The Nazca Lines

On our way from Lima to Cuzco, we decided to stop in Nazca and check out the mysterious Nazca Lines. The were created in the Peruvian desert by the ancient Nazca people, but nobody knows their purpose. Sure, there are plenty of theories ranging from celestial maps, to an airfield for alien spacecraft, to lines simply used for indicating the presence of ground water...but nothing has been proven.

That fact that nobody knows the lines' purpose is interesting, but actually going up and staring down at these huge geoglyphs (the animal figures) and geometric lines was pretty amazing!

We took a flight in a small four-seater plane in order to get the best view of some of these figures. Both of us were pretty excited to be up in the sky in such a small aircraft because neither of us had been in a Cessna before. Before the flight we were even starting to make plans to get our pilot licences when we get home. My plans changed about halfway through the flight...here's why:

The flight takes only about one half hour and the pilot takes you over thirteen different figures and various lines. In order to get a REALLY good look at the geoglyphs, the pilot puts the small plane into a steep, toilet flushing-type spin...first a few times to the left, and then, another few times to the right.

While checking out the first few figures I thought it was the GREATEST thing! Then, at about figure number four my stomach took a turn for the worst. I was no longer able to stare down at the whirling figures below us. I had to keep my eyes on the horizon...and even that wasn't doing much good.

I broke out into the cold sweat that happens just before you vomit and, luckily, the pilot turned around and noticed I wasn't doing so hot. He opened the window for a couple minutes and the fresh air seemed to help a bit. Between the fresh air and yoga breathing I was able to keep the chunks down, but a half hour flight never seemed so long.

If you check out the pictures in the photo album, you can see a nice shot of me fresh off of the plane and sitting in a wooden chair...I've never looked so GREEN!