Many people will have heard of the Nazca lines in Peru, which is the main reason for visiting this town. The bus ride from Ica took about 2 hours, through more desert land and was incredibly warm again as the temperature has once again risen to about 28 degrees centigrade. There is a lot of mystery and speculation about how the Naza lines came into being - from ancient Nazca peoples communications with the gods, to Chris's preferred thoughts that Aliens planted them here as a landing map! There is some consistency though around the view that the lines have been here from 500BC. They stretch over a considerable distance in the desert. They are so big that they can only really be appreciated from the air so we took a small Cessna plane to 2000 feet over the plain to view the markings which take the form of animals in the main - a monkey (a real one of which has never been seen in this area of Peru - alien connection or what!), a whale, a hummingbird, a parrot, a tree, a condor and a dog, amongst others. The amazing thing about them is that they have all been made in one line (there are no stop and start points) and on this scale that is a very big feat indeed. Amazingly the lines were really only discovered and mapped 50 years ago. There are also many trapezoids shapes over long distances which form strange geometric shapes which could have been alien landing sites. Later on we visited Chauchilla, a local ancient Inca cemetery that has been excavated to preserve the tombs from grave robbers, who have taken anything of value over the years. The interesting thing about the bodies is that they have been mummified by the application of salt, chilli and paper to the bodies and they have been placed in an upright foetal position facing the East with their items of wealth and offerings to the Gods surrounding them. Chris and I were a little unsure of whether the skeletons and bodies in the open tombs were the original ones excavated or there for the tourists to demonstate the burial rituals - take a look at the photos and see what you think. We were assured that they were and it is quite a well known site in Peru. We also took a very short trip to a local gold processing house, which extracts the small amounts of gold from the local rock and a pottery demonstration. We are now on our way to Arequipa on an overnight bus which will take about 8 hours, as it is about 400 kilometers away. It will take us over the Andes to a height of about 8000ft - the challenge will be staying awake until we leave at midnight !