Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003 - 7:36 p.m.
Nazca is an interesting town that few tourists would visit if it wasn't for the famous "Nazca Lines", large mysterious geoglyphys in the desert ground made by the Nazca people (800BC-700AD). I'm not sure exactly how old these designs in the desert floor are, but I'm going to a lecture about the lines tonight, maybe I'll find out there. The designs are mostly of animals (my favorite is the monkey with a spiral tail) and geometric figures. There's a good website (http://www.crystalinks.com/nasca.html) that's very informative about the lines. I've just skimmed it myself, but it has some good photos, including the monkey, that you can check out yourself. What is amazing is that these designs are made in perfect proportions and best seen from the air, yet these people never viewed their art from anywhere other than the ground. It would be easy to miss the designs if you weren't looking for them from an aircraft--they weren't discovered until
Ross, James and I took a plane ride to view the figures from the air. The pilot had that little Cessna plane banking left and right so we could see the designs from both sides of the plane and take photos. It's really easy to get motion sickness on these small aircraft, but fortunately I did okay (just looked at the tilted horizon on occasion). The figures were fainter and smaller than I expected, but still very cool. I enjoyed the flight, but the 30 minutes "flew" by (ha ha) and it was over before I knew it.
We also went on a tour to a nearby cemetary, "Cemetario de Chauchilla", this morning, saw lots of cool mummies (the cemetary is about 1000 years old, some of the people were Wari, but most are of the Inca-Chincha culture). The sad thing is that the place has been scoured by grave robbers who've left the bones and broken pottery scattered everywhere, and no one seems to be preserving the mummies in any way; they sit in the open graves, under a canopy, but are exposed to wind and sun. It's a little disconcerting to see pieces of bone and pottery just lying neglected in the sand next to the path. The mummies have been well preserved (until now) due to the climate and other conditions however. (This desert area has an annual average rainfall of about 300 ml!) The other interesting thing is that the life expectancy of these ancient people was about 35!
We leave tonight, (Tues, Aug. 19th) taking a bus to Arequipa, a beautiful colonial city that I've heard likened to Cuenca. There is also a nearby canyon, Colca Canyon that the guide book says might be the world's deepest canyon. So, we'll probably spend about 4 days there. Then on to Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca and from there Cuzco where we'll plan a 4 day trek along the Inca Trail ending at Macchu Picchu. We've been meeting a lot of other tourists since Lima that are going the same or similar route. I expect it will be easy for me to meet someone in Cuzco that is going on to La Paz. Also, my friend and fellow teacher Jayne is considering meeting and traveling with me in Bolivia. I hope so.
