Nazca Lines

For our “backpacking” part of the trip we travelled by bus from Lima to Nazca (6h), overnight to Arequipa (10h) and with the last very comfy bus to Puno (7h). Final bus transfer from Puno via Copacabana to La Paz was no more shiny buses with wide leather seats reclining 180 degrees and personal entertainment system. 😞The hostels we booked were really nice, although the one in Arequipa had a very noisy party going on vis-à-vis, we couldn‘t sleep for most of the night.

 

In Nazca, we had an early morning flight over the Nazca lines, which was amazing. The plane did a lot of sharp left and right turns and circled above the figures for everyone to see them. Luckily we didn‘t get sick. The Nazca lines are ancient, pre-Inca geoglyphs crossing the Nazca desert, formed by the Nazca tribe with shallow trenches, removing the darker stones on the surface to make the underlying light-colored clay earth visible. We were surprised how clearly we could see the different shapes from the plane. The largest figures are up to 370m long. Some are simple lines and geometric shapes, others more complex animal forms. There is also an astronaut 😁Latest assumptions are that they were used in ceremonies to worship mountains and other water sources. Also very interesting was our visit to the Chauchilla Cemetery to see the desert mummies.

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