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Nazca
We are still in the desert and we had not imagined that such a desert existed in Peru with huge dunes and of such an area.
We take the road to "Nazca" to discover a jewel of nature.
Located in the arid coastal plain, the Nazca geoglyphs cover about 450 km 2 .
These lines, drawn in the ground between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D. J.-C., raise one of the great enigma of archaeology because of their quantity, their nature, their size and their continuity.
Some of these geoglyphs represent living creatures, others stylised plants or fantastic beings, others still geometric figures several kilometers long.
Presumably they would have had a ritual function related to astronomy.
On the first day we first explore the lines of Palpa, These are some 600 geoglyphs that would have been drawn 1000 years before the Nazcas, by the Paracas people.
Many represent human forms, including the “Paracas royal family” which is a set of eight forms on a hill.
Unlike the Nazca lines which are drawn on the flat ground, the Palpa lines also cross hills.
Then a stop at the "Maria Reiche Museum", a German woman who devoted much of her life to the study of the Nazca people. When she died, her house became a small museum.
In the city of Nazca we stop at the "Museo didactico Antonini". It presents several objects of Nazca culture through 6 rooms: textiles, musical instruments, ceramics and other artifacts found in Cahuachi, the largest ceremonial center in the world.
The second day we embark on a small propeller plane to fly over the geoglyphs of Nazca. The flight time is 35 minutes ... A real pleasure
It is an opportunity to admire, seen from the sky: the tree, the hands, the whale, the astronaut, the monkey, the dog, the hummingbird, the condor, the spider
After this moment of happiness, it is the visit of the "Cemetery of Chauchilla" cemetery of Inca-Chincha culture, which dates from the year 900 and has been used for 700 years!
The cemetery was ransacked by grave robbers, but the mummified bodies were incredibly well preserved, thanks to the dry desert climate of course, but also thanks to their funeral ritual: the body was wrapped in cotton, then covered with resin and kept in adobe tombs.
Incredible but true, 1000 years later, some bodies still have hair and skin remains.
Huacachina
We leave our seaside to sink into the desert.
On the way we stop at the bodega "Vista Allegre".
This estate, which exists since 1857, now produces the famous Sol de Ica pisco, which has maintained the highest levels of quality and purity for over a century.
The visit of about an hour allows us to know the manufacturing process of different wines and pisco...
Then we set sail for the "Huacachina Lagoon"
Known as the Oasis of America, it is a pleasant lake surrounded by vegetation and trails.
According to one of the legends, a beautiful Inca princess, known as Huacca China, spent her days in this peaceful place. This woman had the gift of seducing anyone who crossed her path with the enchanting sound of her beautiful voice.
One day, while the princess was walking, a man looked at her and was dazzled by her beauty. He then decided to approach. The princess began to run to escape her evil intentions. Along the way, her dress began to tear because of the brushwood until it completely broke to become a sheet of sand. Later, she also lost a mirror she always wore on her, which became a lake where she plunged and turned into a mermaid.
We settle down at the campsite and in the late afternoon we climb one of the dunes to admire the sunset
.
The next day is a rest day and in the late afternoon we embark in a buggy for a trip of about 1 hour.
From the first climb of the dunes, we understand that our driver intends to offer us a thrilling experience.
It starts with a succession of climbs, descents and turns at full speed. Everyone starts screaming and laughing at the same time, it’s really great!
ROAD BOOK 146
ROAD BOOK 090
MAVROS ODYSSEE