Nazca Lines

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Another early start but this time to catch a flight above the Nazca lines. We knew we would be flying in a small plane but I was quite suprised by just how small when we arrived at the airport. The plane had room for 5 passengers plus the pilot and that was it, it was quite an experience!

The take off was actually really smooth and so was the flight to get to the lines with some pretty cool scenery of the mountains and desert. The pilot flew us over all of the 15 shapes, tilting the wing of his plane to the right and left each time for us all to see from our sides of the plane. By the time we got to about the 10th shape I was feeling a little green and although he didnt say at the time so was Steve! However we kept everything down and made our flight in one piece with a bit of a bumpy landing. The lines are quite fascinating though, some of them were really quite small but others were huge and you could easily see them from the sky. There are many theories to how they arrived, one being that they prepresent an astronomical calendar of some kind, possibly similar to the Chinese calendar - this is the theory I would like to believe. The other theories are that they are paths that were made by the Nazcas when walking or taking part in a ceremony and the other.....aliens! Who knows!!

Once landed we were off again to look at some ancient mummies in a burial ground. Our guide Jenson told us that the mummies date back to a period before the Nazcas to a civilization whose name I cannot remember but many years ago! They were found by grave robbers searching for gold and silver and have been preserved due to the dry and hot climate in the desert, they all still had their original hair and were sat in the foetal position as they were when they were buried. There were also baby mummies that had been decapitated which were a little less nice to look at.

Later in the day we drove off to Puerta Inca where we spent our last night camping with the group. We went for a walk over the cliffs and Steve climbed up to the top, ripping his trousers in the process but sensing an achivement! During the night I didn´t sleep that well through fear of the sea flooding our tent, needless to say the next day I was very tired. Steve will no doubt like me to tell you that we were quite a distance from the crushing waves and that I worried unnecessarily but they sounded blimin loud to me that they felt closer than they were. Still we are now staying in a nice hostel in Arequipa with lovely gardens containing a swimming pool and hammocks - that all is good!

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