Flying over the Nazca Lines

We took a flight to Ica where we boarded a single engine plane to fly over the Nazca Lines. Nazca is located in the Nazca Desert- a high plateau between the towns of Nazca and Palpa. Known for the “Nazca Lines” –large depictions of animals and other designs etched into the surface by an ancient civilization (which reached its peak about 700 AD). The images included outlines of a monkey, a spider, something looking very much like a “spaceman” and an albatross. These images can only be viewed from the air.

The lines were not discovered until they were spotted from a plane in 1939. A German mathematician, Maria Reiche, spent most of her life studying the area and concluded that the Nazca lines formed part of a giant astronomical calendar. Another researcher, John Reinhard, concluded that they were sacred paths. Another researcher attributed them to “aliens”. Current thought is that, since many of the lines are oriented towards water sources, they are most likely routes to be walked upon as part of the ritual worship of water.

The flight over the lines was amusing. John was in the co-pilot seat of the plane and started talking to the pilot. In broken English/Spanish, he told the pilot that he, too, was a pilot. At that point, the pilot asked John if he’d like to fly the plane! As he turned around to look at me- with a huge grin- he saw that all of the other passengers in the plane were pulling out their barf bags! (Not because John was taking over the controls, but feeling nauseous from the banking of the plane. When we finally landed, one of the women was laid out on the picnic table- she was feeling very ill. We spent some time talking with an older man who was traveling Central and South America. He spoke no Spanish- but said that he never had a problem communicating—he would say the English word, add an “a” at the end, and pronounce it with a Spanish accent… We called him “Vam-ous Boose” for his story about catching a bus and telling the driver to go by saying “Vamous boose”.