Desert fun- sand boarding and Nazca lines

I´m in country number 10 now- Peru. I think that the local people that I´ve met here in the past 5 days have been the friendliest of my whole trip so far! So many people have come up to me to just chat in the street, including lots of students wanting to practice their English for their Easter holiday homework! After a few days pottering about in Lima, I´ve moved further down the coast to the desert.

HUACACHINA

Huacachina is a tiny little town centred around an oasis and surrounded by sand dunes. It really looks like the kind of oasis that you see in cartoons- I didn´t think they really existed like that! The main attraction of the town is to go on dune buggies around the massive sand dunes, and also to sand board down them. Going on the dune buggy was so much fun, but slightly scary when you turn a little corner and suddenly are at the top of a massive sand dune! Everyone screams as the buggy zooms down!

Sand boarding was cool too, and much easier and safer than volcano boarding in Nicaragua! You could choose to stand up on the board, but I thought that was a sure way to break a leg, so I chose to go down head first, lying on my tummy! It went down really fast, but you could dig your feet into the sand if you wanted to slow down. My group consisted of myself, 2 Peruvian guys and 4 Peruvian girls. Only one of the men and I were brave enough to sand board!!!!

NAZCA

Nazca is another desert town, with the main attraction here being the ´Nazca Lines´- giant lines and pictures on the desert floor. They are so big that you have go up in a little aeroplane to see them. I was expecting a ´little plane´to carry 20 or so people. Oh no, there was only room for 6 people, and that was including the pilot! There are lots of theories as to why the Nazca lines were created. They are said to be made between 900BC and 600AD with some additions in the 7th century. They were made by removing stones from the desert surface to reveal lighter soil beneath. Amongst the pictures are a monkey, a dog, several birds and a spider. On a hill, there is a weird human looking picture called ´the astronaut´, which some people believe as being there to welcome aliens coming to earth. Also on top of some of the hills there are flat plateaus with triangular and trapezoid shapes said to be landing strips for alien spaceships!!!
Other theories are that the lines were an astronomical calender or representations of shaman´s dreams brought on by hallucinogenic drugs. Whatever they are and however they were made, they were a real experience to see!

On a lighter note, I was slightly freaked out last night when eating a soup starter containing yummy bits of pasta...................... and a chicken´s foot!!!! Yuck!!!!

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