Nazca: More than Connecting the Dots

We headed off to Nazca with the sole purpose of seeing the infamous lines. The Nazca plane is one of the driest areas in the world (recieving 20 min of rain a year). This huge plateau is the location of one of the world´s most amazing sights. The lines form a network of over 800lines, 300 figures, and some 70 animal and plant images.

The designs include a curvaceous 90m long monkey, a condor with a 130m wingspan, a hummingbird, a spider and a figure called the astronaut.

We arrived too late in the day to be able to take the flight over the lines that day, so we booked for the following day. That evening we visited the Maria Reiche Planetarium, for a lecture and presentation on the lines, some possible exlainations, and also found out about Maria Reiche.

The lines weren´t re-discovered until the 1930`s when commercial flights began going over the area. At that time there was a bit of interest in them, but not a lot. A German mathematician, Maria Reiche, ended up dedicating her life to trying to discover the meaning of and the preservation of the lines.

The next morning, we headed off to the airport for our trip over the lines. We spent about an hour at the airport, watching a video on the lines (more theory), and waiting for our turn to fly over. Our plane was a Cesna, with 6 seats including the piolet. The flight lasts for 35 minutes and flies over 12 of the most easily recongnizable figures. It is recommended you do not eat prior to the trip, and we also took gravol. The plane banks from left to right to allow passengers on both sides to see the lines.

After the flight, we went for breakfast and booked an afternoon tour of Cemetery of Chauchilla, before we took a night bus out. The cemetery dates from Pre-Inca to Inca times. There are three distinct cultures that used the area. Due to the extreme aridness of the area, the bodies have been extremely well preserved. The people were mummified, but as they were buried with their belongings for the afterlife, there have been years of grave robbery there. 17 specific sights still remain.

We caught the bus at 8pm to Cuzco (14 hours) and arrived this morning. Our plan was to be doing the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu, but unfortunatly, it is totally booked for the month of October. It looks like we will be booking for Nov. 7, and heading off to Araquipa, then returning to go into Machu Pichu.