Lines in the sand

Call us huge nerds, but Chris and I had both read about the great mystery of the Nasca Lines when we were young, and really, really wanted to see them for ourselves.  Though our ability to get through the highways down to this town on the coast was uncertain due to earthquake damage, we crossed our fingers and boarded a night bus.  Thankfully, a couple of bad movies and many hours later, we were stepping out into the early-morning light of one of the driest, most desolate deserts in the world.

Bones scattered across the desert

We were quickly swept up in the loving care of one of many agencies the operate flights over the lines, and within a coupe of hours were walking out onto an airfield to board small four-seater planes to get a bird's eye view.  We spent half an hour weaving between about a dozen surreal figures scrapped into the desert centuries ago, careening first right, then left over the lines so everyone could see... with a few sudden altitude drops which left your stomach in the sky above you; the pilot's trick to get some screams and perhaps a better tip while on on our way back to the airfield.  

Mummies arranged in their tomb

That afternoon we went on a tour into the desert to see some crazy tombs - ancient graves that had been dug up by robbers for any ceramic or gold they could find to be sold to collectors on the black market, the bones and textiles then simply left scattered across the desert.  The air and ground being so dry, with literally zero rain having fallen in forever, the remains that had been scooped up and rearranged in graves for tourists to gawk at still wore cotton wrappings, hair, even skin. 

This didn't compare at all to what we saw the next day on a dune buggy ride we took through another part of the dessert: bones and skulls scattered across the sand virtually everywhere, large pieces of hand-woven cloth, even fragments of ancient Nasca pottery, all sitting and waiting to be studied by archaeologists.  Admittedly, just as cool was when we stopped and went sandboarding down enormous sand dunes.  Though those who witnessed by first disastrous snowboarding lesson may not believe me, I was actually managed to make it down while avoiding a mouthful of sand! 

Pretty tight in our little Cesna

Sandboarding down a dune

The astronaut

The hummingbird