We drove inland toward Nazca, stopping on the way at a museum and later at a still in Pisco, arriving at Nazca in the afternoon only to find that we could not fly over the lines that day. So we paid a blustery visit to a Nazca cemetery. Next day we went back to the airfield and eventually got our flights. Leaving later than planned we headed for Arequipa.Our bus…at a Nazca cemetry. This in lieu of a flight over the Nazca lines…all flights backed up by no flights in the morning, so we have to try again tomorrow….They didn’t really need to dig, there were bones scattered everywhere on the surface. Over the years, grave robbers had decimated most burials for any valuables buried alongside the corpse. They were usually placed in a sitting position, wrapped in cloth.It was bit spooky how the hair remained, attached to the scalp and became red. My favourite photo of Karon from the trip. With no trees or shrub, there was nothing to stop the wind from whipping along, carrying sand which got everywhere.Nazca burial grounds and drifting sand.Time to board the bus and head for our hotel, hoping for a flight in the morning.The hotel at Nazca.Next day at the hotel, waiting for a flight over the Nazca lines.Once the mist and the backlog of flights had cleared, it was our turn. There were several small planes running a continuous shuttle service.Taxying out to the runway at Nazca.Aloft, and beside the course of a riverbed there were crops, even though it never really rains there is run-off from the snows in the Andes.Beyond the fields our first glimpse of some of the lines that have been here for hundreds of years.Some of the lines look like runways and are perfectly straight.The spaceman, on the side of the hill, waving.Difficult to see, but near the end of this line, to the right, at right angles, is the humming bird, made with a single continuous line.A clearer view of the humming bird.The turns ‘Captain Carlos’ made were pretty tight, standing the plane on its wing tips, but it made for great views of the designs and here, beside the road, the viewing tower.After our acrobatics above the lines, we headed back to the airfield, over the dry riverbed.All along the course of the river, wells had been dug, to gain access to underground channels of water that remain, long after the surface water has evaporated and dried out. Some of the stepped wells.Terra firma again.
