A Monkey, a spider and a head on a rope. Days 514 - 515

We were sitting on a little airplane five of us expectantly. What magic were we about to see, created by whom and why? Will we ever know?

Five of us were ready for our flight;

Tim and I, a lovely Greek couple, Nikos and Georgia, who we met and chatted with at our hostel and a young lady from France.

Before we got on the flight, we had to weigh ourselves. I have lost a little bit of weight, Tim has lost loads; in fact, he now only weighs 7 kg more than me! Well, they do say that muscle weighs a lot more than fat.

We were handed a little card which mapped out our journey through the air. First, the whale, past the trapezoids onto the astronaut. Oh dear, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be seeing, despite the map, so just kept clicking away on the camera. Crikey I hoped the 30-minute journey wasn't all going to be like this.

Next was the monkey. Oh wow, I saw it clearly. There it was with its large spiral tail and curved arms. Nearby was a stick dog. We flew so that the people sitting on the right could see first, then us on the left resulting in a rollercoaster of a ride.

Onto the hummingbird and condor, both were huge drawings in the sandy landscape. Next was a spider. So neat and symmetrical, and lastly were the tree, hands, a colossal heron bird and parrot. To put the size of these geoglyphs into perspective, the spider is 151 ft long, and the monkey is 443 ft wide.

Have you guessed where we were? We were flying over the incredible Nazca lines. Wow, to think that these were created over 2,000 years ago only discovered in 1927. We can only surmise why they were made. Personally I think it was a big communal competition as to what family could make the best sand geoglyphs. My money is on either the Monkey or the Spider. Others, probably wiser than me, believe these were offerings to the gods or some astronomical connection.

Tim and I are so lucky, we both love the thrill of flying. (You may remember our excitement when we flew in the Bat hawks in South Africa.) Unfortunately, some of the others looked quite green by the end of the flight.

Afterward, we went for a nice lunch with Nikos and Georgia, hearing about their studies in Pharmacy and Biochemistry, chatting about politics, languages (they are both multilingual) and living abroad.

We said farewell and walked in the wonderful 30-degree heat to a small Archeological museum. There have been many archaeological digs in this area, and beautiful clay pots and figurines have been found amongst buried bodies. One strange thing on show were skulls with rope through the head. As Tim said, that's an alternative to soap on a rope! In the garden was an original aqueduct and examples of burial chambers where the lids were described as 'Barbeque' lids. Mmm, not sure about the translation.

We got back on our Peru Hop-on bus for a few hours ready for our next adventure. (Day 514 consisted of 12 hours on the bus, passing shoreline with deserted rugged and sandy landscape).

Not long after, we all got off the bus, climbed up a metal platform to again see three Nazca Lines. It was wonderful to be so close to them and gave us a better perspective of how large they were. At the same time, the sun was setting, and as we were leaving, the sky was an incredible pink — what a beautiful ending to a fascinating day.

#Nazcalines #Nazca #grownuptravellers #Peruhopon #pinksunset #skullonarope