The Lines of Nasca

We´re more than a little behind on our posts at the moment. We spent a couple of days in the small town off Nasca in the Peruvian desert. The main attraction in this area is the mysterious Nasca lines. They were made approximately 1500 years ago, but were only discovered in the 1930s, as they can only be seen from the air. There are numerous theories regarding the purpose of the lines, ranging from offerings to various gods to alien landing sites. Gemma thinks that they are just ancient graffitti. We took a flight in a small plane to view the lines. An interesting experience and horrific for those without a strong stomach. So much so, that we have banned small aircraft from the rest of our trip. The 6-seat Cesna performed steep banking turns circling around a number of the most prominent patterns. It was a sight worth seeing, however they weren´t as impressive as the post cards we had seen. From the height we were at, they were a lot smaller than we thought they would be.



We followed that up with visits to a nearby graveyard established by the Nasca people (1000 CE), still containing some of the original mummies and an original still working aqueduct also built by the Nascans. That evening we embarked on the least exciting part of our trip. the overnight bus to Arequipa. After waiting for 2 hours in the bus depot for the midnight bus, that didn´t turn up ´til 12:45 we spent 8 hours travelling through to darkness to Arequipa. I don´t think I have ever been happier to get off a bus in my life.