Nazca Lines

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After a two hour bus ride we arrived to Nazca at about 2:00pm. We walked the main drag and realized there is not much to Nazca except for the big tourist draw, The Nazca Lines. Nazca seems to be the poorest of cities we have visited here in Peru. We’ve had positive interactions with all the people we have encountered but had a couple instances here with people trying to take advantage of us. I guess you can kind of expect it when you see the living conditions most of the people have here. We paid for our plane ride in dollars, always a big indicator of paying way too much, and the woman told us we had to wait for a group that was coming. So we waited, and waited for almost an hour. She tells us since the plane is four-seater and that there are only two of us we need to wait. I heard a local guy snicker at her, so Chad and I got up to go look for another charter and funny, they were able to take us up right away.

Oh boy was the plane small, a little nerve wracking for me at first but Chad loved it. It wasn’t until we got out of the plane that Chad told me most of instrument and dials—including the compass—weren’t working. Chad rationalized that our pilot also had incentive to live, so we were just fine. Nazca seems to be in the middle of nowhere; basically the desert and you have these random lines go on for miles. Most of the lines are geometrical and some are in the shapes of animals, it is really hard to see them from our pictures. No one really knows why they are here, how they got there and what they are for.

A German mathematician, Maria Reiche, dedicated her entire life to studying and preserving these lines. Maria theorized that they are some how in alignment with the stars and that some of the animals can be seen in some of our constellations. One anthropologist suggests they are pathways that formerly led to water. Another theory is that alien life form created them for navigation and/or marks from their spacecraft.
Something interesting, all the lines come from 1 of the 5 central locations that seem to be a starting point, in which case I think they look more like roads. Maria Reiche lived at the Nazca Hotel for most stay in Nazca, (she actually died there in 1997), they have built a planetarium in her honor where they have a daily presentation.
The people of Nazca are truly grateful for Maria and her commitment to the community; it is because her people come to this isolated and dusty town.
The highlight of my visit to Nazca was playing volleyball with group of small girls. Chad and I were walking along and 3 girls were playing ball in the street and asked me if I wanted to play, of course I couldn’t say no. When it was time for me to go, they gave me hugs, it was very sweet.

After 8 hours in Nazca, we were ready to go; we boarded our ´nice bus´ for an 8 hour night ride to Arequipa, only it wasn’t so nice. We were the last to get on the bus and the woman behind us got into an altercation with the bus ayudante. It seems the bus was oversold and they wouldn’t let her on. Thank god we got the hec out of Nazca.

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Photos

Self-portrait...
was very hard to do in a small 4 seater plane.

Comments

[Teresa Tereziu]

WooWeeee!
What a trip! ...altogether, reading your blog and getting to virtually enjoy it with you, I love it! Thank you so much for including us all - I'm on holiday without the sweat! Can't wait to visit and see all the pictures! Wow! T