Nazca & Lima

Nazca 6^th – 7^th November

After an overnight bus ride we were met at the bus terminal in Nazca by zealous touts from a local hostel, they were nice enough, their hostel looked fine by the photos and the price was right… so why not! We got to the hostel and booked into a flight over the Nazca Lines, a UNESCO world heritage site first discovered in 1939 on a routine research flight for ancient irrigation channels. There is really not a lot known about the Nazca Lines, they were made by the top layer of rocks and sand being removed from the desert landscape, revealing a lighter coloured sand underneath, but the whys and the hows and the whos have never really been answered to a satisfactory extend. It is theorised that the lines were created by a few different cultures between 900BC and 600BC, which is so long ago I can’t even comprehend, how would they have survived all this time? Theories abound about the meanings of the lines, aliens, gods, astronomical calendar, giant running tracks, drug induced visions of ancient shamans… take your pick. The real mystery though, for me and for everyone else who visits, is why these lines, which can only be appreciated from the air, were  created at a time when the only souls to be able to appreciate the lines were those of birds flying above!

We saw the classics, the monkey, the whale, the hummingbird, the owl/spaceman, so many amazing geometric shapes… what blew our minds even more than these were the lines. Hundreds and hundreds of dead straight lines of various widths, criss crossing all over the place and running for as far as the eye could see.

Some lines and geometric shapes, the squiggly lines is a dry creek!

This is the Owl or the Spaceman, depending on who you ask!

More lines!

The monkey

The Hummingbird

Us with the little wobbly plain!

We didn’t spend too much time in Nazca as we were keen to get out of the desert, head North to get to the Galapagos Islands! So we had a few drinks with the hostel owners that night and headed off at lunch time the next day to Lima.

Lima 7^th – 9^th of November

Lima seemed like a very big, very cosmopolitan city. This impression stuck with us from when we arrived to when we left, a city full of shopping and food, the Limeños were whiter and richer than their Cusqueñan cousins, a definite shift from developing world to developed in the same country, though in saying this we didn’t take any time to explore the outskirts of the city, where the real people live. And the centre was a little grimier than the flashy suburbs where our taxi driver advised us to stay. We arrived late in the evening and after finding a place to stay (though much more expensive than we anticipated… welcome to Lima) we went to eat at the local shopping centre, which was very similar to Knox City’s O-Zone, just slightly fancier. The following day after a good sleep in we ate lunch in an amazing all you can eat Chinese Buffet (though unfortunately, due to our shrunken stomachs, all you can eat doesn’t have the same meaning that it did back at home!) before heading to the Museo de Inquisition (Museum of the Inquisition), a small but interesting Museum with some pretty gory wax figurines. After this we went to the Monestario de San Francisco (San Franciscan Monastery) for a tour of the church, monastery and most interestingly the underground catacombs where around 70,000 bodies were buried up until 1808. There has since been an archaeological study of the sight, which includes underground passages to all of the other churches in the city, as well as, apparently, the buildings of the inquisition. The bones which remain, mostly long bones and skulls, were all sorted into bone type and length and then were returned to open pits in the catacombs where you can see them today. It was quite eerie to say the least! No photography allowed!

After this we went to the market area of central Lima to search for Christmas cards, though it seems as though here in South America Christmas cards are not part of Christmas tradition, I have only found 2 packs, both of which were in English! We did find, however, a place that for me at home would be heaven! It was a 6 or 7 story building filled with bustling little stalls and shops, the first couple of floors selling everything paper, craft and party, while the higher levels were dedicated to cake decorating, piñatas and foam party decorations. While we didn’t succeed in our mission to find Christmas cards, we did have a ball!

The following day we had a lazy morning, a walk to the beach (and for James a swim), a big lunch before heading off on a 28 hour bus ride to Guayaquil, Ecuador.