Hey from Nazca..

So this is just a day trip... passing through on my way to Arequipa.. Caught the bus early in the morning from Ica to Nazca... was only a 2 hour bus so got into Nazca and the guide from the Nazca Flight agency was there to greet me. We hopped in his car and headed to the Airport.. Nazca is rather baron and if it wasn't for the famous mysterious Nazca lines putting it on the map then no one would really visit it at all..

We got to the airport and signed in... 45mins and I will be going up in a 6 seater Cessna plane to view the lines that have scientist and historians around the world stumped... before hand I watched a doco that explains what they believe happened.. They believe it was an ancient race of people who created the lines.. They marked them out with stones and then raked them for days on end until they were complete... why???? That part I wasn't to clear about.. Most likely as an offering to their gods who would have been Mother Nature and the sun gods as that seems to be the common trend in past South American tribes. I am not too sure about this I mean it makes more sense than aliens coming to earth and drawing large figures of earthly animals.. I mean if they were coming all this way to use our planet as canvas to their art work why draw our animals?? If I was an alien I would prob draw something that would really freak some people out... it's all very mysterious and the DVD is a good build up to the flight.. I have wanted to do the Nazca lines for as long as I can remember... I never knew too much about them but always thought I want to see them one day.. Even as a kid.. I was pretty excited...whilst waiting a couple of girls that were on my sand boarding tour walked in... They were also on my bus.. They had a little longer to wait but we sat and chatted until I got called up...

It was my turn.. I went through security... which consisted of a basket you put your bag into which a lady who was more interested in what was happening on her iphone checked through it whilst you walked through a metal detector which I am still not convinced was even plugged in.. Top notch security...

Anyway 3 German girls walked in after me and I assumed they were also going on board with me.. We sat in the waiting area for another 20 mins and then got called up.. We walked out onto the tarmac.. And boarded our plane.. Headset on and then we were ready to go.. We waited for the clearance and then we were on the run way... here we go..

We got up into the air.. All was ok then we hit our first air pocket.. hrmm not so fun.. Stomach in my throat... then I remembered all the reading I had done about how the flight can be rough and isn't really for the weak stomached... whoops! We arrived at our first set of lines they blew my mind... it was the whale and the idea of how big these things are and even if it was done by a race of people.. How did they know what it would turn out like without the aerial view??? Anyway all was good until we did the turn so the other side of the plane could see... it was then I realised I may not last the whole half hour flight.. I sucked it up though and carried on.. What other option did I have??

Next were the arrows.. Pretty cool and then the Astronaut.. This was my favourite out of them.. He is carved into a rock... I don't really think it looks like an astronaut.. I think it could be a self portrait of the alien that made them... or the marshmallow man from ghost busters... hard to tell really.. Have a look at the pic and see what you think it looks like.. Astronaut wouldn't have been my first guess but it's cool all the same.

Next we had the monkey we had a look and on the left side (my side) which was awesome he was faint but really cool with a curly tail.. however when we did the big turn for the right side that's when I realised it was about to be all over... frantically I looked for a plastic or paper bag.. None to be seen.. Only other option was to take the t-shirt off (had a singlet underneath so was ok) off it came and just in time.. "Ladies if you look to your right you will now see the monkey and his curly tail", said the guide.. Nope all I saw was my head in my t-shirt...chocolate biscuit before the flight not such a great idea.. Was glad I didn't go for the bottle of coke as well.. Water was bad enough..

The rest of the flight I was on and off sick looking out the window at the dog, condor, set of hands, Alcatraz and spider,, taking pics where I could and trying to just make it through to the end.. the last 5 mins was the worse but then we were on the home stretch... when we landed I gathered my stuff leaving my pride and dignity behind and went a cleaned up and got changed...

I lay down for a bit as I still was no good.. The other girls finished their flight.. One of them was ill as well not physically but she said she was close and disappeared to the bathroom for a bit.. I felt a little better about things after that.

After some rest and water and feeling a tiny bit better my driver took me back to the bus depot.. He wanted to take me one second tour to a cemetery but the girls said they could get it cheaper which they did by a lot.

I met them back at the depot and jumped in with their driver.. My guide was not happy and called their driver yelling at him.. We told him that he was taking us back to the hostel because I was sick... he didn't believe us.. Anyway we headed out to the Chinchilla cemetery where they have found these tombs of an ancient race. They dug them out so you can see the mummies in the position they were put in the ground at their death.. Facing the east for the sun god of course..It's a little morbid looking at skeletons but was interesting all the same.. In this race of people, if you were of power then your workers or slaves or helpers would be sacrificed upon your death and their skulls or I guess heads would be buried by your side... morbid I think but hey it was all they knew.. I believe they were also cannibals as well.. We walked around looking at the different graves comparing.. Stomach was a little squeamish still so I struggled a little but soldiered on..

After this we went back to Nazca as the cemetery was 30km away.. We had a look around, had something to eat and then it was time to head to the bus depot again.. The girls jumped on a bus to Cuzco and I jumped on one to Arequipa.. Tomorrow I hit the Colca Canyon.. World's biggest canyon.