Well, by our standards this had been a pretty civilised New Year´s celebration, so we were up quite early on the first of January. Though Rich was still feeling dodgy, and my tummy had started playing up too in the early hours, we decided to check out of the gringo paradise that is Huacachina, and tackle the onward journey to Nazca. It´s a pretty short bus ride, about three hours, so by 4pm we had landed in the most dusty, uninteresting, filthy, tourist-trappy place you can imagine... Nazca, the armpit of Peru.
Of course, people don´t come here to enjoy the charms of the town or soak up the scenery. The only reason for a visit to Nazca is to see the famous Nazca Lines, massive animal designs and geometric shapes drawn in the sand on the pampa (arid plain) that stretches north of the town. The best way to appreciate the scale of the designs is to take a small plane flight over the pampas... and so, the first thing we did when we arrived was to book a 30-minute flight for the next morning. The prices offered by the ten or so little 'airlines' and the many more travel agencies in town are all pretty standard - about $40 to $45 for a half-hour flip.
The origin and meaning of the Nazca Lines are shrouded in mystery. Their sheer scale and technical perfection, and the fact that they are best seen from the sky, have given rise to all sorts of fanciful theories, predictably including exterrestrial intervention. However, experts generally agree that they were made by the Nasca people, a pre-Inca civilisation, over a long period sometime between 200 BC and 600 AD.
This region is incredibly arid, and its inhabitants have always relied on ground water, so the function of the Lines have been linked to water rituals as well as to astronomic observation... several of the very distinct, straight lines that cross the pampas have been shown to correspond to the sun´s summer and winter solstice positions, while some of the trapezoid shapes and the lines that lead from them appear to point to subterranean rivers.
Needless to say, like any visitor arriving in Nazca to view the Lines, we were eager to find out more about them before our flight the next day, so in the evening we popped along to a lecture we had seen advertised around town (and which was listed in our guidebook). The talk was to be given by a woman named Victoria (can´t remember her surname) who was a friend of Maria Reiche, a German archeologist who studied the Lines for about 40 years before passing away in 1998.
The 'Maria Reiche Centre' where the talk was to take place turned out to be Victoria´s home on the outskirts of town. Three of us (Rich and I plus our Korean friend Oi) were the only three attendees! Victoria turned out to be a rather eccentric, slightly mad character in her mid-fifties who has clearly spent far too much time down-and-out in this filthy town. She rattled on endlessly about government corruption and how no-one has any respect etc. etc. Though she made some very salient points about the challenges facing the preservation of the Lines, she merely touched on Maria Reich´s theories and investigations. Honestly, she spent most of the nearly two hours moaning. And we got to pay $5 for the privilege of listening to her! No wonder most people go to the Maria Reiche Planetarium, the other joint in town where a nightly lecture is given (though more expensive, probably worth it!)
Anyway, next morning we were up early for our flight over the Lines. At the airport, before taking off, we watched a BBC documentary about the Lines... far more informative than the previous evening´s lecture! We´d been warned that it could be rather bumpy flight, so were surprised at how smooth it turned out to be. From the sky, we could really appreciate the size of the area covered in the mysterious geoglyphs; dead-straight lines and huge trapezoid shapes are the dominant figures, stretching as far as the eye can see.
The pilot took us in low over 14 or so animal figures, including the monkey, humming-bird, spider and dog, as well as a human figure called the "astronaut". These figures are much smaller and, from the sky, less striking than the geometric shapes, but nonetheless impressive in their simple, single-outline perfection. In the end, we agreed that the flight was a super experience, and worth every penny.
We returned to the hotel for breakfast and then went on a half-day tour to Chauchilla cemetery, a Nasca burial ground about 20 minutes´ drive out of town. Most of the graves have been looted by grave robbers - the shallow pits with mummified remains were left wide open to the elements, and bones and textiles were left scattered on the desert sand. Now, visitors may view these graves and human remains, while tombs undiscovered by grave robbers are being excavated. It seemed a rather grim thing to do - to peer into shallow pits at mummies complete with burial clothes and hair - but very interesting. It's amazing how well-preserved the mummies are, thanks to the bone-dry climate.
On the way back into town, we visited a pottery studio, where antique ceramics are restored and replicas are manufactured; and then we swung past a little gold processing works, where gold is laboriously extracted by a "traditional" method - the ore is crushed and ground, then mixed with mercury and water. This mixture is pounded for about 6 hours in a sort of giant mortar and pestle - men perched on large rounded rocks which they rock back and forth in a stone basin filled with the mixture. Back-breaking work, and pretty dangerous due to the contact with mercury.
We were determined to make the most of this dusty little town before leaving on the night bus that evening, so after the tour, and a bite of lunch, we headed down to the Antonini Museum, where a marvellous collection of Nasca ceramics and textiles is on display. A beautifully built original Nasca irrigation canal runs through the back garden of the Museum.
Phew! And that was quite enough for one day... it was time to head on to the next destination, Arequipa.
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