Flying over the Nazca Lines - 25th March

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Having got an overnight bus from Arequipa to Nazca, we arrived at 5AM rather less than ready to get on a plane. Luckily we got to sit in the office of the airline we were flying with until 9AM, watching a video about the Nazca Lines and Marie Reiche, who spent her life studying the lines. Although a very interesting documentary, we did watch it about 4 times in a row.

We´re going up in that thing?
Our airline company did want to separate the two of us, which did not go down with a tired Katie who is scared of flying. After some raised voices, they started to see things our way and eventually we got on our tiny propeller plane for our flight over the Pampas, into which the lines are sketched. The lines themselves are absolutely incredible. Impossible to see at ground level, from the skies they form huge geometric shapes and outlines of animals, which the Nazcans themselves would never have been able to see.

An example of the lines - from the air!
While on a tour of the cemetries around Nazca - another opportunity for the South Americans to pile bodies into other people´s graves - our guide informed us that Nazca only gets a few hours of rain a year (which is why the Lines are so well preserved). And wouldn´t you know it, we were only in Nazca for a day and what did it do......rain! I would say we felt privileged, but we didn´t come to South America for rain!

We´re over a mile in the air - both hands on the wheel please!
Having seen the lines, we soon discovered they are the only thing to do in Nazca (which is one the the most boring towns we´ve ever been to) and we sat around waiting for an overnight bus to take us back to Arequipa. I don´t think we have ever passed out so quickly on a bus!

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