There are a few major highlights - that we have been looking forward to - on the Santo Fuego trip driving north from the End of the World
And today we saw one one of them - The Nazca Lines - remarkable ancient "drawings" in the Peruvian desert. I put drawings in parentheses because they look like cool artistic renditions, but they are huge and can only be seen best from the sky. Like in an airplane.
So that's what we did this morning. One of the actions I took before leaving on our trip was to give Fiona some "Gift Certificates" for certain special activities along the way, and today was the day for one of the most phenomenal sites on this planet.
The Nazca lines are a mystery. After studying them for many years, there are still many questions about how they got there.
I mean, this stuff is one-of-a-kind. Who made them? And Why?
We were given some information, and did a lot of research ... and the answer to "Why?" ... nobody has really come up with a credible answer.
There are a whole bunch of "Lines". On our small plane excursion we saw around 16 - out of a potential of a few hundred. And it was almost unbelievable. They are so well done and so well preserved. The best estimate is that they were carved in the ground by an ancient civilization about the time of Christ.
This hot, dry, windless climate of this region is perfect for enabling these carvings to last for over 2,000 years. The animals and creatures in the lines are almost whimsical, and are perfectly proportional.
We were about three thousand feet high in the plane, and the flight took about an hour. I was snapping pictures like crazy until I finally had to just put down the iPhone and just stare out the window at what I was seeing. Totally amazing.
The flight was early in the morning, when the weather is best (calm) and the skies are clear.
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So the rest of our day was spent catching up on breakfast and some travel business, and then taking a tour trip out in the desert - by car, on the ground, in the afternoon heat - to an ancient pyramid temple ruin, built by the same people.
This stuff also dates back to 400 years before Christ, and was pre-Inca, meaning it was long before the Incas showed up and established their empire. It was also amazing, but frankly, nothing compares to what we saw this morning.
This pyramid temple complex is so remote, and vast, you have to ask yourself, how can anybody live out here, and build this? There is no water, no life, no vegetation or animals, and it's blazing freakin hot! Today was around 95 degrees.
It's a privilege to be able to share this stuff with readers of this blog. It's also a special joy to be able to observe it. It's kinda lame to say but ... the world is an amazing place, and there is so much that we don't even know exists.
This temple structure, and even the lines themselves, were unknown until relatively recently. Nobody was aware of the temples (except a few local vandals) until twenty years ago.
And the Nazca Lines were only truly "surveyed", or diagrammed in the 1940's. These treasures lay hidden for millenia. Hey, you can't really see them from the ground. You have to be in the air to visually appreciate them fully.
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One last thing: Since this area is so darn dry ...
On the plane, just before we landed, we passed over what they called the aquaduct. Not exactly the word I would use to describe this place, but it was a series of circular holes in the ground.
It was explained to us that they would capture water in this sequence of holes, and use them as a reservoir. The design was such that they had a spiral access (instead of stairs) where you would walk down to reach the water, at whatever level it was. Kind of clever if you ask me.
This is why we travel, to experience these kinds of days. Wow, it's hard to put into words what this day was like.
 |
| The Hummingbird |
And today we saw one one of them - The Nazca Lines - remarkable ancient "drawings" in the Peruvian desert. I put drawings in parentheses because they look like cool artistic renditions, but they are huge and can only be seen best from the sky. Like in an airplane.
 |
| Take a Guess ... The Spider |
So that's what we did this morning. One of the actions I took before leaving on our trip was to give Fiona some "Gift Certificates" for certain special activities along the way, and today was the day for one of the most phenomenal sites on this planet.
 |
| The Tree and the Hands |
The Nazca lines are a mystery. After studying them for many years, there are still many questions about how they got there.
I mean, this stuff is one-of-a-kind. Who made them? And Why?
We were given some information, and did a lot of research ... and the answer to "Why?" ... nobody has really come up with a credible answer.
There are a whole bunch of "Lines". On our small plane excursion we saw around 16 - out of a potential of a few hundred. And it was almost unbelievable. They are so well done and so well preserved. The best estimate is that they were carved in the ground by an ancient civilization about the time of Christ.
 |
| The Monkey |
This hot, dry, windless climate of this region is perfect for enabling these carvings to last for over 2,000 years. The animals and creatures in the lines are almost whimsical, and are perfectly proportional.
 |
| Note to Highway Dept: Don't cut off the tail of The Lizard - this is priceless world heritage stuff |
We were about three thousand feet high in the plane, and the flight took about an hour. I was snapping pictures like crazy until I finally had to just put down the iPhone and just stare out the window at what I was seeing. Totally amazing.
The flight was early in the morning, when the weather is best (calm) and the skies are clear.
---------------------------------------------
So the rest of our day was spent catching up on breakfast and some travel business, and then taking a tour trip out in the desert - by car, on the ground, in the afternoon heat - to an ancient pyramid temple ruin, built by the same people.
This stuff also dates back to 400 years before Christ, and was pre-Inca, meaning it was long before the Incas showed up and established their empire. It was also amazing, but frankly, nothing compares to what we saw this morning.
This pyramid temple complex is so remote, and vast, you have to ask yourself, how can anybody live out here, and build this? There is no water, no life, no vegetation or animals, and it's blazing freakin hot! Today was around 95 degrees.
 |
| Hey, wait, is that rain in the distance? Hallelujah! Rain! ... maybe |
It's a privilege to be able to share this stuff with readers of this blog. It's also a special joy to be able to observe it. It's kinda lame to say but ... the world is an amazing place, and there is so much that we don't even know exists.
This temple structure, and even the lines themselves, were unknown until relatively recently. Nobody was aware of the temples (except a few local vandals) until twenty years ago.
And the Nazca Lines were only truly "surveyed", or diagrammed in the 1940's. These treasures lay hidden for millenia. Hey, you can't really see them from the ground. You have to be in the air to visually appreciate them fully.
---------------------------------------------
One last thing: Since this area is so darn dry ...
On the plane, just before we landed, we passed over what they called the aquaduct. Not exactly the word I would use to describe this place, but it was a series of circular holes in the ground.
It was explained to us that they would capture water in this sequence of holes, and use them as a reservoir. The design was such that they had a spiral access (instead of stairs) where you would walk down to reach the water, at whatever level it was. Kind of clever if you ask me.
This is why we travel, to experience these kinds of days. Wow, it's hard to put into words what this day was like.
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