Nazca
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
68
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Nazca,
Peru
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
After the visit and the tastings at the 'sell', we set off in (very) relaxed mood onwards.
Occasionally we would cross a river where the valley would suddenly show green growth and then back to the barrenness. We passed through a few towns and most of them had earthquake damaged buildings.
We turned off the main street of 'Huacachina', towards some seriously high sand dunes and arrived at a literal oasis
Norah waits for the next batch of Pisco
. Pulling into a small hotel with a swimming pool and lush gardens we stopped for lunch. Afterwards our companions were going on a sand dune buggy ride. The various buggies carried up to 15 people and with their enormous tyres and suspensions, were designed to race through, up and down the dunes in a kind of desert white knuckle ride! We passed on this, as my improving knee might have taken the buggy ride but not the sand boarding that was scheduled whilst they were in the dunes. We went for a walk round the houses in this oasis area and came to a large lake, surrounded by palm trees and complete with boats, restaurants and cafes, all with a backdrop of enormous sand dunes. I wonder if Lawrence of Arabia ever came across anything like this? Flitting about was a sparrow sized bird with a gorgeous bright red body and cap and dark wings, whilst moorhens were swimming on the lakeAfter two hours our companions, all in their twenties, returned and looked as if they had been sandblasted in a wind tunnel, but they had had a great time. We said goodbye to the chatty parrot and macaw in the hotel garden and were off again, just as it started a heavy drizzle.
Continuing south and inland we climbed up and down tall mountain ridges, something like the English lakes but with no green
Little red bird at the Oasis
. There was the constant drizzle which caused our driver to have to take it easy on some of the steep slopes. Unfortunately on the top of one of the hills two big lorries had somehow collided. One was on its side and there were boxes and packages strewn along the road for a couple of hundred yards, creating an obstacle course and a narrow squeeze to pass.Part of our route was on the Pan American Highway, which in its various forms runs from South America through Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, United States and on up into Canada. That's some drive! Nearing dusk we entered the Nazca area of Peru, which is famous for a series of lines and drawings, from a few metres long to over 20km, which are etched out on the flat, rocky plain. Their purpose is theorized from religious symbols to a celestial calendar, that could predict the equinoxes, to their being constructed by aliens (remember in the 70's, Erik von Danneken and his book 'The Chariot of the Gods')? Whatever, they were constructed between 300 BC and 800 AD by the pre Incan Nazcas and the shape of the drawings can only be identified from the air. As no one has yet found a fossilized Cessna, this has only added to the how and why mystery. We stopped at a 10 metre high steel tower and climbed to see our first 'line' - a pair of hands. Just before we reached Nazca town, which is at a height of 600m above sea level, we turned off down a very rough track and were treated to a fabulous sunset, before reaching another walled oasis and our hotel 'San Marcelo', a country retreat with Spanish style buildings around a lush, green grass square
Huacachina oasis
. Thursday 24th
A slightly cloudy start and after breakfast we set off in the van through a shanty town, built on the site of houses which were demolished in an earthquake in 1996. We headed out into the rocky desert and at the side of a sheltered small valley, where trees were growing, we saw the site of a cemetery belonging to a pre Incan farming tribe. Their practice was to dig small, stone lined tombs, sit the dead in it and then cover the top in timber and sand. Because of the dry atmosphere, the remains became preserved and mummified. The cloud had cleared and in the bright sunlight it was in the low 30's, over 90 deg F. This was the 'winter' season and we were told that they have thirty minutes (Yes - minutes) of rain in a year! I'm not too comfortable about gazing on the dead but it was an intriguing practice.
We returned towards town and stopped at Nazca 'airport', completing the journey by taxi as we had a tyre blowout in the van. There were over twenty light aircraft lined up, ready to take tourists over the 'lines'. We were bundled into a six seater, Cessna Skywagon and after using nearly all of the tarmac runway, we climbed over the rocky desert
Huacachina oasis 2
. We had been given a postcard map of the symbol lines and as we approached each one, the pilot would fling the plane onto its side so that the people on that side could look down, almost vertically, at the design on the desert floor below. Then he would wheel round in a Top Gun tight turn, so that the people on the other side could see the drawing. What a fabulous white knuckle ride! We saw the 'Monkey' (110m long), 'Spider' (46m), 'Parrot' (200m), 'Condor' (136m), 'The Hands' (45m), 'Whale' (63m), 'The Astronaut' (32m), 'Hummingbird' and 'Alcatraz' (Pelican - anyone remember Alcatraz)?There are other symbols outside our flight area but the whole plain is criss-crossed with lines, rectangles and triangles, all symmetrical. A fascinating phenomena.
For lunch we drove to a small ranch hotel for something special. At festival times the Peruvians would make a meal called a 'Pachamanga'. All Scout Backwoodsmen can look away now. The idea is a hole in the ground, light a fire and pile stones on the fire. When the fire has died down and the stones are hot, you place food, wrapped in palm leaves, between the stones, cover with earth and leave for several hours to cook. There is a 'Ceremony to the Earth' before the 'oven' is opened, which involves a small ceremony ending with a toast using 'Pisco' and then you dig up and eat! We had pork, chicken, sweet potatoes, potatoes, green beans, cheese and tamale, which is a corn/chicken/ olives mix. The whole thing was delicious.
We returned to the hotel in late afternoon for a rest and preparation for the evening. At 7pm we drove to Nazca bus station, dropped our bags off and went into town for a long, light supper. We were back at the bus station at 1030pm, ready to take the overnight bus to 'Arequipa'.
