The mysterious lines of Nazca

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We reached Nazca (the site of the world famous Nazca Lines) last night, and after fighting off the droves of touts outside the bus station managed to reach our hostel (just across the road) in one piece.

Since we had to be up early to see the lines tomorrow, we went to bed early after dinner and a game of Texas Holdem with borrowed matchsticks.

We booked our flight over the lines in a little Cessna through our hotel, Hostel Alegria for $45, including transport to the airfield and airport tax. There are some agencies who do it for $40 as well

The lines are massive trenches dug in the desert by an ancient civilisation who had to be pretty advanced to draw them, since they couldnt see what was being drawn (the images are only properly visible from the air). There is a lot of debate over what they were drawn for, from some claiming they are signs to aliens, and others arguing that they are sophisticated time-keeping devices.

There are images of a flamingo, parrot, an "astronaut", a tree, hands, and many others some of which are a couple of hundred metres in length.

The flight was quite unnerving, with the pilot spending most of the time flying the plane on its sides, so we could see the lines clearly. He also didnt seem to be watching the air closely, I saw another plane pass by a bit too close than I think regulations allow. Also spent the flight praying the old lady behind me wouldnt be sick on me.

Anyway I´ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

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Photos

The plane
Every Cessna I´ve seen or sat in in South America seems a bit bashed up. Atleast this one had its fuel gauges working!

My favourite - the astronaut
It was bloody hard getting a good picture with my massive camera in the tiny plane, with the pilot pulling 5g turns but this is the so-called astronaut, drawn on the side of a hill.

The hands
...which I think look more like a headless chicken.

Trapezoids
These are supposed to be very cool, but I didnt really think so. They look sort of like landing strips, but aren´t.

Trapezoids
These are supposed to be very cool, but I didnt really think so. They look sort of like landing strips, but aren´t.

My favourite - the astronaut
It was bloody hard getting a good picture with my massive camera in the tiny plane, with the pilot pulling 5g turns but this is the so-called astronaut, drawn on the side of a hill.

Condor
I didn´t get a very good angle on this one, but its in the middle of the picture, towards the bottom. If you zoom in you can see a big bird like shape

The Spider
Creepy and all

Another bird
Can´t remember which one this was. All the birds look the same to me, so I don´t know how people have decided what is what but anyway.

Another bird
Can´t remember which one this was. All the birds look the same to me, so I don´t know how people have decided what is what but anyway.

The parrot
The beak is pretty funky

Panamericana Sur
The highway from the air