Abancay – Nazca – Palpa

After more than three months I finally got caught out by diarrhoea in Abancay. Because of this I decided to take the bus from Abancay to Nazca the following night. That wasn't that easy. In the morning I went and bought a ticket for a bus at 11pm. But when I arrived at the terminal at 10pm, they told me that that bus didn't exist. But there was another bus at 0:30am. So I waited, and finally the bus arrived at 1:30am. Initially the driver made problems because of the bicycle, but after a call to an administrator of the company everything was solved. I arrived to Nazca at more or less 10am in the morning the following day, pretty tired. I looked for accommodation and rested.

In the hostel I met a group of musicians from Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and I don't know what other country, travelling and earning money with their music on public places and in restaurants, and a German backpacker. In the evening we all cooked together, and later we went into town – but for me only for an hour or even less. I was still too tired.

The following day I didn't do much – I was still recovering from my diarrhoea. I went to an internet cafe, as I had decided to return to Europe from Lima, and not to continue up to Colombia. I'm quite a bit tired of the problems of accommodation and of looking for vegetarian food (or the lack or monotony thereof), and I think it is better to return to Europe after four months of travelling, and not to continue when I do not really enjoy it any more. And so I searched the website of British Airways for a flight from Lima to Madrid using my air miles with British Airways. I found a flight for 4 May, and so I will end my cycling trip through Latin America on 4 May in Lima.

Today I continued – by bicycle – from Nazca to Palpa, cycling through the Peruvian desert. It was pretty hot. At first I went up to a viewing tower over the Nazca Lines, but because of my vertigo I couldn't go up to the top. I then continued through the desert up to the village of San Pablo, where there is the Maria Reiche Museum, dedicated to the German woman who did a lot of work on the Nazca Lines and for their preservation. Their I met two other cyclists – a couple living in Lima – and we chatted for a while. They are doing a much shorter trip – from Lima up to Nazca.

I continued through the desert until shortly before Palpa, where there are some drawings of zoomorphic and antropomorphic images of the Paracas culture dating back to 600-100 BC, many centuries before the Nazca culture.

After another half an hour by bicycle through the desert I arrived to Palpa, a village in the valley of a river, and because of that there is agriculture, especially cultivation of fruits (oranges, mangos, among others).

I looked for accommodation (Hospedaje Claudia, directly on the Panamericana), and rested. In the afternoon I went for a small walk through the village, and then I returned to the hostel to update my blog.