Next continent, please!

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The land of the Inca

After a very enjoyable but slightly too short stay in Norway, we have made our way to South America to visit Peru and Ecuador. As in Africa, Helene and Astrid will be doing a four-week medical elective in a hospital in Cuenca, Ecuador. First, however, we will spend about three weeks traveling around in Peru. In addition to the three of us, our friend Aashild has decided to join us, making us a group of four altogether.

Landing late in Lima on Wednesday 4 January after a problem-free journey, we went to a hostel to get some sleep and get up early to arrange for transport onwards. The little we saw of Lima the next day was enjoyable, however, we thought Lima to have little to offer compared to some of the other places in Peru and decided to move on as soon as possible.

Nazca lines by air
About 460 km south of Lima is the city of Nazca, where we arrived on Thursday night. This is where the famous Nazca lines are located. The Nazca lines were discovered in 1927 when passengers in commercial aircrafts noted what appeared to be rough runways in the desert. Further investigations led to the discovery of numerous trapezoids, lines, and figures representing animals, plants, and humans. The lines were created by removing darker coloured stones and soil from the surface, thus exposing the lighter colored soil and rocks underneath. What makes these lines so fascinating is the fact that the symbolse they are depicting are invisible when standing on the ground --- they can only be truly appreciated from the sky at an altitude of at least 400 metres! The question therefore arises as to why this civilisation made these lines when they --- probably --- did not have the ability to fly! Theories include Erich Von Daeniken´s suggestion that the lines were made to welcome extraterrestrial intelligence and provide air fields for their space crafts, the German mathematician Maria Reiche´s proposal that the lines represent the astronomical knowledge of the ancient Nazca people, as well as the hypothesis that the lines were used for running footraces or irrigation systems. Perhaps most realistic is the suggestion that the lines are related to religion and were made in order to be visible to the gods from above. This is further backed up by the lines dating back to a particular period of drought lasting for years and it would seem reasonable to assume that the people wanted to satisfy the gods somehow in order to receive rain.

We caught a cheap 35 minute ride in a small Cessna plane and went up in the air to see the Nazca lines for ourselves. It was quite amazing although the photos don´t really show the superbness of our view. The pilot went over each symbol twice, once with the right wing facing down and once with the left wing facing down, in order to enable everyone to get a perfect view. Such a small airplane as a 4-seater Cessna is inevitably easily disturbed by wind gusts and air pockets, thus, adding up the pilot bending the plane to each side, this was nothing for those with a weak stomach, and Aashild didn´t feel too weel after the trip! The rest of us felt fine though, and we can really recommend doing it at the low price of 40 soles = NOK 80 = USD 12.

In search of a 40-year-old grave
Before leaving Norway, a friend of Aashild had told her that her seaman grandfather died in 1965 in Peru and is buried in Marcona (San Juan de Marcona) about 50 km southeast of Nazca. If we had the time and opportunity to visit the gravesite and take a few photos, she would be very happy. With boyish excitement I could not resist joining Aashild on such an adventure pretending we were private investigators. All four of us got hold of a private driver and told him to take us to Marcona. Sitting in a black Dogde, an American car probably dating back from the 70´s with big tires and and an enormous 3-metre antenna pointing up from the boot, we drove through a landscape consisting of sand, sand, and sand. Having driven from Los Angeles to Las Vegas about a year ago, this desert had its similarities with vast stretches of plains with small hills or mountains here and there, and very little vegetation. We finally reached Marcona, which looked extremely scruffy. The buildings were old and ruined, almost as if the city had been bombed! The driver got directions to the cemetary, and we left the town on a very bumpy road without tarmac. Being so desolate, it would be the perfect occasion for the driver to liquidate us, one of us noted, before we laughed nervously. After about 10 mins, the cemetary occurred. It consisted of many blocks with graves placed side by side and on top of each other, with a big cross in the middle and a brick wall surrounding it all. Each block consisted of 36 graves and corresponded to different areas in which the deceased had lived. We found the grave of Captain Bjoern Oule, who died on 1 May 1965, almost immediately and were quite surprised how easy everything had gone. More than 40 years after his death his granddaughter's friend was standing next to his grave, thus in a way reuniting him with his family. After snapping away a few photos we returned back to Marcona for lunch and then Nazca. Later that night we caught the night bus to Arequipa, where we will stay for about a week.

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