From Protest To Full-Scale Riot – Nazca, Peru

By: Samantha Colburn

From Protest To Full-Scale Riot
Nazca, Peru

Nazca, Peru, wasn’t really that exciting, we thought. We had seen the amazing Nazca lines from the air and experienced the Mayan cemeteries. We were now struggling to find something to do until we had to catch our bus at 10 that evening.

I think the Nazca people could feel our boredom and thought they would help us out. Here is how.

A large protest was going on by the small, graffiti-covered, Peruvian restaurant where we had decided to have dinner that evening. The young girl who was serving our soup explained that the people of Nazca were against paying back the money they had borrowed from the government. She didn’t sound that concerned about the protest and, therefore, neither were we.

As we headed towards the bus stop to carry on our travels to Arequipa, we noticed some locals gathering in a large group. They were hanging around the roundabout that was situated near our bus stop. As we got to the bus stop, we could feel the tension amongst the people waiting for the evening buses out of Nazca. We didn’t understand the significance of it all at the time.

There were a few shouts. A panic began to set in, causing the other travellers to move inside the little pokey and dirty bus station linked to our bus company. After a while they calmed down and it was back to normal.

As it was usual for buses to be late in Peru, we didn’t worry even though we had been waiting for over an hour. We saw the large group of locals move from the roundabout and place a few small rocks across the road beside us. We laughed, knowing this would not affect anything trying to pass this way. Eventually we started to wonder whether the bus was coming at all.

The protest had now expanded into a full-scale riot. The whole town was blockaded by fires and huge rocks. This was to ensure that no one got in or out of Nazca. The owner of the bus compnay explained that our bus was stuck on the other side of the blockades, with no hope of passing into the town. He escorted us back to our hotel, fearing the protestors would attack us if we were seen walking alone with our belongings. Unable to defend ourselves with our heavily loaded backpacks, we were grateful for the protection.

The receptionist at the hotel did not look surprised to see us. You could say he had been expecting us to return. He assured us that as soon as the bus got through, he would come and wake us. It was best for us to rest.

I awoke at seven in the morning to the noise of rioters. I had had a restless night awaiting the knock from the receptionist, which never came. I wandered down, still sleepy, in search of some information. The noise grew louder. The rioters were outside the hotel, and I began to feel a little scared.

The same young man was at the reception desk. The information he gave was not encouraging. He said we might be stuck in Nazca for a while longer. I ventured outside and spoke to some of the locals watching the rioters go by. They informed me that the police had been called in from Lima and were flying in to help the local police control the situation.

I decided to wake my friends and inform them of what was happening. We tried to think of ways to escape, but to no avail. So we decided to go and join the other travellers congregating in the hotel restaurant. The small restaurant in the hotel was definitely not equipped to serve the entire hotel at once. It was quite humorous to see us all crammed into this little basic restaurant, trying to make the best of the situation.

The police arrived from Lima. Tear gas was set off. In-between the release of the tear-gas canisters, we left the pokey restaurant and gained access to the hotel roof to watch the riot. It was slightly amusing – no one seemed to be doing anything and nothing really changed. The tear gas would be set off causing the rioters to back away, but only for the amount of time it took the air to clear. Then they would return to their previous positions. Around nine in the evening the police decided enough was enough. They advanced forward, pushing the rioters back behind the roundabout. This action allowed the buses, cars and lorries to slowly advance forward and push through the town.

After an hour we received our call to hurry down to the bus stop. We had to pass through the rioters to get there, but all we could think of was that we would soon be out of Nazca. We walked slowly and calmly through the rioters, trying not to show our fear. With only some verbal abuse, we got through and awaited our bus.

We decided to travel to Cusco instead of Arequipa as we had lost too much time. Three buses arrived. The most run-down of the three was ours. At this point we really didn’t care. We just wanted to escape this small town. We thought differently when we got on the bus, though. It was crammed with people who had been stuck on it for 24 hours. It smelt like a baby’s nappy mixed with stale, perspiring people’s odor. It almost made us choke.

We went to take our seats – not a nice prospect as the choice presented to us was not of the usual standard. One seat was layered with chewing gum. The second was wet. The third was to be shared with a well-built woman and her three kids. Still, at the thought of leaving Nazca, we took our seats.

We must have been on the bus for a total of five minutes when it slowed, pulled into a side street and stopped. We were told we had to disembark. We had arrived at our scheduled stop. We could not believe this. We were to remain in Nazca for a further three hours.

We were stuck in a dark, smelly alleyway with nothing to do. It was like being in a nightmare. The three hours passed slowly but finally, we were on our way. We took our seats and tried to get some sleep. We had 15 hours on this bus, with no stop for the first 10, to relieve our hunger or thirst. We just kept on driving through the mountains heading to Cusco. We did not care. We were out of Nazca!