Nazca, Perú

Perú, now headed by its very first Oxford-educated president, is a state with a handful of unique ancient cultures. One of them was Nazca, with the famous alien-made lines seen from the sky or a nearby hill near the town of the same name.

To get there, one may get a bus super duper early in the morning, travel for like seven hours, stay for several hours, before taking the same trip back to Lima.

Holes.

Once there, just get on any car that offers to take you to the tiny airport, and buy a ticket from any of the companies there. They have constant flights, and trust me, you don’t want a long trip up the sky.

To allow tourists to observe the graphs easily, the pilot flew the mini-jet sideway and it made everyone felt sick. I kept my composure though.

It’s quite a bit of a hassle getting there, and very uncomfortable. Basically like HRH The Duchess of Cambridge’s all three pregnancies happening at the same time. And it lasted for hours, but I guess still it was worth it.

The town itself had nothing of interest. Good food though. In fact, Perú’s got some good food in general.

Easter Island, Chile

Easter Island, or in Spanish, the Isla de Pascua, is an overseas territory of the South American first-world nation of Chile. I had high expectations.

First thing first – Wi-Fi. Free Wi-Fi isn’t generally available anywhere, and so you must head to the library during the day to get a code, so you get to use the internet even after it closes! #tips

The island wasn’t particularly big, and was quite out of the way. Aeroplanes are basically the only transportation available, and it’s a solid six hours to fly there from Santiago de Chile.

The moais are everywhere on the island, but mostly outside of the main town (the only real town on the island), apart from like three of them. They were meant to protect the residents by looking at them, turning their back on the angry seas.

Hong Kong is apparently 9702 miles away from the island.

Since 1-2 days would be more than enough to see all the statues, one may also get on day tours/half-day tours to see other scenic beauties, including the mountains and the craters and other archaeological sites.

Many of them were destroyed, persumably due to warfare between the residents back then, as a result of a lack of food. They all used to have creepy eyes – the eyes were the “souls”.

Numerous, on the other hand, simply got left on various slopes oweing to unknown reasons.

Easter Island was an independent country, until the British encouraged the Chileans an annex it. The Chileans basically tricked the ruler into submitting to their rule.

Yes, they were all supposed to have a hat, too.

It was incredibly windy, and sometimes rainy. At least because of that there weren’t really mosquitoes.

Magnetic stone or something.

Everything was expensive, by the way.

One of the lakes as a result of a volcanic eruption. Some ceremonies are still performed there.

Bogotá, Colombia

Bogotá is the capital of the South American country Colombia, the home country of the first ever Latin American Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

It’s also a country where people would grant the honorific “Dr” to anyone they respect (cf “Dr” Pablo “El Patron” Escobar). Speaking of the drug kingpin, there were t-shirts with his face selling everywhere.

I was pleasantly surprised by the city’s beauty. I thought it was going to be rather similar to a typical Mexican town, but the historic centre was pleasing to my eyes.

I also learned that somehow being a guide in a museum hardly anyone visited counted as “military service”. That’s conscription for you, I guess.

I went up the hill to have an audience with “Dr” Kanye West, the Black Madonna (as certified by The Queen of Pop Madonna herself).

There were likewise several places available on a day trip, including the salt cathedral in an old mine. Spooky.

Overrated band The Rolling Stones’s overrated vocalist Mick Jagger ate this overrated snack. It was terrible.

Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena is the capital of the province of the same name, a city on the coast, not too far from Latin superstar Shakira’s hometown. It’s not exactly the hottest place I’ve ever been to, but it sure felt like it.

Its main attraction is the walled city, which unfortunately wasn’t that interesting. The sea outside might or might not be considered a part of the Caribbean, but didn’t look like it to me.

Food was cheap but the cheap places didn’t have air-conditioning. It’s all right in the evening tho.

They sure had loads and loads of stray dogs, and they all wanted to share your food. I went to the supermarket just to buy some food for them. Took me a while getting their trust.

Mérida, Yucatán, México

Mérida is the capital of Yucatán, in itself twice an independent country (together with QR and Campeche). It’s somehow called the “white city”, despite the Maya majority, so probably had nothing to do with race.

It’s hot with an enormous amount of mosquitoes. It’s a nice enough place to be, but it’s mostly used just as a base for day trips to the Maya sites.Mérida is the capital of Yucatán, México that became the first American Capital of Culture and was the first to win the title twice. Owing to it having one of the highest quality of life in Mexico and being one of the safest cities in the Americas, it has a significant population of American expats.

The Spanish founded this city as the “White City” – that is, a city for white people. Prior to colonization, the Maya had a city here, but it was abandoned.

Mérida is the capital of Yucatán, México that became the first American Capital of Culture and was the first to win the title twice. Owing to it having one of the highest quality of life in Mexico and being one of the safest cities in the Americas, it has a significant population of American expats.

The Spanish founded this city as the “White City” – that is, a city for white people. Prior to colonization, the Maya had a city here, but it was abandoned.

Mayapan, Yucatán, México

Mayapan is a small walled Maya town in Yucatán.

It’s not very well known, and the bus there was infrequent. I went as it ranked up high on TripAdvisor, and I understood why people liked it.

Even though it was nice, the structures were beautiful and you got the sense that you had the whole place to yourself.

Chichen Itza / Valladolid, Yucatán, México

Chichen Itza was a great Maya city that is today one of the top tourist attractions in the country.

The principal pyramid, El Castillo, has been listed one of the world’s new wonders. It’s amazingly photogenic (á la Machu Picchu) even when the weather wasn’t exactly great.

The old observatory.

The site was filled with tourists and vendors blowing the thing that produce the dinosaur monkey sound. Scary.

There are many, many cenotes in the region which are signs of the creator of the massive meteor that allegedly killed all the dinosaurs. People swim in them but I didn’t.

Valladolid is a city near it that’s a typical Mexican town with a cenote. Not that special.

Chichen Itza is a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the world’s New Seven Wonders, initially built as a Maya city dated almost 1,300 years ago. It became a powerful city-state until it was conquered by Mayapan. When the Spanish arrived, they named it the royal city and, countering no resistance, began to divide up the land among soldiers. The Maya later expelled them.

Valladolid is a small city and magical town in Yucatán, Mexico. It was founded by the Spanish in another area and was moved to an abandoned Maya settlement due to the unsanitary conditions and diseases the Spanish found themselves in. It was where Mexico’s first steam-powered fabric factory was founded, and thus is seen as the cradle of the Yucatecan industry.

It’s a place of revolutions, being a part of the Republic of Yucatán as well as the Caste War. The Mexican Revolution, while not strictly started from here, saw its first spark in this town.

Uxmal, Yucatán, México

Uxmal is another popular Maya city near Merida in Yucatán, Mexico.

Whilst the main pyramid was the top attraction, I was more fond of these structures that felt like corridors in a palace.

This picture felt very typical – the Maya structures going a little over the top of the trees.

The Piñata Adventure – Couchsurfing

Just letting you know that a post of mine – an adapted version of my post on Michoacan, Mexico has been published by Couchsurfing!

Link below.

https://blog.couchsurfing.com/the-pinata-adventure/

Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico

Tula is a small town in Hidalgo (named after the priest who started the independence war), reasonably close to the capital.

It was an ancient town (these were the only things left) built by the warrior race Toltec.