Nasca: Nauseating, yet Educational

PART I:

Trivia Question: (pick which answer is true)

The Nasca Lines…

A. were created by aliens.

B. are an astrological calendar.

C. are sites of worship.

When we arrived off the bus in Nasca we were greeted by an overly enthsiastic crowd of locals wanting to take us on tours and taxi us to our hostel (3 blocks away). Amongst the confusion I heard, ” are you from couchsurfing?”

It was charming Raul to the rescue. We spent the rest of our Nasca trip being guided by Raul. Without him, we could safely bet that’d we’d have wasted the rest of the day comparing hostel prices and cleanliness and researching what we should do, where we should eat, and how on earth to coordinate the right Nasca Lines airplane tour.

Instead, we were picked up in his company’s car and Raul showed us the town. As a couchsurfer and full-time tour guide native to Nasca, Raul, was amongst the welcome committee when we arrived. Our arrival was unexpected and he was surprised but happy he’d recognized the blonde haired girl from the non-committal CS message a few days earlier.

Without any other tours booked that afternoon, he dropped everything and gave us the grand tour of Nasca, showed us a good hostel in the town square and he even negotiated the price down for us.

Raul studied tourism in Nasca after an inspirational year spent away from home in the tourist capitol of Cusco, Peru (near Machu Picchu). He was very knowledgable in the history of his town and very kind to share with us. He was apologetic that he didn’t plan anything for our arrival but he was great company and made us feel so welcome, we were just so happy to have met him!

Running out of ideas to entertain us, Marea asked what he’d be doing if we weren’t there. And that’s how we wound up at his neighborhood futbol game in our workout clothes. As retired rugby players and many other non-foot-to-ball related sports, we were hesitant about our skillset but hoped for the best.

Apparently, Raul has never invited tourists to his games before… especially girls. We felt honored to get this behind-the-scenes look. Luckily for us… I mean, them… our skills weren’t put to the test, as it turned out to be a competitive tournament day with moola on the line. We may not have gotten to show off our skillz, but it sure did beat sitting in a hostel with spotty internet trying to figure out how to have fun in Nasca.

Afterwards, we enjoyed some pisco sours with Raul before we headed to dinner and bed for our early morning trip to the famous Nasca Lines.

No internet research was needed that night as Raul took care of all the details for us. He met us early in the morning to bring us to the airport for our trip. He insisted we wait to eat our breakfast until after our flight. We were skeptical- not ever wanting to miss a meal – but listened anyway.

The plane fits 4 guests and 2 pilots. It’s a 35 minute flight of what feels like an airshow of flips, turns, and spins to ensure all on board get their money’s worth of seeing the famous lines. We were glad we’d listened and didn’t have to revisit our breakfast mid-flight.

There wasn’t much time spent discussing the history of the Lines and the Nasca culture, so we were again thankful for Raul when he gave us the full run down afterwards.

After getting our land legs and stomachs back in order, we joined a private tour of Raul’s to see the cemetery with a Belgian couple, where we got all the deets.

Nasca is described as a historically significant city not just for the Nasca people but for all of human-kind. The cemetery just consists of barren grounds 20 minutes outside of the city center with several unearthed tombs. What was fascinating and unusual about these historically significant tombs was the fact that they were not securely displayed behind lock and key in a museum. They were just out in the open with the only protection being a rickety, wooden awning to protect the mummies from the sun.

We learned the sad reality that without the funds to preserve this history, much has been destroyed by grave-robbers or taken away to museums in other countries by better funded archaeologists.

The Lines were discovered as late as the 1930s with the invention of the airplane. But, it took until the 1990s for the goverment to protect the land and by then, a lot of damage had already been done. Throughout the tours you could see the destruction of this sacred history that had been left untouched for hundreds of years.

Although the majority of the tombs have not yet been unearthed in the cemetery, you can see from those that have, many are of high religious rankings- The Shaman. Shaman are of blood decent and many can hold the Shaman ranking at once- even the women are treated as equals and can hold the ranking of a Shaman. Shaman mummies are identified by their long, long hair grown as a sign of wisdom and religious powers.

For those of you who guessed “C” as your trivia answer- your answer aligns with what the local Nasca people believe. With so many Shaman concentrated in one area, Nasca is believed to be the epicenter for people all over South America to come worship and give thanks.

Each animal/geoglyph of the Lines represents something native to other parts of South America. Travelers seeking to worship at the pyramids in Nasca would be represented by their specific native geoglyph. Equality and unification being the heart of it all.

“What about the astronaut symbol?” we inquired. Turns out, calling this geoglyph an “astronaut” is just a ploy to attract tourists interested in the alien sci-fi theories about the Lines. The “astronaut” is actually the leading Shaman. All the other geoglyphs lie on the flat surface of the ground while the Shaman oversees all the geoglyphs located on the side of a hill.

As for the mystery of the creation of the Lines, there is a simple answer. All you need is a small scale model, rope, and the same architectural intelligence it took to create the complex aquaduct system in the city. With so much of Nasca history written from the Spanish perspective, many people were led to believe the native people were quite uncivilized and were only advanced enough to use primative tools.

For all those who picked the alien answer, I’m sorry I forgot to put a spoiler alert on this post before I burst your bubble. And those that picked the astrological calendar? Well, many scholars still believe this to be true. One German researcher, Ann Reich, spent her entire career in Nasca studying the Lines and is highly regarded, even locally, for her works.

It had only been 24 hours and we’d learned so much. Nasca was turning out to be quite the fascinating city. We couldn’t wait to check out the rest!

PART II:

With two and a half more days in Nasca, we were excited to explore more. There was the city center, the pyramids, the aquaducts, the local market, more pisco, Raul and friends, hiking and sandboarding down the world’s largest known sand dune…

But then, it was Kristy’s turn to be the victim of the highly feared travelers illness. So instead, Marea played doctor for the next 2 days, Raul gave tours without us, and we hobbled out of Nasca for our first volunteer experience in Atiquipa.

Raul was so kind, he wouldn’t let his 2nd-ever couchsurfers leave without a proper goodbye. He met us before his first morning tour and wished us well on our travels in true Nasca spirit.