My Trip to see the Nazca lines of Peru…finally

Muhn-key! Muhn-key!

When David and I were planning our summer vacations last year, I realized that the best time for me to take a two week break from my work schedule would be during the period in which he would be working his way through Peru on his two month South American journey. Machu Picchu was a given, of course we would to do that together, it was on both of our Must Do lists, but I was even more excited about getting the opportunity to finally see the Nazca lines. A site that wasn’t on David’s radar and initial plan, but something I had to see!

As a child of the 70’s I was swept away by the mystery of the lines carved into the rock and sand of the Peruvian desert. I remember watching, back then, the American documentary Chariots of the Gods, based on the book of the same name by Erich von Däniken. I was persuaded, as any daydreaming boy would be, by his thesis about the origins of the Nazca lines. Of course they were runways for space travelers, duh! It made perfect sense. Just like Devil’s Tower in Wyoming was the perfect landing pad for extra terrestrials, and Amelia Earhart and everyone else that went missing near the Bermuda Triangle was actually captured by UFOs. (Only to be returned to our planet years later when 5 notes were played by a giant synthesizer at that same Devil’s Tower, thanks to the scientists in Close Encounters of the Third Kind).

"Perro! Perro!...the Doggy!"

David was accommodating to my interest, he always is, and within a few minutes he figured out a schedule for our trip that would allow us to spend an entire day in Nazca. We’d have the opportunity to see the lines on either the day that we arrived or the morning before we had to depart for Lima. In return I would have to sacrifice seeing Lake Titicaca which David would do before I met up with him in Cusco. My two-week vacations never leave me enough time to see everything on my wish list. There’s never enough time to see everything, so I was willing to skip the lake for the mystery of the Nazca lines.

We didn’t make reservations for a tour of the lines before we left Chicago since we read that fog could be an issue and planned to wait until we got into town to see which day would be the best for our tour. We did however make reservations to stay at a decent hotel, the Casa Andina Classic – Nazca. We would be arriving in Nazca early in the morning after an overnight bus ride from Arequipa.

Here are a few things you should know about Nazca, the overnight bus from Arequipa and the lines in the desert:

• You are not going to get decent nights sleep on the overnight bus ride from Arequipa to Nazca if you are over 6 feet tall. Even the 1^st class seats are meant for shorter people. You can’t really fully recline and rest and the entire night is spent readjusting.

• The bus gets cold at night. You are driving at some high elevations. (I’m glad I sat on the aisle and didn’t have a chance to look out the window. I imagine it was a scary view through the mountains).

• The gelatinous dessert cup given to you, as part of your meal on the bus ride looks fruity and fun…it’s not. It’s kind of nasty actually.

• The effeminate man with his hair in a topknot (held in place by a banana clip) that greets you at the bus depot does not really work for the hotel where you’ve reserved your room. He talks a good game and makes you think, in your groggy, sleepless state that he has been sent to meet you, but he really hasn’t. He’s an independent guide. His family runs an airplane tour site.

• There are numerous outfits at the airport that can fly you over the lines. It seems like most people just head out to the airport in the morning and wander around, checking each of them out before deciding to book.

• All of the tours of the lines are on small planes. If you aren’t used to flying in them, chances are you are going to get sick. I’ve read that a huge number of people get sick. Do yourself a favor and skip breakfast. Wait until the tour is over and you are safely on the ground again before you fill your belly.

• Bring your passport to the airport when you go for the tour. It is required that you show your passport to get on any of the planes. It is quite a hassle if you don’t have it…we found that out after David left his in the room safe.

• Other than the tourist sites, there’s not a lot to do in Nazca. Don’t plan on spending too much time there.

• If there are a bunch of Chinese businessmen at your hotel, they will probably keep you up at night as they sit in the courtyard drinking beer, and talking really loudly.

And finally…

• The lines ARE an amazing thing to experience! They are everything I imagined them to be.

"Colibri...Colibri"

After the long bus ride, we arrived very early in the morning. Groggy and a bit disoriented, we were met at the bus depot by that said guy with the topknot, Christian. He began walking us to our hotel since it was located a short distance up the street.  He worked us well and talked us into a tour on a small 4-passenger plane that could take us at 8AM that morning. I really thought he was sent by the hotel to meet us, but it wasn’t until we were checked in and went back down to the lobby to finish our tour arrangements that we realized he had no affiliation with Casa Andina.

David and I looked at each other and said, what the hell, let’s just go for it. The morning was sunny, he told us he would get us on the first flight before there was a chance of fog rolling in, and his brochures looked professional enough. We agreed to the price of a tour on a 4-passenger plane and jumped into a cab with Christian and were off on an adventure.

After first stopping at the office of his tour company to fill out paperwork and watch a bad copy of an introduction to the Nazca lines video, we headed to the airport. It is a small facility with numerous tour operators and many tourists milling around trying to make arrangements for a flight. The outfit that we signed up with looked as good as any of the others and after a few minutes of final preparation, including haggling with the airport official to let us do the flight even though David didn’t have his passport with him, we were shuffled off to our plane.

It was a small plane operated by a pilot and co-pilot (probably both brothers of Christian). Two young girls from Sweden sat behind David and me. We all had headphones to listen to the co-pilot as he pointed out the different configurations and after a few minutes we were off the ground and flying over the desert.

"Hands!...Hands!"

There are thousands of lines cris -crossing the desert floor, with many of them going completely straight for hundreds of yards. Then, scattered throughout the straight lines are strange and sometimes comic stick figure drawings of animals and plants and bugs and people. It’s amazing to see them and to realize that they have been there for hundreds of years and that it is just about impossible to see them from ground level. In fact, it wasn’t until planes started to fly over the desert in the 1930’s that they were “discovered”.

In order for the passengers on both sides of the plane to get a good look at the drawings, the pilot kept banking the plane left and right as we passed them. The co-pilot would call out what we were seeing as we flew by. “Muhn-key, Muhn-key!” he yelled as we passed over a drawing of a monkey with and enormous tail that wound around and around in a giant spiral. “Colibrí…. the Hummin’bird,” he said pointing to one of the many bird drawings.

At this point, not yet ten minutes off the ground, the plane banking back and forth started to get me feeling a bit nauseous. I took a deep breath and stared out at the horizon, trying to fix my eyes on a stationary point. It’s the thing that I do naturally whenever I start to feel motion sickness coming on and it usually helps. After a bit of concentration I was able to over come the feeling and go on. David unfortunately didn’t have the same luck.

Suddenly after hearing the co-pilot yell out “Astro-knot…Asto-knot!” while pointing to a curious looking man with googley eyes staring up from a hillside, I heard a commotion and look over and saw David coughing into the motion sickness bag. Argh, poor guy, once it started with him, there was no stopping it. My focus turned away from the lines and I tried to comfort him as the dry heaves continued. As I rubbed what I hoped was a comforting hand on his back I turned around and saw that one of the two Swedes was also holding a bag up to her face. I looked at her partner, smiled and shrugged. Like I said, a lot of people get sick on this flight.

"Condor!...Condor!"

After a few more minutes of “Perro! Perro!… The Doggy!” we were flying level again and heading back for a landing. I think the entire flight lasted about a half hour…25 minutes longer than David would have liked. Once on the ground we tipped the pilot and co-pilot, and ran to look for Christian who was holding a taxi for us to take back to the hotel. “Just get me home,” David mumbled as we spotted the car.

The rest of the day was spent with him sleeping off the sickness in bed and me sitting by the hotel pool, sipping beer and thinking about the amazing thing I had just experienced. After thirty plus years I finally had the chance to see what I had daydreamed about as a young boy. Yes, the current understanding is that the lines were made by the Nazca civilization to mark the locations of underground aquifers, but to me they will always be landing strips for the gods.

A few disclaimers:

• All photos were taken from the Flickr collection of David Telford. My photos weren’t nearly as good since I got a little side tracked.
• I have nothing against effeminate men, in fact I’ve been told by more than one thug growing up that I am one.
• I also really don’t have any beef with Chinese men. The group staying at my hotel was loud and drank far into the night. Just facts.
• The fruity snack cup was not to my liking. I’m sorry if it is something Peruvian’s really like, I don’t mean to offend them. I do like their Pisco Sours though!