Trip to Nazca

Today was the fulfillment of a dream - to view the Nazca lines!

It required leaving Lima by car at 2:15am, then drive south for about 500km. The road was a modern divided highway for about 50km then it was a two lane road passing though townships. When we finally arrived at Nazca airport at 8am my flight was delayed...
This gave us an opportunity to see the aqueducts called Puquios built by the Nazca peoples. They are an impressive system of underground aqueducts that still function today and provide water from the spring source, not the river hence when the river dries up the aqueducts still provide water.

Unusually the Nazca river was flowing due to recent heavy rains. It's not only Australia that suffers from La Nina!

Our guide Elizabeth on the banks of the Nazca river.

A short drive back to the small airport in Nazca called Maria Reiche Newman airport named after the German archeologist who spent most of her life measuring, surveying and recording the lines of Nazca.

That's me off to board the plane.

All aboard.

Now out over Nazca township

Here are two of the lines......

Mid picture is the frog

here is the tree...
There is a viewing platform on the roadside. Anyone who doesn't like flying can see these two and still enjoy the wonder of these amazing drawings in the desert.

The Nazca People also practiced burial in the desert

About a half hour drivheadway from Nazca is the Nazca burial site. Tomb robbers have taken valuable artifacts, however it wasinteresting to see bodies in foetal positions wrapped in cloth and having a supply of food and other requirements for the afterlife.

Di and our guide Elizabeth at a gravesite

Here is a mummy and belongings..in the small museum

another in situ.

Ica

On the way back to Lima we had lunch at The Huacachina Oasis which is a body of water surrounded by very high sand dunes on the ocean side.
A very pleasant place with nice eateries on the promenade.

Finally on the way home, we saw an incredible sunset over the Pacific. Something we don't see in On the East coastline of Australia.

A great day. Informative, enjoyable and very well planed.
Thanks to Elizabeth at Peru Golden Shuttle.