On to Nazca, again by coach. A strange place - covered in the dry dust of the desert and virtually deserted when we were there. The town offers little other than the lines and we found ourselves quite glad that we had not arranged to stay overnight. The lines were only discovered in 1939 and I assume the local people saw very few visitors from anywhere at all before that. Now 60% of the population survive on them.
The other 40% is made up of agriculture and mining for quartz and gold. We visited a gold refinery. It was like stepping into the 17th Century. There were young boys and girls rocking back and forth on huge semi circular stones that were crushing rocks in a pool of water. The whole place, the people, the machinery, the air was red from the iron ore. We were shown how the gold was extracted using mercury. At the back of the site was a huge room that had a massive crunching machine in it which was spitting out the smaller rocks that would eventually go to the see saw grinders. The noise in that room was unbearable and it was so full of dust you could hardly breathe. I tried my best to disguise my horror and pity for the 4 men that were working in there. Only one of them had cans. The others must surely be deaf already.
Next stop was the Cemetery of Chaucilla. A strange place that I couldn't decide whether was peaceful or not. Out in the middle of the desert 12 open tombs lie in the heat. Inside there are mummies and remains of people from the Nazca civilisation who lived around AD 200. The actual Nazca period was 200 BC to 600 AD. Our guide said they were from the Nazca period about 1000 years ago. Frankly, he was clueless. You work it out! Grave robbers hungry for the ceramics and textiles that were buried with the dead had desecrated all the graves about 80 years ago and left bones and skulls scattered across the desert. Anthropologists have put the bones back together as best they could. Some of the mummies are whole. Many have a collection of bones beside them. Who knows if they really belong to the right skeletons? It's quite sad that these people have not been allowed to rest. First disturbed by thieves and now subject to coach loads of tourists ogling their tombs and taking photos. As you leave the site you can see thousands of bits of broken bones scattered on the desert floor. I'm not sure if they were just too small to collect or just left there for effect.
The mummies were cool though. Apparently the longer the hair the higher the status in Nazcan times so all of them were buried with their hair dangling down to the floor making them look like Rastas.
The lines were great to see and the plane ride was lots of fun, but a touch unnerving. the pilot looked like a 70's porn star. Was that alcohol I could smell? Tim and I were sat in the back. An American guy we had got chatting to was in the front having a complete nighmare. Every time the pilot told us to look left or right the plane would lurch sharply in that direction. Tim and I were strapped in but still falling all over the place! I feel awful because I cannot remember the name of the chap who was with us - he was a lovely guy too. Anyway, the poor thing looked green by the time the plane landed.
The geoglyths were a lot smaller than I had imagined but we could clearly see all of them. I still can't help thinking that the space man in a fake though. He is just too rounded compared to the others. The Incas always walked in straight lines for their ceremonies, so where does a round helmet suddenly appear from? I tried to video them on my phone. Failed of course. I hope the photos come out. Damn those stupid burglars and damn me for not getting a digital camera at the airport – what the hell was I thinking? I wasn’t clearly. Got to put that one right as soon as possible.
There are a million and one theories as to why the lines are there. Some say locals made them as offerings to the mountain Gods as they begged them for rain during a 50 year drought. Others say locals recreated what they had seen when they had been tripping out on the nectar that they had in the Amazon that makes you throw up and then hallucinate and fly. Others say aliens...aliens?? Whatever. Tourism? Who knows. Whichever way they were a must see and we thought the trip was well worth it.
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