From Arequipa we had booked a bus straight out to arrive in Nasca the next morning, only our bus wasn't going apparently. So we got paged and lead to another terminal were we got very confused as our tickets were swapped for a bus that said it left at 9pm and it was later than that already. It worked out alright though (we even got money back as it was a cheaper service) and we just had to find the terminal office for the bus we were meant to catch once in Nasca to get our transfer to the airport for our flight over the famous lines.
There were five of us waiting for our flight, two other New Zealanders. We were a bit apprehensive because just two weeks before a plane had gone down with motor trouble and killed the French tourists on-board. It was a different company though, so that was somewhat reassuring.
The lines were created by the Nasca people in the desert who lived there until 700 AD. They created the massive geometric and animal motifs by removing stones on the desert surface and piling them beside the lighter soil beneath.
There are 11 major figures, including a condor, hummingbird, spider, monkey, whale, tree and what people have called an astronaut. Some of the designs are more than 300 metres across and over 2000 years old.
My first impression as we gained height was how much of the desert area had what looked like braided water paths running over it. Apparently even though the Nasca area is really dry, there are a few weeks a year when massive amounts of water come down from the mountains, creating these short-lived rivers.
'Left side, left side, the whale' called the pilot as the Cessna swung over to give those of us on the left side a clear view over the desert. And there it was, the shape of a whale, stylistic but definitely a whale. The pilot did a circle to give those on the right side a view and then it was quickly onto the monkey with a spiral tail and the 'astronaut' that is the only design built on a hill sloping upwards.
There are many other figures, but many of them are obliterated with lines running through them. At first I thought it was vandalism or caused by natural processes, but it became clear that it was the Nasca people who created other designs on top of previous ones. Their lines became more and more directional and geometric as time went on, but no one knows why, nor why they built the lines in the first place. Theories include a giant agricultural calender to the absurd alien landing pad. The most likely theory to us is the lines were built as an offering to the gods, who would be able to see them from above.
My favourite designs were the hummingbird and the condor, with their elongated lines curving tightly back and forth.
In what seemed like no time, the sightings were over and we were heading back to Nasca. Total flying time was just over 35 minutes. In someways I felt like a herded sheep, as it seemed a short time for the US$50 paid, but I'm glad to have seen them.
After the flight, we signed up for a tour of the Chachilla cemetery, that included a visit to a gold processing plant and ceramic workshop.
The plant was interesting in its extreme rustic nature.The miners come in for one day after mining rock for five or six. They extract the gold by using mercury and hours rocking a large mortar stone in a large pestle-shaped hole for five or so hours. Like in Potosi in Bolivia, we were struck by how easy it should have been to motorise the process and remove the tedious manual labour, but there is no investment money of course.
Next we drove out to the cemetery of Chachilla, admiring the amazing beige sand dunes on the way that stick up higher than the surrounding mountains. Our guide was excellent at explaining the site and the different theories. All around there are dips in the sand that means there was a grave with a mummy buried there.
Unlike in other South American indigenous cultures, where only the noble people were mummified, the cultures in the area (Nasca and later groups) mummified everyone and buried them in a fetal position facing east with their prized possessions and items needed to help them to be born into the next world. The possessions means the graves were too tempting for grave robbers who opened and ransacked many of the graves from the 1980s or earlier. Archaeologists have recreated some of the graves to give an idea of what they would have been like.
Families were buried in the same tomb, with walls to separate the different generations. The most amazing mummies were those of the priests or shaman. They grew long hair that became dreaded. Some people think that the 'astronaut' line figure is really a shaman with the mass of hair giving the rounded look we associate with astronauts and one arm reaching up to receive divine messages from the gods.
From remains found, it is known that the Nasca people traded goods with those from the coast and the Andean mountain areas, and those in the jungle beyond. Our guide explained one theory for the lines is the figures such as the whale, spider, condor, monkey were all animals that lived in other, wetter regions. Perhaps by creating large figures of them, they were asking their gods for enough water to support these creatures.
The lines in many of the figures are not closed up, which might suggest the Nasca people held ceremonies by walking within the figures like a labyrinth.
Walking around, we could see fragments of bones everywhere, disturbed and broken by the grave diggers. It was a moving place.
The ceramic factory visit was less interesting, but I was intrigued by the stylised figures of the hummingbirds that looked like they had female breasts or something strange, perhaps to represent fertility.
After lunch we walked to the Museo Didactio Antonini, which was excellent. It had the findings of many archaeological digs in the area, many from what is known as Pueblo Viejo, or old town, which is where the Nasca people lived. Most intriguing for me were the trophy heads, that had holes in the skull and a rope through it. Also amazing were the fine textiles and many beautiful ceramics.
Outside in the garden they had a scale model of the Nasca lines and an original Nasca aqueduct running through the property. Of the 30 or so aqueducts created by the Nasca people, more than 20 are still in use today.
Happy we had made the most of our one day in Nasca, we headed to the bus office. When our bus finally arrived from Lima, the baggage holds were completely full, and there were not enough seats for those of us with tickets. Everyone was livid at the company, but when the owner tried to persuade Mark and I to upgrade to another bus, they were fiercely against that, even though that would have helped the seat shortage. It was really touching. One for one they said, why should you have to pay more because the company has oversold he seats or let people on without a ticket. The plot thickened though as the driver said the bus was not up to making the trip up the hills to Cuzco so had asked for another bus to be sent from Lima. It would be five hours before that arrived and who knew how long it would take to transfer the mountain of luggage onto the new bus. Another bus bound for Cuzco pulled up for its dinner stop and the owner negotiated that we could go on that, paying our fare to the new company. So once again, we took a bus other than the one we had booked on.
More thumbnails ...
1 vote 
