Nazca Lines, Peru

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So we have made it to Peru after some serious bus journeys. We got some dodgey looks from people on the buses as we tucked into our luxurious picnics of salami (bad vegetarian!), cheeses, bread, pate etc as our comrades-in-travel tucked into their long-distance-bus-issue dinner of rice and indiscriminate meat! Suckers!

We decided to leg it down to the south of Peru to dust off our hiking boots, with a stop in Nazca on the way to see the lines. Luckily for us, we decided to give Pisco and Ica a miss... and so arrived in Nazca on the day Peru experienced the 8.0 earthquake (after driving through those towns just hours earlier).

Nazca is about 2 hours away by bus to Pisco and Paracas (the towns that got hit badly) but we still felt the force which was pretty scary at the time. We were sat in a restaurant when the rumbling started and gradually it got worse. Everything started moving, then the lights went out and we ran outside with the owner, waiter, and the two other customers all holding onto each other in a huddle. Everyone was on the street screaming and we were just all in darkness watching all the buildings and power poles and waiting for it to really hit the fan. Thank goodness the people we were with couldn´t speak English as I was doing a fair bit of swearing! I'm told the quake went on for 3 minutes .......let me tell you, that was a long 3 minutes.... especially when the ground underneath you is moving like that! That night we packed a "grab-bag" in case we had to run! I slept with my torch under my pillow, and Richard slept with his head torch on! It was a good look and gave us both a laugh!!

We spent the next few days without any electricity or running water, getting aftershocks, and trying to get a bus out. Since then we have met a fair few people who were actually in the towns that got badly hit. After hearing their stories about having to run into the desert, or sit on a hill all night, or losing all their belongings, then you realise that yet again we had a narrow escape and our experience pales into insignificance by comparison! Sobering stuff!

So the lines? Well they are something else! As is the desert!
The Nazca lines are lines and pictures drawn in the desert about 2000 years ago by the Nazca poeple over a period of 700 years. There are hundreds of dead straight lines, and also pictures (in the Nazca style) of birds, a spider, monkey, tree, an owlman (not a spaceman! The owlman was apparently the shamen after consuming mind altering plants!!) etc etc. These are best viewed from the air and to actually see them with your own eyes was quite an experience I wasn´t expecting. I´m afraid the photos don't really do it justice. Noone knows exactly why these lines were made, and there are many theories (some pretty plausible, some ridiculous!).

We went up in a little Cessner (I am told ) and after El Piloto Richard was "at one" with the fact he wasn´t at the controls we had brilliant time. The plane banks pretty hard so that you can see each of the designs and you get such a fantastic view of the desert. Loads of fun!

We also visited the Chauchilia Cemetary with mummies shown in their tombs from about 1000 AD. This is an area of 1km x 0.3km in the desert which unfortunately has been looted by grave robbers over the years looking for original pottery etc to sell onto collectors. The mummies were not thought to be of any value to the collectors and so the area is covered with bits of bone and skull ......... quite strange and a bit disturbing!

We are a bit behind with our blogging....... however, back online and back en route.... we are heading off for some hiking and I fear BCC is in for a tough time!
Cath

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Photos

Nazca Desert
Showing some of the Nazca lines

Comments

[Sandy Simmons]

One time in Taiwan
Wowzers that quake must have been terrible. I have felt the earth shake a few times but nothing of that magnitude. Stay safe.