Nazca Lines - The oldest practical joke in the world?

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Arrived in Nazca yesterday for the sole purpose of seeing the enigmatic Nazca lines. Briefly, the Nazca Lines are a bunch of, well, lines in the desert depicting various animals such as a monkey, spider and hummingbird. There are about 15 in total. No one knows who did them or why. The thing is, they are huge and are only visible from the air. Therefore, the mystery surrounds the reason why the people put them there. It is complicated by the fact that the lines are thousands of years old and, without modern mathematical methods, it would be almost impossible to 'draw' the lines accurately. Theories as to what the lines represent range from a giant astronomical calendar to alien landing strips.

The thing is, before the lines were discovered in 1939, Nazca was a dead end town in the middle of the desert. Now, it is a dead end town with a huge tourist pull. I like to think about 70 years ago one of the locals had a eureka moment and gathered all the others round to hear his cunning plan. His mates were probably a bit skeptical thinking that no one would fall for it. But then, I suppose the Yanks might have had a bit of a reputation for gullibility by that stage. Anyway, out they went into the desert, dug some lines and waited for someone to fly over. Maybe it didn't happen that way but its as believable as some of the other theories out there.....

We arrived in Nazca last night having got the coach from Ica. We had food served, which was a bonus. It was some strange yellow 'chicken'. I am a bit skeptical about that as it didn't taste very chicken like. My guess is a bit of llama. Whatever it was, it tasted ok. On arrival, I wished I had packed a big stick. We were inundated with throngs of touts as soon as we set foot of the coach. I have quickly learned the word 'vayase' (go away!) for such situations. We searched around for the hostel we were staying at but couldn't find it so ended staying at a pretty swanky hotel for all of 7 quid each. I suppose you have to break the bank once in a while.

I flew over the lines this afternoon and I must say its pretty breathtaking. Aside from the animals, which are clearly visible, there are straight lines and trapezoids (triangles to you and me) all over a massive area. Sophie made the relatively wise choice of staying at the hotel. The light aircraft seated 6 including the pilot, who was younger than me. I was a little on edge following the recent Heathrow-Madrid debacle and it wasn't helped when, after taxing onto the runway, we came off again with some unknown problem. The adolescent flying it didn't seem much the wiser. Half a dozen peruvians gathered round, gabbled a while, did nothing to the plane and we were cleared to take off. I resisted the urge to jump out the window and instead gripped the dashboard hard, as if that would help. Once we were up, I only had to contend with some turbulence and the pilot's tendency to bank violently to contend with. I make it sound worse than it was to be fair. It was an awesome site. The lines stretched for miles and are flanked on each side by mountains. I got to sit next to the pilot which was pretty cool although I made sure I watched the fuel guage carefully.

After landing I tipped the pilot heavily and shook his hand. He remarked that I looked a bit nervous. "No way amigo" I laughed. He wasn't buying it. I then watched a video about the various Nazca theories. I have a new favourite. Apparently, Shamens were prevalent in Nazca culture and they would take numerous drugs in the interests of 'medicine'. Or at least thats what they told their wives. They would think they were flying about the place fighting evil spirits and stuff. Apparently they thought they could see the animal pictures and this would help them on there travels and guide them home. I quite like the idea of a load of elders getting fried and making all the other tribesman go out into the desert and draw a load of giant pictures. Early example of a practical joke?

Next stop Arequipa where I really must do some laundry or I may lose a travelling partner.

By the way, I have attached a route map of the journey so far. First minor technical hitch - I DID NOT take a flight out to the middle of the Atlantic before returning. However, I can't work out how to amend it. Any suggestions welcome....

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