Nazca

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Nazca-

I had a fantastic time in Nasca, I got the bus there with my friend Saul and installed myself in a hostel of dubious quality. Saul and me went bike riding the next day and he explained about the aqueducts which are under the ground, 2000 years old and still keeping the desert irrigated. You can’t see much but the whole thing was quite impressive. We also went to see the Nasca line called “The loom” which was quite good and we could see it from the slope of a hill. The next day Laurence arrived off the bus looking pretty suave in felt hat and a corduroy coat and looking like he needed to sleep for a few days to recover from partying in New York.
The next four days were pretty good, We flew over the lines and could see animals etched out in the desert. They are pretty old and are pre Inca dating from 300 BC to about 300AD. There are quite a few debates about what exactly they were for. An large astronomical calendar or large pictures pointing towards water sources begging the gods to end droughts. They are not really certain though. It’s a bit sad though as not a lot of the towns people have seen them from above as it costs about 60 dollars to fly over and the patterns are plastered all over the town on hotels and restaurants.
We also went on a day trip to a desert by the coast which was biking and hunting for penguins. This was good as we didn’t see any other people, We went in a 4 by 4 and saw penguins and thousands of sea lions, guanacos and a few condors. We had a picnic on this fabulous little beach where I found a condor feather and we inspected dead sea lions and penguins. It was pretty good. Biking in the desert was fun as well as its all soft and you can go really fast and skid about. I wanted to see the penguins up close but that wasn’t possible as they were a few hundred meters below on a sort of ledge trying not to be eaten by the sea lions.
While in Nazca we also went on another bike ride that was 100km mostly downhill. The best bit about this trip was that we visited a vicuña reserve and there was this tame one that ate out of my hand. Ohh I was so excited! They are wild and its quite rare to find a tame one. It was one that the people who guarded the Vicuñas had reared. There was a little museum there that was well interesting as they all had to be ex-army to get a job on the reserve as there is often trouble between the poachers and the Vicuña protectors. Last year a few of the guards got killed . Poaching the vicuna is serious business as their fleece cost about 600US$ for one Kg of processed fibre. A live animal is worth about 30,000US$, but at the moment it is illegal to sell them anyway as the population is recovering from near extinction about 20 years ago. They are so cute and I want one but don’t think I will ever be able to afford one! (They are better than sheep)
Hum what else…..
Oh yes and we climbed up this giant sand dune which was 2000m above sea level but we only climbed up 1000m of it and then sand boarded down. The view from the top was fantastic and we were about 6000 m above the other mountains. Sand boarding was interesting.

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Photos

Laurence and Saul with sandboards
After climbing for four hour up "Sierra Blanca" we took some posy photos before heading down on our sand boards. Views were spectacular.

Comments

[Cath grande]

The Nazca mystery
sounds like you had a great experience. The sand boarding souned like great fun too