It was so nice to be
in warm environs that we sprung for the 30 dollars for a nice hotel with
a pool and pleasant gardens. The main activity in Nasca of course is viewing
the lines on the Pampa de Nasca. As this whole activity consists of about
a 40 minute flight, we figured to be spending a little more time around
the hotel then we normally do. The place also had one of the best breakfasts
we had had in some time.
A note about the
photos:
None
of the fotos on any of these pages have been retouched. The Nasca fotos
however are problematic. First of all the, you are shooting through a plastic
plane window. Since the pampa is generally gray in color and is covered
with a light haze during the time in the morning when flying is best, it
does not present the best conditions for photography. Without the ability
to use haze or other filters some of the fotos lack definition. All of
them appear to be shot in black and white even though they are in color.
To make the image better defined for the web we have taken them into Photoshop
and decreased the brightness by around 20% while increasing the contrast
by that same percentage.
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The amazing thing about
the Nasca figures are that they are constructed on the flat plain so that
they could only be seen from the air. The figure above, refered to locally
as ET, is one of the few that are on the sides of low-lying hills.
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Above from top to bottom
are the hummingbird, the whale, and the dog.
Below from top to bottom
are the monkey, the condor, and the spider. You will note that many of
the figures show a symmetry and are constructed of one continuous line.
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Other lines form large
geometric shapes like the one below.
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Before the lines were
discovered in the 1930s, the Panamerican highway had already cut through
a number of the images. For those who can't afford the price of the flight,
this "tree" is one of several images that can be seen from a tower along
the PanAm, the base of which is visible at the top of this photo.
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