Nasca

V!VA User‘s Description

The town of Nasca is a dusty outpost in the San José desert. The town and area would be unremarkable if it were not for the Nasca Lines, a series of 70 or so large designs etched into the dry desert outside of town.

Nasca itself is a ramshackle town that has learned how to live off the tourist trade. Visitors to the town who arrive by bus will be greeted by a small swarm of pushy locals wishing to sell tours to the lines or try to get them to stay in certain hotels. The best way to see the lines is to go through reputable agencies, of which there are several available in town.

The best hotels are located outside of the town itself. As tourism has bloomed in the area, there are several hotels to choose from, with a range of prices and services.

There is more to Nasca than the lines. The town is also a taking-off point for adventure travel: visitors can go sandboarding on Cerro Blanco, a nearby enormous dune, or go mountain biking or horseback riding. There is good hiking as well, and four-wheel safaris to several points of interest can be arranged at the Hotel Cantayo. The town boasts two museums: the Museo Antonini highlights the ancient cultures from the region and has an excellent pottery collection, and Casa-Museo Maria Reiche is dedicated to preserving the life work of Maria Reiche, a German mathematician who spent decades studying and documenting the Nasca lines. For shoppers, the town is known for pottery.

Four kilometers outside of town is the Cantayoc Aqueduct and the Inca ruins of Paredones. Both sites can be reached by taxi, or go with a guide from the city. Travel agencies can also take you to the Chauchilla cemetery, about a half-hour from town. Some of the ancient tombs have been restored, but mostly the area, littered with skulls and bones, is interesting as a testament to the destructiveness of grave robbers, who have plundered the area for years, occasionally with the use of modern tools such as bulldozers. Cahuichi is another archaeological site nearby: it is a complex that consists of about 40 pyramids.