Lines at Nazca

When you see the Nazca lines on television, you always see slow motion video of the lines-- a technique which serves to emphasize their supernatural quality, but which is probably done because to photograph them from a plane is terribly difficult. It doesn´t help that the lines are surrounded, bisected and generally criss-crossed by tractor marks, roads, fake lines and desert graffiti. Although the town of Nazca relies on the lines for tourist income, they seem to take a remarkably laissez-faire approach to maintaining them.

Immediately after getting off the bus from Arequipa I signed up for the 'basic flight' package which means a general loop around the lines with no yawing (side to side action which you need to photograph the lines) for less money. I was promised a slot on the first flight. But, being in Peru, we arrived to the airport just as my promised flight was taking off-- bumping me up then to the deluxe flight where not only did we yaw with the best of them, but I got to copilot the plane!

Copiloting doesn´t actually involve any duties or responsibilites, per se-- but it did make me smile for about 45 minutes nonstop. Having never been in such a small aircraft (6 seater), and then being a noselength away from all the vital controls was as great as the lines themselves. There was a good video after the flight which tried to explain what you see in the air; most theories point towards shamanic attempts to bring rain to a region that has seen no major precipitation since the last ice age. As the culture got more desperate, the lines got bigger and more intricate; or maybe it was aliens after all.