Nasca Lines!

Nazca lines!
Friday we went to Huacachinero which is like 4 hours away in the desert. When we drove into the cute little town we could see the surrounding sand dunes. The hotel was super cute and snuggled right up to the sand dune. Its like a mountain of sand behind it. I cant belive it the sand dunes actually blow my mind just how it can be formed of sand…we watched alladin on the way which was a perfect movie to get us in the mood to go dune buggyin in the sand dunes. The dune buggying was a blast. It was like a real live rollercoaster and I felt much safer than I expected plus the sand didn’t fly in our faces or anything. Once we got to the top all we could see was sand dunes for miles it was more like were were up in the desert at that point . it was sooo much fun! I loved the feeling. The dunes were really different than I expected I kept imagining myself in the sahara desert or in Egypt or something..we went sand boarding as well, down two very steep dunes I went on my stomach though. The next morning bright and early we left for ica which was a town on the ocean that reminded me of the mediteranean, once again very cute . we took a boat ride to the isles ballestas which are covered with guano (bird crap) we saw lobos del mar (tons of sealions) and a few penguinos, and thousands upon thousands of birds. It was cool, interesting, the sealions are incredible to watch.
We drove off to nazca after and arrived at the hotel in the evening. Another cute hotel of course, the city is in the desert basically and near mountains its so crazy that they have green vegetation I think its thanks to wonderful irrigation. We went to a presentation in the tiny planetarium that consisted of showing us pictures and data about the nazca lines and telling us the theories about them. I was shocked at how big they are, how many there are and how far across the desert they are spread. Its incredible really that people made these lines like a thousand years ago in the desert. The theories are whether they were areas for rituals, which people walked on. Whether it has to do with the caclendar and summer solstice etc, whether its partly to mark water areas and irrigation, or whether it has to do with mapping the solar system. I believe the water is the most probable with a mix of the calendar (for the geometrical shapes) and maybe some ritual events as well. Really its all a mystery..crazy that we don’t really know what happened they are still researching and making findings..after we hit up a street vender, I had a great chorizo sandwhich and other people ate a near by street cart as well..it was great I love the food in the streets.
Sunday was the big day when we took a little 5 seater passenger plane flying over the lines. I couldn’t believe how big and clear they were, its crazy to see these huge shapes spread out all over the desert at the base of the mountains. My favorite is the monkey shape but its really interesting how there are so many figures! Its not just geometrical lines, its really fascinating. It felt almost surreal flying over them and thinking about how incredibly long they have been there..