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Published: November 26th 2007
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After visiting Machu Picchu, other sites might seem a bit dull to some travellers. How wrong is that! Peru has much more to offer.
We are now in the Ica region. Finally after 6 weeks in altitude (2500m to 4000m ), we are going back to a more manageable Nazca which sits at 400m above sea level. We can go for a 100m sprint and not even break into a sweat.
Nazca is known for its famous Lines. They are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches 53 miles between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. They were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and AD 700. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fishes, sharks, llamas and lizards.
Unfortunately, we saw only a handful of those as we couldn´t see them from the air. Instead we saw a few of them from a "mirador" ( a viewing point ). The lines were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and AD 700. A long long time ago!!!
Nazca people used a genius
and simple way of drawing the lines by removing the iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the Nazca desert. When the gravel is removed, they contrast sharply with the light-colored earth underneath. The lines persist due to the extremely dry, windless, and constant climate of the Nazca region: the Nazca desert is one of the driest on Earth and maintains a temperature around 25°C all year round, and the lack of wind has helped keep the lines uncovered to the present day and possibly the future. However, since their discovery, various theories have been proposed regarding the methods and motivations underlying the lines' construction. The archaeological explanation as to who made them and how is widely accepted; namely that the Nazca people made the lines using simple tools and surveying equipment. But the question was and still is why? The Nazca people's motivation remains the lines' most persistent mystery...
After Nazca, we headed to Huacachina. An oasis in the middle of a sand oasis. It feels like you are by the sea, but the sea is missing. Lots of sand around. As it happens, the sea was here 10 million years ago, but it retracted. We
arrived too late! What´s left is a beautiful oasis with lots of palm trees and dunes around it. It´s a stunning place! Very pretty! We managed to get a room in a hostel with a huge swimming pool, all to ourselves as the heat was scorching!
During our time here, the progam was like this:
Get up in the morning, have a dip in the pool until midday, have lunch, then sip rosé wine spritzers in the afternoon and do some sandboarding around 4.00pm when the temperature was bearable.
Sorry guys, I know it´s mid winter ( back home ) and we are complaining about the heat. We are just making the most of it until we get back to Europe as we have only one week to go!!!! No!!!!!! We don´t even want to think about it. It´s gone so quick! But we are still making the most of it. Every day counts.
Our last episode ends in Lima, where we are heading next, to see our friend Luis ( a Peruvian friend I met in the UK ) and to catch our plane back home 😞
Chau amigos.
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alan smith
non-member comment
nice one
Here we are in the freezing cold and you send us that! Nice one. Wish you were here and I was there. Give my love to Lima. I have great memories of my time there. Muchos lovos. Alan, Pam and Dani