White Lines to Blow Your Mind

---

The main reason people flock to Nasca is to fly over the world-famous Nasca Lines and today we had our chance to get a bird's eye view of this ancient wonder. We booked with Alegria Tours and for US$40 each, we were picked up from our hotel bright and early at 7am and found ourselves at the small airport just 10 minutes later.

The trip began with an excellent and informative video that explored the many theories surrounding why anyone would think to draw such incredibly big pictures, lines and shapes all over the desert plateau but ultimately, no-one really knows why. After about 20 minutes, we were ushered along to our waiting aircraft, a teeny tiny 4-seater single prop plane. Glynn and I sat in the back and a local tourist sat up front next to the pilot and up we went!

The flight was absolutely brilliant. For 30 minutes, we bounced around the sky, banking hard to the right and left so that people on both sides of the plane could get a decent view of the figures as we flew over. It was just like being on a really slow rollercoaster and although neither of us felt too queasy, we were certainly glad we didn't eat before we left! Seeing the lines themselves was just amazing. As well as a myriad of massive trapezoids and kilometer-long straight lines criss-crossing the plains and even right across the mountains, we also saw some of Nasca's most famous inhabitants: the monkey, whale, astronaut, condor, hummingbird, hands, tree, spider and dog. Some drawings were clearer than others but the sheer size of the figures was awesome with many in excess of 200 metres high. No wonder you can only see them from the air!

Back on terra firma, we picked up a certificate from the flight office and giggled at how much fun the plane ride had been (not in the least bit scary by the way) and the fact that we would totally go up again if we could afford it. We were also glad to have gone so early in the day as it gets so very hot here from about 10am onwards plus there was hardly anyone else around.

We had planned to spend the afternoon with our new friend Jordan but the early start zapped most of our energy. Instead, we chilled out at the hotel for a while, taking a dip in the lovely pool as the sun went down. It seems terribly decadent to have a swimming pool in a place where water is so scarce but it was so very, very welcome in the desert heat.

In the evening, we took a long walk around town, venturing along many of the backstreets and alleyways where tourists don't normally seem to go. Everywhere we went we encountered local people who wanted to talk to us and we haven't felt this comfortable and safe outdoors since we left New Zealand. We had a delicious 3-course meal incuding a small bottle of beer for just 15 Soles each (about £2.50) at the Los Angeles restaurant in the pedestrian zone. Not only was the food great but the owners were incredibly friendly. We were given books about Peru and Peruvian pottery to browse through while we waited for our food to be prepared.

We were in such a great mood when we finished our meal that we decided to find a bar and partake in a few local brews. We saw a few different bars and discos but the music was way too cheesey for us (remember Caribbean Queen?) and every doorway seemed to have a poor excuse for a lady-boy eyeing up the passers-by. We decided to go into the amusingly named Souvenir Snack Bar and struck gold as it turned out to be the local rock bar! We ordered a couple of beers and a shot each of Pisco, the Peruvian version of tequila and proceeded to make ourselves quite merry whilst AC/DC and Rammstein pumped out on the stereo. Nasca rocks!

---

Photos

Tiny Plane
Another fine addition to our series of tiny vehicles - how tiny is this plane?!!

Chocs Away!
Biggles, is that you?

Condor
Here;s the condor, bottom centre. It's a bit feint but it's definitely there! otice also all the random straight lines...

Hummingbird
Awesome!

Astronaut
Check out the giant man near Glynn's left hand. He's actually carved onto the mountain!

White Lines
These straight lines run for miles and are as much a mystery as the giant animal shapes.

Hard Left
Yep, that's the horizon at a very extreme angle!

Stowaway Bear
Look who managed to sneak onto the plane without paying!

Whale
Here's the whale with a huge line running right through it. Apparently different eras of the Nasca people did their own lines and kind of disregarded anything that was there before.

Triangle
There are also loads of massive trapezoidal shapes scattered across the plains. The theory is that they point to water sources but no-one really knows for sure.

Monkey
Possibly everyone's favourite drawing. Amazingly there are no monkies here in the desert so the Nasca people must have had contact with the jungle all those centuries ago.

Dog
Did you know that many of the drawings were made using one continuous line?

Spider
Looks more like an ant to me but then it does have 8 legs and not 6!

More Lines!
Jude snaps away as the plane leans hard left again!

Hands
Our friend Jordan reckons this is really the shape of a crouching frog. Works for me!

Happy Families
That's the back of the plane right behind us!

Lunar Landscape
There's more to the scenry here than just the lines, as you can see. Awesome!

Aerial View
Nasca from the air :-)

Comments

[mom]

frog
hi kids the pics are great how did they manage to do the lines without leaving a trail ? yes it does look like a crouching frog the face looks eary dos it to anybody else love mom dad and lee x x x x x for jish x x x x x sorry about the mogfather