from Nasca to the white city

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Ola again,
We spent two days in Nasca. The Nasca were a very advanced civilisation who settled in the Nasca dessert about 40 km inland from the Pacific ocean. As you come in to Nasca by bus you feel as if you could be arriving in Syria or Egypt as I imagine them to be with mountainous hills of shifting sands surrounding you and little vegetation except where they have accessed the ground water by aqueducts built be the Nasca between 100 and 700 AD.
On day one in Nasca we explored an ancient burial sight of traditional Nasca. They buried their dead in large pits after removing their stomachs and placing them in foetal position bound with cloths of woven cotton and placed them in graves with articles they will need for journey into next life. Many of the graves had the mummies intact some with long bob marley hair that still is there. We even saw a baby mummy wrapped up in cloth on the pathway. Our guide got a shock when he lifted the textiles to see the bones there. Maybe the shifting sands had uncovered it. Many of the graves were destroyed by grave robbers in the 1970's . The strangest for us was all the open graves with no protection against the elements like we are used to . Hopefully the govt will do something before they lose their heritage. Next we went onto view the Nasca lines which cover over 300km. The best way is by airplane but only one of us was brave enough as their safety record is not brilliant. We still got a good look at some from a lookout and also got to see an ancient aqueduct that the Nasca had built to bring water from the water table up to irrigate crops. Fifty or so of them are still in use today. Amazing technology for their time.
After a few wines and a dodgy card game with the kiwis which gave us a good laugh we hopped on overnight bus to Arequipa known also as the white city because of the white volcanic stone they used to build the original buildings. It is 2100mabove sea level. I am feeling ok but need to take it easy to adjust before going to higher level tomorrow 4800m at Colca canyon.
Off to explore city this afternoon.
ps kiwis have decided to give an idiot award each day. Linda already won day one for leaving her water bottle again. think we could both be in trouble withn this game as we are outnumbered in vote and the rules change to favour them.

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