Tag Archives: Peru

The mysterious Alien Nazca lines!

Legends has it that the mysterious Nazca lines of Peru were created by ancient Nazca people for visiting Aliens in their strange air crafts. Nazca images were symbols for communicating with landing craft and landing strips were created along with the symbols.

I come to believe it is true, however I am not sure if the Aliens did land on those landing strips made by these ancient Nazca people. The lines were constructed impeccably by clearing off shallow rock debris on this dry desert plains, the lines were so shallowly created that I couldn’t believe you can see it from the air.

This has been one of the places I had always wanted to visit since I was a young kid after reading all the conspiracy theories in supernatural magazines.

It was the low season, and unfortunately not all the aircraft companies were open, the price for a short 30mins was us$150, it was usually us$90 when all the companies were competing with each other.

There was a  Peruvian version of Sesame street  being shot while I was waiting for the flight and I might be in a part of the episode. I made friends with a couple of the characters while they were filming us and were chatting with the puppets who were taking the Nazca flights as well.

Even thought the airport was constructed for just viewing the Nazca lines,  we needed to have a security screening, our bags were checked and so were all of us under a metal detector and a screening gate.

There is a mandatory 2 pilots on each tiny 8 seater plane, because of a plane crash accident when one pilot had a heart attack on flight and killing all the tourists a few years back.

The pilot greeted us and explained the various Nazca lines we were to fly over, each of us were weighed to assign seats, and I was lucky to be assigned the last seat at the tail for a window all to my own.

The plane circled a few times around each line, from above some of the lines could be barely made out because of the constant erosion by vehicles crossing the desert.  30minutes was a pretty short time, but it was worth the cost of visiting these lines which could possibly be destroyed with more human activities in the Nazca deserts.

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The perk of missing the bus while crossing a river

On the way to the Bolivia’s side of Lake Titicaca, one of my travel mates went missing while the bus had to cross a river in a boat ferr.

So I had to get off the bus with all of our luggage and waited for another bus.

It was meant to be! A culinary serendipity where I got to snack on really tasty fried fishes that I couldn’t find else where in my journey. If my travel partner hadn’t gotten missing, I won’t have tasted this brilliant dish!

Battered fried fish, served with steamed corn, potato and really delicious peruvian chilli, spring onion sauce!

The two stalls selling the same delicious fried fish!

Scenes of Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is one of the largest high altitude lake and situated between Peru and Bolivia.

Life in the various islands and the surroundings still remain quite rural with no running water or electricity, a harsh agricultural lifestyle that is rather surprising for the largest influx of tourists visiting the area.

I enjoyed the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, visiting Taquile island which still preserves its authentic cultural lifestyle than Bolivia’s side in Isle de Sol that was innundated with tourists and locals trying to cash in by collecting endless road tolls and charging entrance fees for passing every village. The boliviano side wasn’t particularly welcoming nor friendly either.

Nazca mummies of the Chauchillas

You should visit the Chauchilla necropolis when you visit Nazca for the famous Nazca lines in Peru.

Take a taxi from town and stay a little longer than the usual 30mins.

This is the only place where you will get to see mummies exposed in their natural graves. In this very dry flat sandy desert plains lies scattered with exposed skeltons and burial artifacts.

If you stared out into the dry sandy desert, you could make out femurs and fingers phalanges, part of the cranium exposed on the surface. This whole nercropolis is huge and I could only visit a part of it as the rest were protected.

It is just intriguing to see these tombs of the Nazca people, many skeletons still have well preserved long hair and skin out in the open sun after few thousand years.

 

 

Easter Parade in Ayacucho, Peru

The South Americans call it Semana Santa or Easter week. One of the most famous places to witness the holy week is in Ayacucho, Peru. The whole week was filled with tons of activities and quite a great place to spend your easter.

I got to wander into the main church where celebrations were held and the volunteers were busy decorating the main draw for the easter procession. It was a painstaking affair and took days to prepare. While outside in the streets, everyone were viewing the afrombras, decorative carpets made from colored sand and flowers, waiting for dawn to witness the final parade of the week. It all cumulates on Easter Sunday, the resurrection of Christ.

At dawn, the procession begins, representing the resurrection of christ with candle lighted parade with the Jesus figurine at the top.

 

Manchu Picchu Inca Ruins

Woke up at 3am and started my ascend to one of the greatest man-made constructions in the world, the famous Inca Ruins of Manchu Picchu.

If you are wondering why I was so crazy to do that, the Peruvian authorities only give out 400 daily passes to Wayna Picchu, the famous mountain  backdrop of every image of Manchu Picchu.

Then came a road block, the security guards told me the entrance only open at 5am, a few other locals were already waiting to get in but were refused. I begged and told them it would take me double the time to climb up to Manchu Picchu, it would be impossible to get those entry passes to Wayna Picchu, I was refused again.

Somehow, seeing me looking a little pathetic and disappointed, one of the kind hearted guards took pity and told me to come over, we walked towards the barriers and he opened the gates, refusing the rest of the people waiting, I was allowed in on my own.

Walking up with a headlamp in the dark, instead of taking the 20 minute bus up (it starts at 5.30am). It was a huge physical feat for me, even though it was only 2400m in Altitude. It was a fantastic feeling being one of the first people up in Manchu Picchu, I was pretty proud of myself for that little tiny feat.

The trail up, look how steep the climb up of Manchu picchu was!

To climb up to the entrance of Manchu Picchu took 1 hour and a further 1 hour steep rocky climb to Wayna Picchu.

Sunrise at Manchu Picchu wasn’t terribly fantastic and the light quickly turned to a dull grey sky, at least it didn’t rain up in these Andean mountains!

There were 2 timings up to Wayna Picchu and I was recommended the 11am  timing when the fog and cloud dissipated, but it gets really hot and I would sweat off all 1 liter of my water bottle. Reluctantly paid a whopping us$5 for a tiny bottle of water!

The view overlooking Manchu Picchu was amazing and photographs hardly express my feelings of this amazing Inca complex.

View of Manchu Picchu complex from Wayna Picchu

It is said that Manchu Picchu is a spiritual university for the Incas where selected scholars and priests who come study the various science of that time, astrology being one of them.  Whatever it was, the whole place gave me a huge sense of how amazing and god smacking awesome to have built this great university complex right in the mountains.

I stayed until closing, meditated a little, giving thanks to the universe for allowing me to be in one of the greatest sites in the world. While most of the tourists have disappeared, the birds, viscachas (similar to chinchillas) and llamas begin appearing around me. Late afternoon is the best time to be there to catch those cute viscachas running around the manchu picchu ruins and watch those llama grazing, natural lawn mowers of the inca ruins.

Crucifixion of Jesus, Good Friday in Ayacucho Peru

On Good Friday in Ayacucho, Peru, I followed Jesus up a very steep hill,  watched Jesus get crucified by the Romans. He died on the cross and after I took a bus back to town with Jesus along with his disciples.

Jesus, his disciples, the Roman guards along with quite a few locals and tourists walked up to the mirador of Ayacucho. The cast for the re-enactment are all volunteers from university students, army and police personals and others from all walks of life.

I struggled up the steep path with an altitude of around 3000meters (9800 feet) above sea level to witness the re-enactment of the crucifixion. The passion of christ scene was held at the top of the hill overlooking the breathtaking view of the city of Ayacucho.

After the whole event, I came across the whole cast waiting for the public bus back to the University and I followed them back to town.

Quite an surreal and anti-climatic experience!