Nazca Lines
Today we're docked at a place called General San Martin which is another shitty industrial port. If you haven't signed up for one of Seabourn's excursions there will be nothing here for you to do.
It's funny though that there are many people on the ship who rarely get off it. They just grab a lounger by the pool and sleep or read a book. And these are not the kind of people you would think are up doing "the wild thing" all night. Go figure!
Today we signed up for a flight over the Nazca Lines. Here's what is said about the Nazca lines:
The Nazca Lines in southern Peru are a group of pre-Columbian geoglyphs etched into desert sands. Covering an area of nearly 1,000 sq. kilometers, there are about 300 different figures, including animals and plants. Composed of over 10,000 lines, some of which measure 30 meters wide and stretch more than 9 kilometers, the figures are most visible from the air or nearby hilltops.
It's a brutally expensive excursion - all Seabourn's excursions are - they seem to double the price of what they're paying to the operator of the excursion. It pisses you off but the other option is to try to organize these excursions by yourself and take your chances on what you get. At least with Seabourn you know they will have vetted the tour operator.
So a few pictures...not too many because there are many better pictures on the internet for anyone who wants more.
The cockpit of the little plane we went in.
The plane holds only 12 passengers. Six seats on each side so everyone gets a window view. There were only eight of us on our flight.
This is the map your given while waiting to get on the plane. The white line going from top to bottom is actually the highway. You can see it goes right through The Lizard. It was built before anyone realized the significance of the animal shapes.
The Hummingbird.
The Spiral. The black strip at the bottom is the highway and there is a tanker truck at the very left - it provides some scale.
The Spider.
The Whale.
The Monkey.
The Astronaut. This is different than the others as its carved in the rock and not the desert floor. An interesting story about the astronaut here.
This is what you see from the plane.
And then zoomed in.
The Condor. And many more of the straight lines and cleared areas.
The scenery going to and from the Nazca lines is very interesting as well. Below can be seen some of the straight lines made by the Nazca people. No one knows for sure why.
The small river that flows through the desert provides a bit of water for irrigation.
