The Famous Nazca Lines

I was really surprised by the landscape of Peru. It was my ignorance but I expected a lot of jungle and there is definitely jungle but also a lot of desert. Lima is the second most arid metropolis in the world, the first being Cairo Egypt. On our way to Nazca and Mancora, all we saw was desert and coastline, or maybe I fell asleep for the green parts :-)

The region of Nazca is famous for the ancient people that lived there. Most of the attractions are centred around their customs and culture. We took an overnight bus and arrived early in the morning, so we were able to book a flight to see the Nazca Lines that morning. You fly in a small Cessna plane over the lines and I already knew that motion sickness was going to be a problem so we made sure to take some Gravol. Even with the Gravol, it was pretty rough but the view was amazing! The pilot made sure that you got a good view of the lines no matter where you sat in the plane. We were able to see the monkey, spider, hummingbird, alien, and many more. No one is really sure why the Nazca people created the lines but the symbols they used were special to them and they created the lines by removing the stones on the surface of the ground. The lines are actually not that deep but because the region is a desert and there is little wind, they have not been disturbed for thousands of years.

The afternoon we visited the Chauchilla Cemetery, the site where many prominent ancient people are buried. There were many tombs but most of the them were raided for the valuables found within. Very few graves remain and only 12 or 13 open graves can be seen at this site. The photographs speak for themselves about how well the desert has preserved the bodies of these people. And if you think you are seeing dreads, you are right! Many of the elite never cut their hair as it was a symbol of prominence in their society. Their bodies were preserved with natural plants found in the environment and wrapped in cotton.

The following day we visited the Aqueducts of Cantalloc, again a creation of the Nazca people so that they could have accessible water for drinking and irrigation. After two thousand years, the aqueducts are still functional and are used by the farmers in the area. Designed in a spiral shape, the ducts act as channels moving the water to other channels and at the same time acting as stairs that allowed people to walk in and get a drink of fresh, clean water in the middle of the desert!

Sometimes as a tourist, you get the best of everything a place has to offer. We learned from our guide that in Nazca, water is a rare commodity and that it is available in their homes a few hours daily. They have to make sure that they have enough stored away for a few days in case of an emergencies and by this I mean no available water. The water level at our hostel's well was too low and we didn't have water the night we stayed there. The hostel actually had to buy water for us and a truck came along in the morning to fill the well. Seeing how people live in many of the places we have visited reminds of how privileged we are in Canada and makes me appreciate the things we have even more.