Cusco to Lima

5 May 2006
Lima
Peru
Day 48

Something I have had to learn (the hard way) over the last few days is that when I ask a local the distance to the next destination and they answer X hours, I had better listen. I used to insist on knowing the distance and did my own calculation of the time but now I understand that distance and time are completely unassociated.
The mountain passes wind on forever and 500km can take 14 hours to ride and nothing will change that. Each corner can only be ridden at 30km/hr and each town, with it´s multitude of street crossing inhabitants and dogs (minus one) will take X time to pass through. Enough of this. It took two days to get to Nasca.

Nasca is world famous, for its centuries old lines marked in the Atacama desert. The lines are massive and can only really be appreciated from the air so off I went to the local airport to seek a charter flight. There are many flying operators promising better prices and tourist agencies guaranteeing scheduled flights etc. Basically regaurdless of price, they are all Deigo operations. When there are enough people to fill a plane is when Dei Go.
It all turned out to be worth it. The lines are as magical as they are made out to be.
The desert floor is covered in a multitude of lines, shapes and designs all made by men who could not possibly ever see what their hard labour had created. The spider in this photo is one of about 20 figures, would cover several football fields and is not visible from the ground.
There are many theories as to why they did these designs but none are confirmed.

Got to run
Ricky