Nazca 1st Feb 2010

Mon
Another early start as we were due to be picked up at 7:30am to go to the airport for our flight over the Nazca Lines. The Nazca Lines are a series of figures and geometric shapes that were created in the deserts outside the town of Nazca by the Nazca civilisation that dominated this area in the years 400BC to 400AD. They didn't call themselves Nazca; we don't know what they called themselves because they left no written record; it was the Incas, who conquered the Wuaris, who had conquered the Nazcas, that gave the name Nazca to the area; in the Inca language Nazca means 'desolate or hardship'.
The lines were rediscovered in the 1920's when a Peruvian and German archeologist who were working on the Nazca civilisation (which was first discovered in 1905), were walking in the desert and found straight lines in the form of paths; the top stones of the desert had been cleared to the sides forming little ridges at the edges of clear areas; which they assumed to be some sort of religious processional routes; they already knew from the discoveries they had made in the area that the Nazca culture was very superstitious and religious.
Later, when a German woman called Maria Reich arrived to help map out and document the lines, they found drawings of animals and birds formed by the same process. Maria spent the rest of her life here searching for more lines and trying to figure out what all the work had been done for. There are several theories including the original religious procession one; that the long lines were landing strips for aliens; that the shapes were some sort of signs for aliens (as they can only really be seen from the air as they are so large,) or Gods; that the Nazca knew how to make some sort of hot air balloons and so they could see the figures from the air; that they are some sort of astronomical calender (like our star signs), and a few other theories besides.
In normal South American style, our ride to the airport arrived about 20 minutes late and then, of course, we did a circuit to pick up several other people who also wanted to take the flight. On the drive to the airport our guide pointed out a huge sandy coloured mountain, he said it was one of the tallest sand dunes in the world at 1080m. (We are visiting the largest in the world (I think) in Namibia but I will have to look up how tall they are). We had booked in a small plane that guaranteed each passenger a window seat and Tristan quickly voluteered to be the copilot! Celso and I were in the back our knees up round our necks and feeling like our bottoms were dragging on the ground! Two other passengers sat between us and the pilot.
It was a bit of a bumpy ride, (though the pilot said that it was a good day!) and Celso had to reach for the sick bag. Fortunately for us all, he didn't have to use it; we hadn't eaten any breakfast as we had been warned. Of course, the views were spectacular across the desert, you could see the tracks made by water, but those have been there for hundreds of years, there certainly hasn't been any significant rain in living memory nor since records began. You could also see how people who have driven through the desert have damaged some figures, but none of that is allowed anymore, and how the main road, the Panamerican Highway, has completely chopped one figure of a lizard in half. All too quickly the ride was over and we returned to terra firma with another scraping of our bottoms along the runway (or so it felt!).
After some confusion and hanging around (because our transport and guide had disappeared) we finally were called together to get back into town. We had a fry up breakfast in a restaurant in the main square which had some pretty passable bacon! Then we met up with a new guide who was going to show us some of the other sites that Nazca has to offer.
First we drove South out of town a bit and then off the paved road into the desert to visit a Nazca cemetery that has been uncovered and is now protected. Most of the graves had been disturbed by grave robbers before they were excavated, the grave robbers target Nazca cemeteries because of the ceramics which, it is claimed, is the best of the preconquistador pottery due to its fine shapes, intricate painted patterns and detailed finishing. Unfortunately the Nazca marked their graves very clearly so it has been an easy job for the grave robbers and a difficult job for those trying to find in tact graves to try to learn a bit more about the culture. These are the things that are known: -
Families had communal graves that were dug into the sand and lined with stones, they were covered by a wooden roof that could be reopened to inter the next person.
All people, of any rank, were mummified, this process consisted of bathing the body in water infused with herbs and medicinal plants, removing the intestines and lungs (but not the brain), leaving the body in the sun for a couple of days and then treating the skin with a mixture of oil, salt and chilli peppers which acted as a preservative. Then the mummy was dressed, placed in the foetal position and wrapped in a bundle of cotton. The mummy sat in the grave facing east with grave goods around them such as ceramic bowls filled with food, textiles and sometimes pets (e.g a parrot).
The younger the person, the higher they were placed in the grave; they hadn't completed a full life cycle so they needed to be given a head start to the after life.
Important people such a shamen (medicine men) were buried together in communal graves or, if buried in the family grave, in a partitioned off section.
The shaman didn't cut their hair but wore it bundled into one big rasta-like dreadlock.
We were attacked by several dust devils during our walk around the cemetery, Tristan said that we had displeased the gods!
Then back into Nazca (town) to visit a workshop where they restore original Nazca ceramics and make replicas using original techniques. First the rocks from which the clay is made is placed in water for around 40 days to 'ferment', that is what the man said; then it is filtered through a fine cloth and then left to sediment out. The result is a really fine, smooth clay which is mixed with a small amount of sand to make it slightly porous. The clay is moulded into shape and smoothed with a bone tool then left in the sun for about 12 hours to go hard, but not dry, it is then smoothed again with the bone to a really, really smooth finish. Rocks are crushed to make pigment and mixed with oil and a small amount of the clay; these pigments are applied to the hard, but not dry, pottery; the porosity of the clay means that the pigments adhere to the clay. After a single coloured undercoat the paint is left to dry, then using a very smooth stone which is wiped on the skin around the nose to get some grease, the whole pot is buffed to an amazingly brilliant shine. Now the detail is applied to the pot, first the colours, which are allowed to dry and are buffed as before, then the detail lines, again dried and buffed. Now the pot is ready for firing. After around 14 hours in the oven, which reaches 1400 degrees C, the pot is buffed a final time and then it is ready for use. You can see some amazing examples of these ceramics in the photos.
Next on to a gold working workshop. Here they explained the gold extraction process, much like in the US but a little more sophisticated in the final process it seems! Crush the rocks to a fine powder, mix with some mercury and move around viciously! Wash away the dust, put the mercury which is now covered in gold into a fine cloth; add water and ring; much of the mercury goes through the cloth and is collected and recycled; the gold and some mercury remains.
This mercury-gold mix is placed into a pot and heated, the mercury evaporates at a lower temperature than gold so it comes off as a gas. Then (and this is where is seems a bit more sophisticated than the US process,) the mercury gas is passed through a cooling system in a series of pipes through water so that it condenses back into a liquid and is collected and recycled.
So probably not as many mad Peruvian gold workers as American!

We returned to our hotel for a couple of hours rest and respite from the sun, and then at 4pm we met up with Carlos (our guide) again to go on another trek. This time we visited one of the ancient Nazca aqueduct systems. There are 46 aqueducts around Nazca and these bring all the water used for farming in the region.. there is no other water supply for farming at all. The construction is amazing; the underground parts have never been maintained and have survived some severe earthquakes; they are built with smooth rounded river stones along the bottom and sides of the aqueducts (this shape of rock apparently withstands earthquakes because they can rock and roll without cracking) and then covered with a roof of a local timber (that grows in the desert). Just think... that means that the wood and the underground tunnels are around 2000 years old, and survival here in the desert is practically completely dependent on them!
About every 50m or so of the covered system there is a spiral walkway that allows you to walk down to the water course to inspect or to extract water - incredible. The aqueducts eventually leave their underground course and the water then flows through open stone lined channels to their destination. Nowadays the locals have built reservoirs to store the water which has never stopped flowing in recorded history even when the local rivers are dry. The river through Nazca is completely dry, it last had a tickle running down it in March of 2009 and no records show when it last had a large enough supply to be used for anything!
After the aqueducts we went to climb a small mountain to look down on a very early Nazca line drawing depicting weaving. It has lines representing the warp and weft, criss cross design, with an enormous needle at the side; and threaded through the needle is a thread that ends in a spiral (the ball of cotton).
Finally we visited the only Inca building that has been found in the area, an administrative centre with warehouses, a military barracks, a market square and many small office like buildings. It is clearly Inca from the beautifully cut stones (I think limestone or marble but our guide said they were volcanic in origin?) in the lower levels of the walls. But strangely, the upper levels were adobe and also some walls were made with rounded river stones, the use of either is very unusual for an Incan building. Much of the site has been robbed out and vandalized by locals; the main road to Cuzco used to pass through the site with the stones from the walls used to make walls along the edges of the roads! Very sad.

A fab and tiring day. We are now covered in dust and ready to wash and sleep.