I woke up today with a bit of a stomachache.   I don’t know if it’s a small bout of food poisoning or just the effects of the bouncing up and down yesterday in the dunebuggy.

Either way, it made for a very long and, at times, uncomfortable day.

The day today was all centered around Nazca and their architectural marvel – the Nazca Lines.

Early morning shuttle

Nazca is almost 200km to the south of Huacachina where I stayed last night and the shuttle van down there takes about 3 hours.

I had picked the best seat in the van originally.   That seat, by the way, is the single seat right next to the sliding door in the back.

And then I spotted that the front passenger seat was empty and asked the driver if I could move into that instead.

He gave me a thumbs up.   Nice, I’d be sitting up front like a regular passenger in a regular car.

Until someone else squeezed into the front seat and now I found myself squished in the middle of him and the driver.

Well, that was unfortunate…

What are the Nazca Lines?

The Nazca lines are a series of shapes and images carved out in the rocky landscape.

Kind of like crop circles but instead of grass it’s stone.

Here’s what the official sign said at the site:

In the first studies it was proposed that the geoglyphs were ceremonial roads or places of worship, and also that they were related to irrigation systems or an astronomical calendar. More recently, taking into account the geography, the environment and Andean beliefs and traditions, it is considered that the geoglyphs were made in the context of rituals related to water and fertility.

So, there ya go.

A brief intro into what the Nazca Lines are.

Nazca Tower

Our first stop today was the Nazca Tower.

On the side of the road are two towers about 5 stories high that you can climb up and see some of the Nazca Lines from.

This was just the appetizer though.   The real meat of the day was soon to come…

Nazca airport

At just after 10am we reached the town of Nazca and it’s nearby Nazca airport.

It’s a tiny airport that only flies out small planes that take all us tourists up and around the lines.

Now, just because it’s tiny doesn’t mean it wasn’t packed full of people cause it was.

Apparently, flying over the Nazca Lines is pretty popular in this area.

We were led to the booth handling our flights and each placed on a scale.

The planes are small and only fit 6 people plus the pilot and co-pilot so they need to make sure the weight is distributed properly.

Oh, and if you’re over 95kg (210 pounds), you have to purchase an extra seat which was the case for one of the people on my plane today.

No, it wasn’t me!   I haven’t gained that much weight on this trip!

And then we waited.

And waited…

For almost 2 hours.

By this time I only had two granola bars in me for the day and I was kind of hungry but my stomach also kind of hurt so I wanted to eat but didn’t really if that makes any sense.

Finally at 12:15 we were on the tarmac posing for photos in front of our little plane.

Flying over the Nazca Lines

It was cool being in a little plane and, honestly, I can’t remember the last time I was in one.

This level of coolness wore off a tad though as we weaved and turned around the various shapes on the ground.

My stomach was not loving this.

Here are the cool geoglyphs I saw…

After a half hour in the air we were back where we started.

Well, if my stomach was sore before, it was so much worse now.

Thoughts of grabbing lunch were very distant now and, even if I wanted to, I had a bus to catch.

Bus back to Lima

We were shuttled back into town where I picked up my big backpack and walked over to the Cruz del Sur bus station.

I now had a daunting 7 1/2 hour bus ride ahead of me.

In hindsight, this was a pretty crazy amount of effort for a half hour plane ride over the lines.

But it’s what I signed up for so off I went.

I had planned to write up yesterday’s blog and watch a bunch of videos while on the long ride but all I could think about was just trying to relax and ease my stomach pain.

Eventually I did pull out my laptop and get things done as the sun was setting.

As we pulled into the station in Lima, it was nearing 10pm.

Wow, what a day.

It was nice to be back in Lima and back at the hostel I had stayed at a few days ago.

After getting settled in I went back to the restaurant I had gone to when I first arrived in Lima and had another chicken, egg, ham, and cheese sandwich without the bread.

Oh, and a chicha morada to drink cause those things are awesome!

Aside for 3 granola bars, it was the first food I had eaten all day.

Finally, around midnight, I was done for the day.

Tomorrow is the last day of the trip.

I’ve got a couple things planned that, surprise, surprise, revolve around food.

Hoping my stomach feels better tomorrow…