It's been hectic here for the past few hours.

After yet another sleepless eight hour bus ride from Arequipa to
Nazca, we arrived at 5:30 in the morning. I managed to catch
about an hour and a half at the hostel before I had to wake up
for my tour of the famous Nazca lines. 
	
For you uncultured Philistines, that would be the pictures
of monkeys, spiders, hands, and various geometric shapes
stretched hundreds of miles across the desert, made by very
determined and reasonably smart people a long time ago that are
only visible from the air.

Anyhow, eight o'clock came and went, and the 30 minute flight
that I paid $50 for was a no-go due to cloudy conditions. I went
back to sleep for another 2 hours or so, and checked again at
noon. 

This time, they drove me out to the airport to wait a bit. After
determining that conditions were still too cloudy, they showed a
bunch of us tourists a video about the Incas (as if I haven't
already seen enough of that crap).

Finally, I got most of my money back, minus $15 which paid for a
taxi ride out to a tall tower that affords views of two shapes,
as well as a trip to a museum dedicated to the lines.

Upon return to Nazca, the original plan was to travel by bus to
Ica tomorrow. However, we found out that there is to be yet
another transportation strike for yet another ungodly reason, and
it was to last an indefinite amount of time.

Seeing as how I have to be in Lima by Thursday evening, the
strike was definitely a BAD thing.

We tried to get the bus company to refund our money for the
tickets we had already bought, but they were bastards and
wouldn't give it to us.

So, following the advice of a friendly local, I went out and
bribed a member of the Peruvian National Police (the country's
way underpaid finest) to come and "help" us "encourage" the
company to see our point of view a bit better.

Needless to say, it worked. We got our money back, and the
policeman ended up S/10 ($3) richer. And so that's the way things
work in this country. So it goes.

We're now in Ica, and I need to get some sleep.

/Alex