#palpa lines

[siloto]

(via Big family - geoglyphs of the figures from Palpa Metal Print by siloto)

Geoglyphs of the figures from Palpa, The Palpa Lines, Peru

[siloto]

(via Killer Whale From Nazca Metal Print by siloto)

Killer Whale from Palpa

[mysecondhandwardrobe]

Visiting the Palpa Lines in Peru, outfit from St Peter’s in Nailsea, scarf is borrowed from my mum.

[chiobrelis]

That's Peru.

[alexinafarawayland]

The Nazca lines, Palpa lines and the PanAmerican highway

[primeravezperu]

Day 7 - Nasca

Think of Peru and after batting away images of Inka ruins and cuddly alpacas, the mind settles on the animal-shaped geoglyphs known as the Nazca Lines. According to the received wisdom, an overhead flight in a treacherously wobbling small plane is the only way to see them. So how did we end up in a private taxi driving around in the middle of the desert?

With wide-eyed enthusiasm we’d posed the question ‘so, how were the lines?’ to a series of northward bound travellers. Their responses were half-hearted: a mixture of humming-and-hawing about having ticked it off their lists, and whispered debates about how much they actually saw through the shaking plane windows. And so we decided to save ourselves a budget-devouring $90 and try our luck on land. After all, we told ourselves, that’s what the Nazcans themselves would have done.

Having decided to avoid spending the night in Nazca (general consensus of the town: a bit of a dive), we were met by our Spanish-speaking driver/guide Louis at the hostel which was helpfully storing our bags for the day. Our first destination was the natural viewing platform a few km out of town. Basically a small mound, it’s significant in that it sees a convergence of the linear Nazca Lines and may have been used to direct their creation.

It was by following these that ‘crazy lady’ Dr Maria Reiche first discovered the animal shapes which are now so famous across the world. From a skeletal-looking man-made viewing platform a few minutes further down the Carr Panmericana highway it’s possible to see The Hands and The Tree. Preserved by a combination of the formidable local electromagnetic energy, and the even more formidable prowess of Dr Reiche with a broom, they’re still clearly visible in the rainless landscape.

Better still, though, were the lesser known Palpa Lines. Seen from a third mirador, these even more numerous anthromorphic geoglyphs had been left by an earlier civilization. Principal among them was the royal family, whose oversized heads and anime eyes gave the overall, incongruous impression of cutesy cartoon characters smiling from the hillsides.

Arriving back in Nazca at 6pm, we decided we could use some further explanation of the lines’ purpose to tie together what we’d learnt from our guide and the Maris Reiche museum, which was also included as part of the tour (60s each). We headed to the The Nazca Lines hotel, a few minutes up the road from the bus station, to mingle with a more monied, greyer class of tourist at one of the nightly planetarium shows (7 and 9pm). Host Edgar deftly handled a spinning drum fixed onto a light to throw images of the Lines and stars on the ceiling of a small domed hut, as we covertly shuffled our backpacks out of sight and dusted off our now-veteran fleeces. A pre-recorded presentation synced with a powerpoint detailed the current, fragmented thinking on the lines - as mirrors to overhead constellations, tributes to be appreciated by cloud-based deities, or more utilitarian markers that pointed towards water or seasonal events like the summer solstice. After about 30 minutes we were lead outside to goggle at the concept of the southern hemisphere’s upside down plough, lack of southern cross and most spectacularly Saturn, which looked like it was painted on the end of the super-fat telescope. It’s a quirk of seeing unbelievable things for yourself that a small part of you can’t help but go on thinking they’re unreal.