spotting the nazca lines

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After our setback yesterday (low visibility = grounded planes), we made our way to the Nazca airstrip a second time to attempt flying over the Nazca lines. We were lucky ... the skies were clear and we were in the plane within 10 minutes of arriving there.
Our flight lasted around 30 minutes and we saw 13 figures. I was unable to find the first figure until Myra helped me out (even though the pilot pointed out where it was). The lines were not as prominent as I thought they would be. It made me kind of nervous - what if i wouldn't be able to see the rest of the figures? That would be such a waste of money. But I concentrated with all my might and I saw all the figures that we flew over. It was pretty amazing! I of course took lots of photos, but don't think they turned out too well. They don't do the lines justice! Myra and I were getting sick near the end of the flight - we were glad to get back on solid ground. Good thing we didn't had breakfast before the flight - it could have been ugly.
After our flight, we went on a tour to the Chauchilla cemetary, a ceramic maker, and a gold processing place (sort of). We saw mummies (of Nazcas), their textiles and ceramics. The mummies were wrapped up in textiles and were pretty intact - they supposedly even have their original hair! The freaky thing was the baby mummies. They were so tiny, it seemed wrong to be looking at them.
I wasn't too interested in going to the ceramics maker, but I ended up enjoying it. He makes his ceramics in the same way the Nazcas did (he did a small demonstration). The gold processing place was blah - the gold guy did a quick demonstration about how they extract gold, but he ruined it by repeatedly asking for tips (even going so far as to whip out a guitar and sing us a song). We dropped a few coins and got out of there.
We spent the rest of the day trying to find a western union to pay our deposit for the Salkantay Trek around Machu Picchua. It turned out to be a whole lot of trouble and ended up with me and Myra getting into our first argument. No fist fights or anything so no one got hurt. We're on good terms now (i hope!).

- Lydia

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Photos

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