in the desert

Hello Everyone!

Since our last update, we've spent our time in the desert of Southern Peru. Our first stop was in Nazca, which is famous for the mysterious lines and figures drawn in the desert just outside of the city. These gigantic figures and lines (the figures are often greater than 200m long, and the lines can go on for miles) can be best seen from the air. They were constructed by the Nazca people (a Pre-Incan culture) from 900 BC - 600 AD but their purpose is still unknown. There are many theories out there regarding their existence/function such as: the lines being used as celestial calenders, offerings to the gods, paths leading to sources of water or even for communication with extra-terrestrials! We were curious enough about the lines and what they would look like that we hopped into a tiny 4-seater plane and took a 30 minute (and extremely nauseating) flight over the lines.

The Plane: 4 Passengers and 2 Pilots

The view from the plane on the way to the lines - sandy and rocky mountains with irrigated valleys

A few of the figures from the air:

The "frog" or set of hands with 9 fingers. You can see the lookout tower just off the highway (a 10m tower) and the highway for scale. They built the highway before they discovered some of the lines - it goes right through one.

The "Astronaut" or "Owl" on the side of a mountain

The spider (in the center) and a bunch of lines

We also went and saw a movie and planetarium show about the Nazca lines. They had a telescope setup on the full moon as well as Jupiter with its 4 moons! Very cool!

After Nazca, we headed north towards Ica, to Hacachina, a little desert oasis. Although the oasis itself was extremely touristy, the surrounding sand dunes were stunning and mesmerizing. We took a dune buggy tour where you go flying over the dunes at full speed (its like real-life Mariocart!) and then you stop a few times to go sand boarding! Shaina's dream come true - snowboarding in a t-shirt and shorts! it was awesome! The sand slows you down a lot more than snow, but it was loads of fun and we are excited to do it again in Chile.

This is Huacachina - a real desert oasis!

Beautiful sand dunes as far as the eye can see

Shaina and Marsh with our sandboards at the top of one of the dunes

From Huacachina, we took an overnight bus (12 hrs) south to the city of Arequipa in Southern Peru. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru with a population just less 1 million. In Arequipa, we have been taking Spanish classes again (only for 1 week this time) and staying with a Peruvian family. The Spanish is coming along well - we can understand pretty much everything when conversing with a local, and our speaking is becoming more grammatically correct with each day. The home-stay (which was set up through the spanish school) is also going well. We live with a mother and her four sons (ages 12 through 23) and being surrounded by spanish forces us to practice!

After our spanish is done, we will head to the Colca Canyon (about a 6 hr bus into the mountains) to see the world's second deepest canyon (its more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon!) and hopefully we'll see some condors.

Hope everyone is doing well at home. We miss you all!

Love Marsh & Shaina