
P.S our over night bus our of Nazca was amazing kids were great and we arrived in the White City at 6am, the journey was a bit bumpy there was several land slides we had to navigate, first glimpses of this City show you the heavy Spanish influence and miles of buildings that have been well maintained, this is a place that appears on first look to be chalk and cheese, the Peruvian girl told us that Arequipa has been pushing for independence from Peru and on first looks I can see why you could be stood in a European city.
P.P.S to top it all off my phone broke on our last night in Nazca.
