Nazca / Chauchilla

Five hours further south through mountainous rocky desert, agricultural valley towns, and stomach twisting curves we arrived in Nazca…a city famous for the gigantic earth designs found in the surrounding desert…so huge that they can only be seen from a plane. However, we opted out of the expensive tour and decided instead to visit the ancient burial site of Chauchilla, where thousand year old mummies are on display in their original burial tombs. It was a surreal and remote location in the middle of the desert surrounded by rocky mineral rich mountains and a dried river. The location was ideal based on its annual rainfall of a ¼ inch and the dryness necessary to preserve the buried bundled bodies for thousands of years. There were probably thirty skeletons on display in a dozen different sites with some belongings included for the afterlife. Many of the sites had been looted over the years for gold and artifacts…the skeletons were cast aside and bones could be seen strewn out across the desert...pretty awesome! Nazca the town was pretty nice also, with some decent shopping, restaurants, and very pleasant central plaza.