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Published: October 27th 2008
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We are in Peru now, getting geared up for the Machu Picchu trek, but before that we thought we'd put some training time in by going down the Colca Canyon via a quick pit stop to see the Nazca Lines.
Nazca, the town itself doesn´t have a lot going for it but the Nazca lines drawn in desert by the Nazca people a ouple of thousand years ago remain a draw card. The best way to see these ancient drawing of animals is from the air so up we went.
This has to be the smallest plane I have ever been in - room for 6 people including the pilot - and we had been warned about how "bumpy" the flight would be so definitely no brekfast before going up! I got to sit up front with the pilot and all the analogue controls (no sir the digital age hadn't hit this plane yet) not sure if I got that honour because I was the only other male on the plane besides the pilot, or whether he felt more confident with me taking the controls should something happen to him but in the end I think it really came
Monkey
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No its a monkey... down to weight distribution.... and when one the ground crew caming running up to make sure we all had sick bags before taking off we knew we were off to a rocky start!
Luckily the flight was pretty steady and we got some great views of all the different animals this ancient culture had drawn in the sand using rocks... although its a bit like stonehenge NO ONE really knows why??? Lots of different theories but nothing conclusive - maybe they were just bored! Hard to explain them really but hopefully the photos give you some idea...
We jumped back on the bus the next day and headed to Arequipa - Canyon country and yes the dull headache of altitude sickness set in, not to mention El walking in a bit of daze for most of the first day. But nonetheless we pushed on and booked on a 3 day trek down the Colca Canyon standing at only 3200m and well on the tourist trail this was bound to be easy.... or so we thought... 8kms down and 8kms back up in 2 days , doesn´t sound like much but add thin air into the equation, lots of
Spider
.... with a spider dust and a very steep uneven path and that 8kms took the best part of 3 hours!
The scenery was just amazing and well worth the pain, the canyon is so impressive to look at whether you're standing at the top or way down at the bottom. Masses and Masses of rock jutting out of the earth rising to an enormous height - its just an awesome sight and makes you feel really insignificant. The bottom of the canyon still has some very small local villages which rely heavily these days on tourists trekking down the canyon and the very fertile soil which is great for growing fruit. Walking around all you can smell are fig trees which is a lovely change after inhaling gallons of dust on the way down! We slept overnight in some really basic accommodation in one of the villages and I can honestly say I have never seen a night sky so full of brilliant luminous stars.... it almost felt like you could touch them and it was so peaceful just to sit there and stare....
After the peace comes the war with man's struggle against the mountain resuming - so far it
Hands
Don´t ask... we don´t know either... was 1-0 to the good guys and we really didn´t want to get defeated on the return match! However setting off up the steep climb in the punishing early afternoon heat may not have been our guide´s greatest tacticul move and it came back to bite him as one of the girl´s in our group started to struggle. Being the compassionate guy that I am I decided she would most likely prefer to suffer alone than be embarrassed by holding the group up so I marched on ahead, with her boyfried who also seemed happy to leave her behind until it dawned on us that the lovely group of Austrian guys we had befriended the night before (who were regular mountain trekkers with the pro gear) were now taking charge of the situation giving up there walking poles, donating a hat and relieving her of her backpack.... oops... glad I wasn´t the boyfriend!
El and I continued to push on and the closer to the top we got the harder it got! The air became thin again as we moved closer to the top of the tree line and climb became steeper and the words of the little engine
Hummingbird
...finally a bird that could kept drumming through our heads until finally - after me saying "we're almost there I can see the top now" for almost an hour - we slumped in a heap at the top of the canyon again.
Such a struggle but all worth it you don't get those jaw dropping views everyday......
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