Upon arrival to Nazca that morning I got myself a room at the Hotel Nazca.
A bit run down, but at $5 US per night, I could not really complain.
I managed to book some small excursions for that afternoon. We managed
to find ourselves at an ancient cemetary. Not too many people took pictures
here, but I could not resist the idea of putting them up here and reminding
everyone that they may too be as famous as some of the exhumed mummies.
Here is an example (64K).
Here is a picture of part of the ancient burial grounds (45K). You can see
bones lying all over the ground. These are left overs from the grave robbers
who have dug up most of the area over the past 50 years.
The next day I scheduled a small plane trip to view the Nazca lines from
above. We were given a MAP to help us identify the
lines with. The pilot did a pretty good job and nobody got sick. In the plane
we had 2 guys from Spain, two young women from Germany, myself and the pilot.
Here is the small Cessna we took (44K).
Here are several samples of pictures I took from the plane. While the objects
are quite visible from my prints, I had trouble getting the contrasts
adjusted good enough to see on the computer. Here is a pic of the trapezoid
(32K). As well there are pictures of "The Astronaut"
(75K), the "Condor"(47K) which is near an observing
tower that Maria Reiche built from her own pocket(upper RHC), part of the
Tree(74K) which is located near the tower (and where
I took the pic from) and finally a picture of one of the
lines(62K) close up. You can see they are not very elaborate. There is VERY
little erosion as our guide told us that it only rains once every 5 years on
the Nazca plains and that the dust devils help to keep them preserved. It should
also be mentioned that while the Pan American Highway that was built in the
30s destroyed 2 of the diagrams Maria Reiche has managed to help the
Peruvian government realize how important the lines are and there is now
a 1 million dollar fine for harming the lines in any way. There was even
a guard on duty in one section.
The home where Maria Reiche studied the lines for nearly 40 years from
is now a museum. Even her bedroom, complete with desk and posters, is
on display. She now lives in one of the towns hotels. Here is a picture
of one of the drawings she made during her studies (46K).
Finally I cannot resist mentioning Elke and Els from Belgium. We ended up
on the same tour the first day and were staying in the same hotel. We managed
to amuse ourselves with plenty of stories and card playing in between
excursions. We later met again in the city of Cuzco... Here we
are enjoying a lazy afternoon lunch (57K).