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René and I took a night bus from Arequipa to Nazca, leaving around 9pm and arriving in at 6am. As we left the bus terminal, we were soon talking to a guy asking if we wanted to see the Nazca lines. We did, but we didn´t want to go for the first offer we found. However, at that time in the morning, nowhere was open, so since we wanted to see the lines as early that morning as possible, we negotiated a price.
By 7:30am we were at the airstrip office for that company and waiting to board the plane. It wasn´t a very organised operation as we were kept waiting some time. We wouldn´t mind if they told us the correct time we would take off, it´s the fact that they lie to you about a time and keep you holding on. Anyway, we eventually got off the ground at about 9:30am, ready to see the much anticipated Nazca lines.
The Nazca lines were known about over a hundred years ago but only when someone flew over them in an aeroplane did we find that they were actually huge geoplyphs and geometric patterns, which only became apparent once above them. This has led to all sorts of theories, the most outlandish which was proposed by Erich von Daniken, who believes the lines were a massive airfield for alien visitors. But my contention to that would be, if they have obtained the technology to travel to our planet, why would they need an airfield to land on? Particulalry airstrips kilometres long. The more commonly accepted theory is that they were used as an homage to the gods, to pray for rain. With such a fine balance between life and death in this hot, arid desert, lack of water could end their population. During times of drought, the Nazca people would make bigger and bigger geoglyphs in desperate attempts to encourage rain.
It was only a couple of minutes after take-off that we saw the first of the famous Nazca lines. It was a long laser-straight line through the middle of the desert, finishing at a far off hillock. The next was a large triangle, whose tip ended in another line that raced off into the distance. After seeing several triangles and other large lines, we saw our first actual image, and certainly the strangest. It is referred to on the Nazca map we were given as "The Astronaut". On the side of a mountain, a huge image of a bipedal figure with a large round head holds aloft his hand. Some theories say this is a human with the head of an owl, supposedly an important creature to some civilisations back then. An image such a this only encourages von Daniken and his followers to believe it´s a representation of an alien, and that the people of Nazca did have contact with E.T.
The other geoglyphs we saw included the hummingbird, the monkey, spider, dog, parrot and other such creatures, with other lines intersecting other lines, both stretching off to points in the desert. The flight lasted around 30 minutes, and after all the tight circles we´d made in the plane, my head had begun to make me feel a bit woozy. It was great to see them, but they were nothing like other jaw-droppingly great sights such as Machu Picchu. I´d wanted to see them for some time, and although they didn´t affect me emotionally or spiritually, they were nice to see.
On our flight was an Aussie guy called Matt. After our flight, Matt had to wait for his mate Keith, who´d had to take another flight. After leaving Matt at the airfield to wait for Keith, René and I headed back into town for some lunch. We left Nazca about 1pm, our next destination being the desert oasis of Huacachina.
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