6th - 7th July 2007

We arrived in Nazca early in the morning after a long overnight bus journey. Lucky it was a night journey really as what Sal could see of the road between waking up was pretty hairy! The road followed he coast with a big dip down one side and desert on the other. Sal awoke at one point to see the coach slowing to scramble over a rock slide on the road, doing so by tiping at a near 45 degree angle. Best to be asleep! We arrived in the morning to find a dust hole of a town which was no way as pretty as what we had left in Arequipa. This place had a really funny feel about it, a kind of dodgy feel. After our breakfast conversation with another group of German tourist (just what you need first thing in the morning) we had a couple of hours sleep and thn headed on out into town for a chinese lunch. After which Glen for some bizzare reason thouht it would be a good idea to get his hair cut in Peru of all places. We launched upon a very local hairdressers and were the entertainment for the next half an hour as the hairdreser cut Glens mop into variuos different funny styles - the mullet look receving the most laughs. Althougth his hair looked alright Glen was absolutely beside himself, he had grown quite attached to the 80s "Spandeu Ballet" look which he had fostered and spent the rest of the day being quiet and moody looking in shop windows at his refelection and then looking like he was about to cry. Sal had never seen anything like it, what a girl! That night we went to an hours lecture on the Nazca lines at a swanky hotel in town. This was amazing, we were in a group of six and began by being shown around the night sky. Because of Nazcas altitude, little ambient light and dry air, the night sky is extremely vivid and our host pointed out Jupiter and Venus, The Southern Cross, The Plough and The Milky Way. We then had a look at Jupiters (We think or maybe Saturns!?) three moons through a telescope. We then went inside to the planetarium where we sat through an hour long presentation on the Nazca Lines, which presented theories on why the Nazca people upturned hundreds of thousands of rocks, forming shapes of animals and other geometoric designs over a period of seven hundred years and covering an area of 500sq kms. The most accepted theory is the lines atre part of a water cult and all point in the directions of water sources. Another is the astrological theory, that the lines are based on some form of calendar and map out star constellations. The next day was our light aircraft flight over the lines. This seemed like it would be a bit hit and miss from the start, the weather was unpredictable so we were to rise and get ready to go for 8:00am, but if it was overcast like it was the day before we could be waiting around until midday. However we woke up and the sky was beautifully clear, we were on! Things took a bit of a nose dive though once we met our pilot. We were collected by who we affectionately named "Top Gun" our pilot, due to his cheap nylon bomber jacket with various tacky badges over it, including the Top Gun American airforce badge. He looked like he had just come in from a long night out and hadnt had quite enough time to wake up. We were rammed into taxis with a French family of 4 and taken to the airfield where the action was happening, planes taking off everywhere. We were plonked infront of a Nazca line video, within 5 minutes the pilot came in shouting we must hurry up take off in 2 minutes come on! We could only fit 3 of us in the small plane, so Glen and I and the French woman were scurried off into it. We sat in the back ready feeling a bit apprehensive, where were the safety checks...............this didnt feel right, they hadnt even checked our tickets. It started to feel even worse as we sat in the back and the plane refused to start, suddenly 2 little mad South Americans were around the back taking out screws and bolts really quickly and trying to jump start the battery. It was all a mad manic rush with shouting and lots of running around. We were asked to step out of the aircraft and wait, it was only a battery problem apparently, should be fixed in no time.......an hour later most of the staff had buggered off, Top Gun had done a runner and the engine had parts lying on the floor. Sal was refusing to go on any plane even if it was mended, it looked unlikely that we were going to get up in a plane. Then one of the professional companies to the side of ours came to our rescue and took us up in their plane. This was a very different experience. The pilot was wearing a tie and a proper uniform, not a pair of aviators or Top Gun badge in sight, and seemed to know exactly what he was doing! Within 5 minutes we were up in the air. The flight was about 30 mins in total and we circled about 10 of the different shapes and lines, to name some: the monkey, the condor, the astronaut, the hummingbird, the whale. It was very spectacular to see, but a little difficult to see at times. The lines were not as prominent as we had expected. But they were on a huge scale. Sal succumbed to motion sickness despite her 3 ginger tablets before the flight, the aircraft banked at 45 degrees to see the lines moving in circles, it was not good for the stomach. She headed straight for the toilet after the flight which only made it worse as it was the most unclean smelly toilet in the southen hemisphere. Unfortunately we havent got any photos for this part of the trip, as some dopy wanker in a photo shop lost half of them in an attempt to download to a CD.....TOSSERS!