Drawing lines in the sand

Nazca is very much in the desert but no sign of Ricky Bobby! I suspect that I can discard my warmer clothing for the rest of the trip.

The images are on a high, arid plateau stretching 80 kms between the towns of Nazca and Palpa. They were created by the Nazca tribe (not Inca) around 400 - 650 AD. There are hundreds of images from straight lines to animals and people. They were simply made by removing the reddish pebbles and uncovering the grey ground beneath. Due to the weather (dry and little or no wind) they have survived remarkably well.

 The only way to see them properly is from the air. I can prove this point by the fact that, as recently as 1936, they built the Panamerican Highway straight through some of the desert images because no one knew they were there!

There are two options; a 30 minute flight over the Nazca part or an hour trip over both Nazca and Palpa. I booked the hour as it seemed silly to be here and not see it all. There was a bit of "confusion" once I got to the airport and feel I got "stiffed" for a few more dollars than was agreed, but what are you going to do?

 This is the "space man" as Von Danikin saw things, most others seem to think he was a priest of some sort.

This is a hummingbird. Most scholars agree that it is all about fertility, rain and the like.

This one is harder to pick out but is a Condor. A lot of the images are from creatures that did not live in the region so the they must have travelled and decided to recreate them (a bit like photos from a holiday).

A spider

And a Frog (for some reason the creatures are all represented with 9 fingers).

There are hundreds of the images, the largest figures are over 200 metres across, but I won't bore you with more pictures here.

The pilot did a good job of circling them so that we could get our pictures and after a hour headed back to Nazca. Amazing sights and nice to see the desert and the mountains from the air.

On my return I found that Duncan (the guy that bought the socks in Santiago) had arrived in town. We met for a few beers, some lunch and a chat about our experiences from last we met. Poor sod had been stuck in Arica for 5 weeks waiting to fix his bike.