Flying over the ancient Nazca Lines was an unforgettable experience… and one I never want to repeat.

The ancient Nazca tribe played an important role in Peru's history. Deeply spiritual, it is widely believed that they are responsible for the mysterious Nazca Lines - a network of figures, lines and geometric patterns etched some 15cms into the rock, spread over 500 square meters of Peruvian desert. The lines were made by removing stones which had been darkened by the sun, to reveal lighter shades beneath, and the shapes include a spider, monkey and a pair of hands. No-one really knows why the lines are there, what their purpose was, what the motivation for creating them was or how it was done. You can only really see them from the air, so how ancient people created these symmetrical and sometimes quite complex shapes is a real mystery. They really are huge too. There are all sorts of theories, just like with Stonehenge; people have mused that this is some sort of calendar, a ritual site, or even the place of an alien landing. Intrigued, I decided this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and despite warnings that the planes were very bumpy (and a few mutterings of accidents, lets skim over that), it had to be done.

Heading out into the desert, the alien invasion theory made more sense.. it is desolate out there - how on earth (or frankly, why) the Nazcas managed to hold out for as long as they did is beyond me. For about 500 years, give or take, they set up home in this creepy, barren place - praying to their Gods in the East, undergoing bizarre ritual ceremonies and apparently creating these strange shapes in the land.

Arriving at the airfield, I was relieved to see that my plane looked sturdy, and the pilots looked very smart in their uniforms (just like An Officer and a Gentleman, actually). Looking nice is important! So, feeling quite intrepid (a bit like the Flying Doctors), I clambered aboard and we soared up over the hills. All the flights follow the same path, taking in the main shapes and patterns of the Lines - they look so strange, almost like children's drawings, and the choice of animal in particular just adds to the weirdness of it all… there can't have been monkeys in the desert, so maybe the Nazcas came from the jungles? As we swooped over, twisting and turning so as to get a good view of the shapes, I started to get a bit hot. Then a bit nauseous. A glance around confirmed that my companions felt it too - everyone was very pale. 35 minutes later we landed, very glad indeed to be back on the ground and each pledging never to get in a light aircraft again. I'm glad I saw the Lines but the flight itself was grim.

I had the afternoon free in Nazca, which is a bit of a hick town really, so in search of more information on the Nazcas I headed to an ancient burial ground, about 27kms out of town. In tow I had Dave and Laura, who I keep bumping into in Peru, and our lovely guide was keen to chat. So, once again I found myself in a cemetery - only this one is as far removed from the grandiose Recoletta as you can imagine. Way out in the desert, there is nothing for miles - no birds even - just the odd cactus. On arrival we were shown a one-room museum which houses the mummified remains of a baby and a woman, curled up in the foetal position and complete with hair, nails and skin. Creepy. Turns out that the poor Nazcas had a hard time of it, barely existing in the desert and then completely wiped out by the Wari, their graves were desecrated by thieves in the 1950s. Archeologists went to the site around twenty years later and began to excavate, piecing the remains back together and unearthing a few archelogical gems (lots of tools, cooking pots, ceremonial objects and of course the mummies themselves). The bones which had been scattered by the grave-robbers had been sandblasted and bleached by the sun, so they look so white its almost as though they are plastic. Some have been placed atop of bodies, all facing East, in accordance with Nazca belief, but it really does feel as though they are staring at you.

En route back to town we stopped off to see how the traditional Peruvian pottery is made (in a nutshell, clay, grind some rocks down to make paint, paint them, rub a pebble on the shiny parts of your face then rub over the pottery to glaze, put in a kiln, cook for 30 hours, bingo).

With Nazca all done it was time to get on the night bus, leaving the Nazcas behind and heading for the land of the Incas...

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