Blogs from Nazca Lines, Nazca, Ica, Peru, South America - page 15

Nazca Nazca is a couple of hours south from Ica. It has less than 2 cms rain fall a year and the town water supply comes nearly entirely from underground rivers and aqueducts, some of which were created by the Nazca people more than 1000 years ago! It’s on the tourist trail because of lines and shapes that cross the whole of the desert plateau. The lines were created by the Nazca people (pre-Inca) by moving the red (iron rich) stones which exposed the light colour desert floor beneath them. The contrast is what you see. No one is quite sure why these lines were created - the theories range from alien landing strips (and this is supposed to be taken seriously), astronomic alignments, a map of the underground water supplies or possibly sites that were ... read more

Claire: The town of Pisco is kinda famous in peru because it has these tiny islands just off the coast called the Ballestas Islands that have millions of birds and sealions and stuff and some people say they are better to see than the Galapagos because of how much easier and cheaper it is to see them. This might be going a bit far but the sealions were cool, posing for the cameras and the smell of all the bird crap was incredible. Our guide told us that the guano generated by the birds on these islands was one of perus main and most profitable exports to Europe. Lovely. Pisco is also the name of a famous and much loved brandy type drink. The most famous way to drink it is as a pisco sour. if ... read more

After the chilling heights of Cusco we headed down to the east of Peru to the Nasca desert in search of more Inca history. We were there to see the famous Nasca Lines. They consist of a number of animal shapes such as a monkey, hummingbird and condor as well as hundreds of lines and trapezoids which are scored into the dry ground, and cover an area of 400 square miles. The lines are dated back to between 200BC and 600AD although no one seems to really be sure. They remarkable thing is that the lines can only be observed by air and were only discovered in the 1920´s when people began to fly over them. Because the area is so dry (30 minutes of rain in the last 2 years!) the lines have been preserved ... read more

The Nazca Lines South America » Peru » Nazca » Nazca Lines By TheTouringTexanNovember 27th 2006Andrew Stone Husmann The Nazca lines are extremely large, old formations carved into the deserts of Nazca, which have been well preserved over hundreds and thousands of years thanks to the lack of precipitation. Only recently have anthropologists come up with a likely theory as to their purpose. They think the giant formations were used for ritual processions, led by the shamans. Some of the designs are of animals, in which the community is asking for some attribute associated wit... read more

Nasca is 3 hours south of Ica, they are actually in the same region (Ica), of which there are four parts. The statistic I heard quoted was that while Cusco is the most touristed town in Perú, Nasca is second. This is totally believable - there must have been hundreds, and I´m pretty sure we were all wearing the same outfit. I stayed with Edgardo from Hospitality Club. He is a very sweet and thoughtful guy who also happens to give lectures on the lines and astronomy at the Maria Reiche planetarium. I had read about these lectures in my guidebook and was pretty excited about it, so it was especially fun to find myself hanging out with the person behind them. And truly behind them - he and his best friend built the planetarium (they ... read more