Day 5
30th May 2013

Next visit one of the world's greatest archaeological mysteries, the Nazca Lines. The lines consist of patterns and pictures etched in the ground, crisscrossing a wide area of flat desert. Some of the lines measure up to 10 km (32 miles) in length, and yet remain perfectly straight. The depictions of birds, insects and animals are only recognizable from the air. Who drew the lines, and why, is something modern archaeologists can only theorize about, but current beliefs suggest that they may be part of complex agricultural calendar. From the ground we can make out very little, and the best view is from a light aircraft, which can easily be arranged as an optional activity.

The entire desert area was also once the home for the ancient Paracas and the Nazca cultures, which preceded the Incas by more than half a millennium. Remains of the Nazca culture are still visible during our included tour of an ancient Pre-Inca desert cemetery site, with 1500 year-old mummies, bones and pottery on the desert floor. The tour also includes a visit to an artisan’s workshop, where modern masters create Nazca style pottery.

In the evening we assist in the preparation of a thousand year-old tradition: a "Pachamanca", an ancient ceremony akin to the Polynesian meal of burying a variety of delicious treats wrapped in banana leaves and slow-cooking them with pre-heated rocks buried in the ground.

We get and have breakfast before heading to the airport for our flight over the Nazca lines. We arrive at the airport and check in and are each weighed so they can balance the planes properly. After checking in an paying we are told that it will be about an hours wait due to the airport being so busy. We head outside and browse the market stalls selling tourist tat and before long we hear an alarm and everyone in the airport leaves the building and is stood in the car park. We are told by one of the locals this is an earthquake drill which they do from time to time. Before long it is time to board out little plane and we head off to see the Nazca lines. As we get to the whale the plane banks sharply to the left to enable the people on that side to get a good photo, my stomach churns. We circle round and bank to the right so the rest if us can get our snap shots. This continues though the entire flight or though now my stomach has got used to it. We land and head back for the hotel and then out for lunch. After lunch we all go our own ways and I head up to my room for a little siesta for an hour before we all meet up at 16:00 for our afternoon excursion. Our first stop is the Nazca crematory to see the mummies. Whilst there Paco gets distracted by the girls and walk head first into a post. A little while later Libby is looking into one of the graves and I get a piece of stick and brush it against her neck, she screams then turns round and kicks me hurting her toe in the process, we are all in fits of laughter. We head back toward the city and visit a traditional pottery followed by a gold extraction place and then it's off for dinner. We are told that the dinner is at a hotel but our busies driving down a bumpy dirt track out into the middle of no where. After about 20 minutes we pull into a courtyard of a hotel and ate lead round the back to a kind of barn or shed. We are shown round the back to a pile of earth and slowly the earth is moved away to reveal our dinner which has been cooking in the ground with some hot rocks for about 4 hours. The food is brought inside and we have beef, pork,chicken and a selection of vegetables and potatoes. After dinner we head back to the hotel and the group all head up to their rooms apart from the girls, Paco and myself, who are going to go for a Pisco sour before bed. As we are leaving for the bar we are joined by John and Jenny and we sit in the bar chatting before heading back. We get back and everyone goes to their rooms apart from me as I stay down stairs for a smoke. I am shortly joined by Paco and we sit and chat for a while before going off to our rooms. Early start in the morning 12 hour bus trip to our next town and leaving at 07:30.