A night bus saw us sadly departing Cusco for the small town of Nazca, in the middle of the pampa, an arid plateux covered by mysterious lines left by the Nazcan Indians 1000 years ago. Unfortunately we were ripped off by the old "its high season now" excuse (we were quoted $45 by the tout in Cusco, then told it was actually 55 when we got there after being picked up and taken to the airport), but we decided to go ahead anyway and did the flight. Expensive but worth it, seeing the Nazca Lines from the back seat of a tiny Cessna as it banked and bobbed in the clear midday air.

Somewhat surprisingly, I found the geometric lines were more impressive than the animal geoglyphs. The animals were actually quite small, and while not anti-climactic, they werent as big as I thought they were. The lines and "runways" however, were mind bogglingly huge, stretching out to the horizon - the horizon from the air! The whole pampa is covered in them. A video we were shown before the flight theorized that the lines were shamanistic or ritual procession ways, with the primary purpose of asking for more rain during a 40 year drought during the "nazca 5" phase of their society. The lines are so long though it doesnt make sense people processed along them. They also dont match any particular astronomical system.

So what were they for? While the animals can be answered by looking to shamanic out-of-body rituals, the geometric lines still seem to remain a mystery.


After Nazca, we took the bus to Ica, which was refreshingly short, and stayed in the Huacachina oasis just outside of the city. The oasis is pretty awesome, a small lake surrounded by the biggest sand dunes Ive seen yet. Sal took the opportunity to go dune buggying and sand boarding today too, so she got to see them from the top - I was a bit jealous when she told me what it looked like, but I was more in the mood for chilling out by the hostel pool and doing a bit of writing than sand boarding again, so I wasnt too fussed... it would be really cool though to hire a 4x4 and go driving up and down those dunes, as they were incredible.

Leaving Ica we saw more of this landscape: the huge rocky mountains of the distant Andes at the horizon, with massive waves of sand on both sides of the bus in the immediate distance. Eventually patches of farm land came into sight, and the first stop outside of Ica was a bit distressing, one of the worst looking shanty towns Ive seen in South America. It looked more like a prison camp than a community, and I really felt for the people who got off the bus to go home there - nothing but dillapidated brick and tin roof shacks, wire fencing, dust and sand.

We arrived here at Pisco a few hours ago and after a hiccup found our hostel, which has turned out to be awesome - a little expensive for Peru at 24 soles per night (4 quid) but it has a pool, a pool table, table football, a laundrette, a kitchen, and is overall really nice and clean. The toilet has a lid, the cistern has a lid, there is toilet paper AND soap, and the shower has hot and cold taps and a shower head. Mint!!}

Tomorrow we go for our tour of the Balestas Islands and the Paracas National Park, which apparently has abundant coastal wildlife. I reckon itll be quite nostalgic seeing things like seals. Itll also be Sallys first experience of the Pacific Ocean. Its awesome to be sharing things like this with her, and Im going to be very sad to leave her in three days.  ¶ 4:19 PM