The Bus to Nasca

Travel Tip!!! Take the night bus from Nasca to Arequipa or vice versa. Unless you are a fan of the moon's surface or a glutton for punishment, the 9 hour bus ride should be used to save you the cost of a hotel for the night as there is nothing to see along the way.

You do end up along the Pacific Ocean for a while, but there are sandstorms all along the coast.
We were able to see some workers performing the new worst job ever - one moving sand with a bulldozer from one side of the highway to the other while the other one flagged traffic. I cannot imagine getting up every day to do the same exact thing on the same little stretch of road. I guess it has the benefit of job security, but ick!
We made it to our hotel with every intention of trekking up Cerro Blanco - the tallest dune in the area but we hit a snag. It seems my negotiation skills may have gotten the better of us. While in Arequipa we stopped to book the bus to Nasca at a travel place in the Plaza De Armas (So far every town, big or small, has had a Plaza de Armas).

The guy asks, "Where are you staying in Nasca?", and then "Where will you go after that?". Long story short he puts together a "package" which has 2 bus rides and 2 hotels for 2 nights each. He hits us with 670 soles which is $240 or so. Now I know that doesn't sound like alot, but the hotels are $30 a night so that made 2 bus rides $120 which is high even in the US. I work him down to 540 soles and we're set so we go off and hike the Colca canyon for 2 days knowing that the four days following the hike are set - EXCEPT- the guy gives us the Voucher that has everything on it and bus tickets to Nasca. The problem is that each hotel and bus ticket should have it's own Voucher so the people can get paid from the guy in Arequipa. The hotel folks here are trying to get it straightened out prior to our departure tomorrow and we are alittle stuck while they work it out. More on this later.....