I arrived in Nasca around 7am and was pleased to see Raul (tour guide) greeting me. After a small wait in the office around the corner for 2 Swedish boys who were joining me in flying over the Nasca lines we headed to the airport. Unfortunately, the weather conditions were not ideal and we were told there was a 2 hour delay in our flight time. We decided to fill the time with a trip to some old tombs instead where there were 2000 year old Pre-Inca mummies uncovered.

The journey there took us to the middle of nowhere and having passed one convential, if not remote, cemetary on the way we arrived at the cemetary. Here there were around modern but flimsy 12 shelters built around the tombs which had been excavated. Inside each tomb were found 1 or 2 mummified bodies, complete with clothes and ceramic offerings around them. In one case where a Shaman was buried there were also 2 mummified babies as well which were offered as sacrifices at the time.

We had it explained to us that the tombs were all sadly raided in the 1930´s when they were discovered by westerners and all of the valuable metals and in tact ceramics were stolen. The result was a landscape dotted with pits where tombs have been excavated previously and all around on the surface human bones were scattered as they had been disregarded all those years ago in the rush to find gold and silver offerings.

Soon after we returned to the airport where the 3 of us, along with a Peruvian couple joined us in climbing aboard our 7 seater, single propeller plane. The fly over the Nasca lines lasted about 30 minutes and was incredible as we flew over all the famous creatures that had been etched into the ground up 2500 years ago.

Sadly though even some of the figures had suffered over the centuries and the pan-american highway actually worms its way right through a geoglyph of a lizard (Floyd they aren´t up to the TFL standards of planning)!

No body really knows what the markings were for, or what they mean even today but it was certainly a pretty cool sight, even if you did have to put up with a rather nauseous fligt in a tin can!

Once back on the ground i headed to a fish restaurant with the 2 Swedish boys where i tried my first Cerviche of the trip. Cerviche is a dish endemic to Peru and Ecuador and is a type of sea fish eaten raw in a spicy sauce. Despite my reservations it was actually very tasty and did just the job before i got back on the bus at 12.30pm ready to hit Ica.

Not a bad morning!