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Nazca, Pisco & Lima

South Coast

Tony Clemens
2005-09-01 18:22:24

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I think airlines should take some design tips from Peru's overnight buses, the seats recline further and are much more comfortable than airlines seats. Most travellers find the touts that greet you at train stations and bus stations annoying but personal I find them useful. For only a couple of bucks they will find you a hotel, book excursions for you and drive you around. You just have to be a bit firm with them, otherwise you end up staying in their uncles expensive hostel and taking their brother's expensive tours. If you know what you want they are a good resource.

Nazca

We were greeted at the bus station by several touts. Personal I could not be brothered to walk around town looking for a place to stay and then find agencies to do some siteseeing. I just made eye contact with one of the older touts who had access to a car. We stopped at several hotels until we found one we liked then we told the tout that we wanted a flightseeing tour over the Nazca lines and an afternoon tour of the cemetery of Chauchilla. He made the arrangements after telling us don't get breakfast until after the flight.

Most people come to Nazca to see the lines. In case you don't know what the Nazca lines are they are huge geometric designs drawn in the desert and only really visible from the air. Some lines represent animals while others are perfect triangles, rectangles or straight lines running for many kilometres.

There are many theories to try to explain these lines. The German mathematician, Maria Reiche, has made it her`s life work to study these lines and thinks they were made by the Paracas and Nazca cultures between 900 BC to 600 AD. She considers the lines an astronomical calendar for agricultural purposes. My favorite theory is that the Nazca built hot-air balloons to aid in construction, a thousand years before Europeans developed lighter than air aircrafts. ...