Tuesday June 26: Ica and Nazca

We traveled to Ica very comfortably. I wish the plane ride from Atlanta to Lima was as deluxe as this bus. It was about 4 hours to Ica and two more to Nazca.

I only post this picture in the spirit of honest journalism. We were so tired! We had gone to bed late as usual and had to be on the bus at 7:00 AM. Sam stayed in his sleepers and the rest of us looked like we should have. But check out how comfortable this bus was. Tons of leg room, huge cushioned seats. I even got to nap. It was wonderful.

This is Hotel Austria. We stayed here in Ica. We dropped off our bags and went to Nazca for the rest of the day. It was $30 a night and actually quite comfortable. I love the prices in Peru. The owners remembered Daniel's family from when they used to visit when they were younger. Ica was so warm and sunny. We were able to thaw out from the coldest winter Lima has seen in 30 years. (Of course the lows were only about 40 degrees, but with the humidity it was cold to your bones.)

Sam is wearing his Nazca shirt that his Abuelita Lucy bought him. He stayed safely on the ground with his Abuelitos while the rest of us adventurers took a little plane ride over the lines.

Here we are, pre-flight at the Nazca Airport. The Nazca lines are thousands of years old. They were rediscovered in the 1930's when airplanes first started to cross the desert here. They were created by pushing the top black layer of sand to the sides revealing the lighter colored sand underneath. It never rains and so the lines are never disturbed. When the wind blows at night the lines seem to clean themselves. It is really fascinating. I had seen several documentaries on the History Channel about them, so I was super excited to see them in person.

Double click on the pictures to enlarge them. This is "The Hummingbird".

These figures are called "The Tree" and "The Hands"

This is "The Trapezoid". This is the line that prompts some people to suggest that these lines were created by aliens and that this is a runway. There are lots of figures in the shape of animals, plants, and humans, but there are also hundreds of incredibly straight lines that seem to go from horizon to horizon.

This is called "The Astronaut" Daniel and I think that it was created later by copycats. It is really different from the other lines and it is on the side of the mountain and visible from the ground unlike the other lines. That is our amateur opinion.

Here we are after the flight, a little airsick, but also STARVING! We hadn't eaten all day because we had to rush to make it to Nazca and take one of the last flights of the day. We had a great pilot and a fabulous time.