Nazca

Nazca. No, not American cars driving in circles. A city made famous by ‘lines’ found in 1994 (how did no one spot them before that?) which are particularly mysterious as no one seems to have any solid idea who created them, or why, or how - just that they are thousands of years old.

Some of them are perfect straight lines stretching for kilometres, a hugely impressive feat considering the technology the creators would have been working with. The more famous of the lines are artistic drawings of various things - a spider, a monkey, a particularly imposing condor, and many others (including one named The Astronaut - unlikely the original artist’s intention). The sheer size of them is awe inspiring and leads to many unanswered questions, as several of them stretch over more than 200m, and this in turn means they can only be appreciated from above - something that would have been impossible in the time they were created.

Luckily these days it’s fairly easy to get in the air and fully appreciate the Nazca lines. We took an exciting flight in a tiny 6 seater propeller plane and got an excellent view of the lines in their full majesty. We ended up a little queasy by the end, as in order give both left and right sides of the plane a good view of every picture, the pilot was making very sharp turns around each. As a finale, the pilot offered to give us a little zero gravity experience, ascending rapidly before dropping the plane into free fall for a couple of seconds. We floated to the roof of the plane, and dropped back into our seats as the plane levelled out. Great fun, but it did leave us all a bit wobbly as we jumped back onto the tarmac once landed! An amazing mix of culture, mystery and adrenaline rolled into one.

With not much else to see or do in Nazca, we set off for our next destination, Cusco, with the excitement of new adventure underpinned by a little dread for the bus ride we were about to embark on - 26 hours through the Andes! Travel pillows at the ready…