Peru - Strange lines and long climbs.

Hello everyone!

After Paracas we went to Nazca to see the famous desert Lines. We took a flight in a small 6 man aeroplane over the lines, 2 pilots, 2 rather ill looking french girls and us. The flight was not for anyone with any slight fear of flying, or after lunch. Whilst the lines and shapes were excellent, some are clearer than others and many have been spoilt by people driving across them. No-one knows for sure why they were drawn but Kirsty's dad Arther seems to think they were done by Aliens. The most popular idea is that they were an offering to the gods to provide water to the people in times of drought.  Only they were done in the most arid and remote places on earth. The flight was only 30 minutes but most of it was spent on your side as he made some pretty sharp turns. That was plenty long enough for the french girls, as we think one of them saw her breakfast croissant again as soon as we got off the plane.



look closely to the bottom left of the picture for the spider.



this is Manos -  spanish for hands.



Whilst in Nazca we also visited Chauchilla cemetery where the remains of the Nazca people can still be seen as they believed in mummification for everyone, although all of the graves have now been robbed. Despite this archaeologists still managed to re-create some of the graves for public viewing.

After our few days in Nazca we went on to Cusco and the area around the sacred valley of the Inca's. Cusco is a beautiful town but at 3600m above sea level, it is not the easiest to get around (Manchester is about 100). After a while the altitude can really get to you and walking anywhere can become a chore, especially if it involves going up hill on cobbles with a 20kg backpack). Whilst here we visited the Inca ruins of Saqsay Waman (affectionately known as Sexy Woman) and Pete sampled the delights of Lama and Alpaca steak (not bad but both taste like beef).

From Cusco, we made the overnight trip along the sacred valley to Macchu Pichu. In the Sacred Valley we visited more ruins at Pisac and Ollytytambo, both of which were very impressive before boarding the train to Aguas Calienties. We stopped here for a night before getting the early morning bus to the famous ruins at Macchu Pichu for sunrise. Its difficult to describe the scene, its breathtaking and stunningly beautiful, and if you can get the several thousand other tourists to stand to one side while you take your photos then you will have some really nice pictures to remember it by. But honestly, it was probably one of the most memorable and impressive places we have visited this year, we spent a full 10 hours walking around and still were not bored by the end of the day.

  

If that was beauty, then the hot springs in Aguas Callienties were definitely the beast! We thought we would stop by for a quick dip before getting the train back to Cusco, and even the foul odour and brown colouration was not going to put us off. Unfortunately Urv got splashed by some kid and the water went in her mouth. We won't go into details but, suffice to say she didn't get out out the room for the next three days except to visit the doctors. Two courses of Antibiotics later plus other tablets, she was back on her feet and we boarded yet another overnight bus to our next destination of Arequippa, rattling like a medicine trolley.