Peru 2017-Post 20. Nasca, Palpa, Cahauchi Pyramids, Chauchilla Cemetery, Acuedoctos de Cantalloc and Los Paredones Inca Ruins

Monday July 17

As a boy, one of my favourite things to do was to spend hours flipping through the pages of National Geographic magazines, especially my fathers old copies from the 50s and 60s.  It was as if I was travelling the world and meeting all manner of foreign people and seeing exotic lands.  One of the strange, exotic and bizarre places that stayed in my mind was the ancient lines in the faraway desert of southern Peru. The Nasca Lines or Geoglyphs.   Did I ever think I would actually go there?  No, I don't believe I did. 

Having enjoyed a wonderful time with our hospitable new friends in Arequipa, we spent Sunday night on a bus to Nasca. Although google maps spells it NaZca, the official spelling was recently changed to Nasca. 

This is an unpaid advertisement for Cruz Del Sur bus line. 

We were thoroughly impressed with the smooth and safe long distance trips that we experienced each time, not to mention the included airline type meals and movies (admittedly English films dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles). The ride was so smooth you actually could sleep reasonably sound. And if you happen to get the downstairs first class seats with lots of extra room, even better.  Thank you Cruz Del Sur.  

We arrived in the desert town of Nasca nice and early, and checked into our little hotel bungalow room

and headed straight out to the plaza to find a taxi driver. 

Every town has its Plaza De Armas. 

And guess who we found at the plaza?  Two faithful sisters with a Witnessing cart. 

As always, Alexandra had done the research and identified the sites we wanted to see. This time they were to the north, south, east and west of our base in Nasca.  Rather than take the standard "tour bus" with a group and be hearded through each place including the obligatory souvenir shops, we have found it better to find a willing taxi driver so that we can go where we want and set our own pace. And you get to practice your Spanglish.  

So off we went in an easterly direction to the Lines De Nasca. This is your typical overtaking manoeuvre. Driver pulls out into oncoming traffic to overtake a convoy of trucks. Oncoming traffic simply moves to roads edge to make way and avoid head-on collision. Simple. 

As with many Asian countries that we have visited, driving is quite different to what we are accustomed to back in Australia. There is none of your "everybody gives way to the right" stuff. When it comes to intersections it's simply a case of who is slightly first or biggest or bravest or craziest. Besides a near accident when a child ran out onto the road we have been fortunate not to see any serious incidents on the roads.  Generally the chaos runs smoothly as drivers graciously mesh together in a pattern that we cannot comprehend but seems to work in Peru.  The most important safety device in any vehicle is not the breaks and certainly not the seat belts. It's the horn. All drivers use it constantly, and mostly to say, hi, I'm here, if you move over 5 centimetres I will not hit you. Without a functioning horn I expect a car would be considered unroadworthy.  

There are two ways to see the lines. One is by car and the other is by air. Light planes crisscross the sky providing the best view of the lines. However, our research indicated that there were more than a few safety issues involved in flying so despite the overtaking, we opted for the on the ground method of seeing the lines. Admittedly this means that you can only see a fraction of the ones seen from the plane but that was our decision. 

Our first stop was not the Nasca Lines, but the Palpa Lines. From the top of the rusty tower we could see...

The Paracas Family. 

One tour website sates:  "Though not as famous as the Nazca Lines and Geoglyphs, those at nearby Palpa are perhaps equally intriguing. Made by the Paracas culture possibly as much as 1000 years prior to the Nazca Lines, there are more than 1600 Palpa Lines and Geoglyphs."  

The desert is a very, very, big place. 

Alexandra was suffering from som food poisoning or amebas on this day but she flatly refused to give up and go home. We pressed on with all possible dispatch. 

Second stop and up another rickety steel tower, some of the Nasca Lines. The hands, the tree and the parrot.  The lines date from 200 BC to 500 AD when the Nasca people inhabited the region.

The Hands. 

 

The Tree. Not to many trees to be seen around these parts. 

A tree detail. 

The Parrot. 

And onto the next viewing point. 

The third stop was a hill from which to observe radial lines. 

Walking up hill you could see how clearing the red gravel rocks from the surface created the lines. 

Work in progress. Why woul people go to so much effort in the desert sun to create giant pictures and lines that stretch out for many kilometres?  People do the craziest things for religion. 

"One hypothesis is that the Nazca people created them to be seen by their gods in the sky. Kosok and Reiche advanced a purpose related to astronomy and cosmology: the lines were intended to act as a kind of observatory, to point to the places on the distant horizon where the sun and other celestial bodies rose or set in the solstices."  Wikipedia 

"Because of its isolation and the dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau, the lines have mostly been naturally preserved. Extremely rare changes in weather may temporarily alter the general designs. As of 2012, the lines are said to have been deteriorating because of an influx of squatters inhabiting the lands."Wikipedia 

Heading south and then west we left the paved road to get to our next destination. 

Cahauchi Pyramids, or what is left of them. Major ceremonial centre of the Nasca culture based from 1 AD to about 500 AD. It overlooked some of the Nasca Lines. The site contains over 40 mounds topped with adobe structures. The huge architectural complex covers 1.5 km2. This google map that I clicked while looking at the ruins indicates the vastness of the site. 

Follow the white stone markers. 

To the adobe or mud brick ruins. 

Our next stop is not for the squeamish or young children as it contains images of dead people.  

For our next destination we headed way down south and then east past this lonely contemporary grave yard. 

Chauchilla Cemetery contains prehispanic mummified human remains and archeological artifacts and they are basically out in the open desert with just these flimsy roves over them.  

"The cemetery was discovered in the 1920s,^[3] but had not been used since the 9th century AD. The cemetery includes many important burials over a period of 600 to 700 years. The start of the interments was in about 200 AD. It is important as a source of archaeology to Nazca culture.^[4] The cemetery has been extensively plundered by huaqueros (grave robbers) who have left human bones and pottery scattered around the area.^[4] Similar local cemeteries have been damaged to a greater extent.^[2] The site has been protected by Peruvian law since 1997 and tourists pay around seven U.S. dollars to take the two-hour tour of this ancient necropolis.^[2] The site is by the Poroma riverbed and can be accessed via a dirt road from the Panamerican Highway.^[4] In 1997, the majority of the scattered bones and plundered pottery were restored to the tombs.^{[1]". Wikipedia} 

"The bodies are so remarkably preserved due mainly to the dry climate in the Peruvian Desert but the funeral rites were also a contributing factor. The bodies were clothed in embroidered cotton and then painted with a resin and kept in purpose-built tombs made from mud bricks. The resin is thought to have kept out insects and slowed bacteria trying to feed on the bodies.^{[1]" wiki} 

Spread across the ground between the burial sites was plenty more evidence of this whole area being a significant burial site. 

That's more than enough death for one day... 

Where to next Alexandra?  She doesn't show it but she was quite sick at this stage. 

Acuedoctos de Cantalloc. More than 40 aqueducts.  They are part of a system of aqueducts of the same type (called "puquios") built by the pre-Inca civilization of Nasca about 1,500 years ago.

These beautiful round stone spiral retaining walls create an easy path to walk down to collect water. 

Still flowing after all those years. 

The aqueducts ensured the supply of water to the city of Nasca and the surrounding fields, allowing the cultivation of cotton, beans, potatoes, etc. in an arid region.

Los Paredones Inca ruins. To administer the region the Incas built Paredones.  Named in Spanish for its expertly fitted Inca walls, Paredones consisted of a number of adobe buildings, a stone-built palace and a corridor leading to stone steps that take you up to what would once have been a temple to the sun.

Finally, back in the land of the living we heard the music playing near the plaza De Armas and sure enough, Peruvians doing what they do so well. A street parade put on by the local school. 

Children dressed in various national and other costumes. 

There to greet us at the Nazca Plaza De Armas, a Quechua sister at a Witnessing cart. 

Lloydnalex

But that's not all. To finish of another very long day, while sitting up in bed we experienced our first Peruvian earthquake. More of a tremor where we were but an earthquake down south.