Nazca

Nazca is famous for it's lines. They were created between 100BC-800AD by the pre-incan Nazca civilization. The lines are 'carved' into the surface of the desert by removing the top 10-15 cm of the desert, revealing lighter coloured earth beneath. There are over 1300km of lines in total and the geoglyphs form a variety of geometric shapes and pictograms. They have been preserved for so long because of the lack of precipitation (4mm per year) and wind erosion in the area.

The Monkey

Before we went on our flight over the lines, we did some extensive and in-depth research on the names of the geoglyphs we would see. This involved looking at the pretty tablecloth in the hotel and making up names for them. Please see below for (left to right then top to bottom) The Radish, Snake-bird, Frog-chicken, Hummingbird and Fishy-thing. I think we got at least one right.

The flight itself was about 20-30 mins long and the plane was basic but perfectly up to the job. By no means a rusty death trap I'd heard rumors about. What was funny/annoying/weird was that we needed our id/passports to get on, there was security and a metal detector we had to go through, and we weren't allowed to take photos in the 'departure lounge' as it was right next to the security stuff. I suppose if you have rules for all airports they have to apply even for flights/airports like this.

The pilots had a prescribed route, but were very good at ensuring both sides of the plane got a good look at each of the lines we flew over.

Lines and triangles

Alien/Spaceman

Dog doing a pee

Thingamy

Monkey. The tail got chopped off by the old main road.

Hummingbird

Different Hummingbird

Swirlies

More stuff

Tree?

Frog-chicken

Nutters

These impressive looking holes give access to an underground irrigation system built by the Nazca civilization. We didn't manage to go see them on the ground, but they looked awfully impressive.