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| The Lizard, the Hands, the Trees, and the Viewing Platform |
I have wanted to see Peru's enigmatic Nazca Lines ever since I first heard about them, which was probably from the now-debunked Erich von Daniken's awesome pseudo-documentary "Chariots of the Gods?". But all of the people I know who have done an overflight of Peru's enigmatic Nazca Lines have had the exact same reaction: underwhelmed. Still, I'm a contrarian. One man's underwhelming is another man's most awesome thing ever.
So which would it be for me?
It all started with a van ride three hours south to beautiful, brand new Pisco International Airport:
It's so new that they haven't even unwrapped all of the counters:
The only flights that depart from, and arrive at, this airport, are Nazca overflights. There are plan to expand service to actual destinations rather than simply literal round trips.
But, for now, it's Cessnas and overflights of the Nazca Lines.
And away we go.
I definitely look like I'm about to have the time of my life. I've also just remembered that a significant number of people who do these Nazca Lines overflights get air sickness, from the banking left and right so each side of the plane can see the lines, and the tight turns.
Spoiler alert: queasy, starting about midway through the run through the lines, but not close to any breakfast loss.
It took about 35 or 40 minutes of smooth flying, but soon we were at the lines. Those, by the way, aren't the lines. Those are lines. This is Nazca. But those aren't the Nazca Lines.
Maybe these are:
And that's the thing. This might be part of the Triangles. Or the Compass. These lines are difficult to see. I completely missed "the Whale," although our guide later told me that's a tough one to decipher.
Using the "Zeke" filter on picture editing function seems to bring out lines nicely. This, definitely, is the Triangles:
This is the "Astronaut":
This is believed to be the oldest of the Lines. It is the only one that is carved onto a hillside and not on flat desert. The enigmatic part about this one is that it looks like, well, not an atronaut, but a space alien. E.T. But, weirdly, it's more primitive, both in appearance and methodology compared to the lines carved on the flat earth. It's not quite as enigmatic to carve a drawing into a mountainside when everyone on the flat ground can see what it is. Carving a drawing on flat ground when it can only be seen in it's entirety from above the air, that definitely meets any definition of "enigmatic."
Here is an enhanced version of the viewing platform at the top, bring out the Lizard, the Tree, and the Hands more clearly:
Another view:
This one was my favorite. The Parrot:
I was queasy. I missed a bunch of the drawings. The pictures aren't great. The Spider was the clearest, most distinct of the line drawings, but my picture of it is fuzzy. Trying to take pictures from a plane banking left then right ain't easy.
So what's the verdict?
It was good to be on solid ground again. That's the verdict.
In all seriousness, what was my opinion? It was an expensive trip. The lines were smaller than I thought they'd be (or maybe we were flying higher than what it looks like from photos). It was, as I was led to believe, underwhelming. But ...
It was an awesome experience. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a nowhere-else-in-the-world-like-it place. The lines are still enigmatic. But one thing I did figure out about them is this:
They were small to see from the flying height of the Cessna. If I were to guess what reason they were carved here, I would lean to the theory that they were an ancient calendar because everything cool in the ancient world was a calendar, just about. But one thing I did learn from seeing these with my own eyeballs, whatever reason these were carved into the Nazca desert, these were never landing strips for ancient astronauts. Sorry, Mr. von Daniken. No way could they be seen from a space ship.
So which would it be for me?
It all started with a van ride three hours south to beautiful, brand new Pisco International Airport:
It's so new that they haven't even unwrapped all of the counters:
The only flights that depart from, and arrive at, this airport, are Nazca overflights. There are plan to expand service to actual destinations rather than simply literal round trips.
But, for now, it's Cessnas and overflights of the Nazca Lines.
And away we go.
I definitely look like I'm about to have the time of my life. I've also just remembered that a significant number of people who do these Nazca Lines overflights get air sickness, from the banking left and right so each side of the plane can see the lines, and the tight turns.
Spoiler alert: queasy, starting about midway through the run through the lines, but not close to any breakfast loss.
It took about 35 or 40 minutes of smooth flying, but soon we were at the lines. Those, by the way, aren't the lines. Those are lines. This is Nazca. But those aren't the Nazca Lines.
Maybe these are:
And that's the thing. This might be part of the Triangles. Or the Compass. These lines are difficult to see. I completely missed "the Whale," although our guide later told me that's a tough one to decipher.
Using the "Zeke" filter on picture editing function seems to bring out lines nicely. This, definitely, is the Triangles:
This is the "Astronaut":
This is believed to be the oldest of the Lines. It is the only one that is carved onto a hillside and not on flat desert. The enigmatic part about this one is that it looks like, well, not an atronaut, but a space alien. E.T. But, weirdly, it's more primitive, both in appearance and methodology compared to the lines carved on the flat earth. It's not quite as enigmatic to carve a drawing into a mountainside when everyone on the flat ground can see what it is. Carving a drawing on flat ground when it can only be seen in it's entirety from above the air, that definitely meets any definition of "enigmatic."
Here is an enhanced version of the viewing platform at the top, bring out the Lizard, the Tree, and the Hands more clearly:
Another view:
This one was my favorite. The Parrot:
I was queasy. I missed a bunch of the drawings. The pictures aren't great. The Spider was the clearest, most distinct of the line drawings, but my picture of it is fuzzy. Trying to take pictures from a plane banking left then right ain't easy.
So what's the verdict?
It was good to be on solid ground again. That's the verdict.
In all seriousness, what was my opinion? It was an expensive trip. The lines were smaller than I thought they'd be (or maybe we were flying higher than what it looks like from photos). It was, as I was led to believe, underwhelming. But ...
It was an awesome experience. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip to a nowhere-else-in-the-world-like-it place. The lines are still enigmatic. But one thing I did figure out about them is this:
They were small to see from the flying height of the Cessna. If I were to guess what reason they were carved here, I would lean to the theory that they were an ancient calendar because everything cool in the ancient world was a calendar, just about. But one thing I did learn from seeing these with my own eyeballs, whatever reason these were carved into the Nazca desert, these were never landing strips for ancient astronauts. Sorry, Mr. von Daniken. No way could they be seen from a space ship.
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