Nazca Peru – Nazca lines in a plane
We Take Oltursa floats to Nazca. The seats are huge. The service is wonderful. The food is even OK. But there is no sleep. Just as I drift off, the bus stops and it is searched, and I fail to return to sleep thereafter. At 6 a.m. we arrive at Nazca. 3 people from Hostels are there at the bus terminal, waiting to pounce on us. I get so sidetracked, I forget to get the luggage off, and only just remember as I look for a taxi. We select a hostel with a pool, and then the two ladies start fighting the man over me. I try to tell them we’ve made our selection but the women are screaming at the man! We walk off and get into the taxi.
The señora tells us it includes breakfast, but we have to wait for 1 – 2 hours for the room and the food. So we wander around town. It is dead. But we meet a nice Canadian couple and have a chat. We return to the hostel and meet a lovely & positive Canadian lady, Jennifer who is also going around the world.
She joins us for breakfast, and we decide we will catch up later and try and strike a deal on plane hire for an aerial view of the Nazca lines. I was not sure we could afford this, but we shop around and pay $80 which is pretty good.
So off we go. Passports are again needed, so there is a trip back to the hostel to retrieve them. The taxi is pretty impatient, but it is included in the price which is great. My son is nervous, but I am kind of excited.
We wait a fair while and have about 3 passport checks, and we also get weighed on luggage scales! Finally, we are meeting our pilot and co-pilot, and walking on the tarmac. We are given headphones, and because my son is the smallest, we end up at the tapered back.
Once we are in the air, the little windows are closed, and pretty soon the co-pilot is telling is where to look to see the lines. About 10 minutes into the flight I feel really nauseous. I’m worried, as it is usually my son that is ill, and if I feel bad, I dread to think about his stomach. Unfortunately feeling ill gets so bad I feel I can barely hang in there. It is all I can think about. I try to get a clear focus on the camera, but this makes me feel worse. So sadly I miss a couple of good photos.
I find it interesting that things are drawn with 4 fingers on one hand, and 5 fingers on the other.
They call this “the hand”, but if you look closely it looks pretty much like an upside-down bird.
We head back to the terminal, and we all sit there for about 15 minutes. We are unable to function. We hover between needing air, and not stillness.
The lines were fabulous to see. I am glad we did it. But now we all need a good lie down.
We agree with our new Canadian friend, Jennifer that we will all meet at 6 p.m. We need to find an ATM, and she knows the location, and we are then going to the Planetarium for a lesson.
We are early so we buy our tickets. 20 Soles for Adults, and 10 Soles for students and children. It is in a grand hotel and this is where Maria Reiss lived her last years whilst she studied the Nazca lines for 30 years. We wander over to the square, and my son buys a couple of souvenirs – he loves the monkey. We also discover if you turn the “hands” upside down, it is a pretty good looking bird, and we wonder if they got this wrong.
Unfortunately, my son found it so hard to understand his spoken English. His accent was so strong, but the general thing we learned was that the lines often pointed to the water. We learned that there are only 30 minutes of light rainfall in a year. Water was very important. Some say the symbols line up with the stars. Many say they were ritual lines. Some also say that because they believed the gods looked down, they drew to please the gods. It is also incredible that the monkey is used when there are no trees in this region that would have had monkeys. Unless of course, the vegetation was different 600 – 1400 years ago. We also learned the lines could have taken 800 years to complete. We do get to see the unit Maria Reiss lived in here for her last years, so that was exciting.
Whatever you believe, it is a mystery. But it is well worth a visit to Nazca.
There is a lovely street with restaurants and nightlife. We head there for dinner.
Next morning we have a little fun taking pictures with the symbols.
We enjoyed our visit to Nazca.
If there had not been so many roosters crowing day and night we would have stayed longer. My son definitely wanted to stay here another day or two.
Questions and Comments
- Have you been to Peru?
- How did you find their culture?
- What is your favorite reminder of Peru?
- Have you seen the Nasca lines from a plane?
- Do share your comments with us below.
That is so super cool! I look forward to reading more!
We love you following our journey. I am a bit behind on blogging lately as I’ve had a bad bout of food poisoning that has rocked me for days. More coming soon:)