Saturday June 11

I had a very interesting day. I first visited a Nazca cemetery which is over 1000 years old. The Nazca mummified their dead and buried them with pottery. The site was discovered about 100 years ago, and was not protected until the 1980's. Before then grave robbers dug up the graves, primarily for the cloth and the pottery. Until then mummies, human bones were strewn over the ground. They are now restored in their graves, on view. There are still numerous bones, just lying around. There're also over 1000 graves still left to be opened.
We also had a little talk about local gold mining, which is still done completely without machines. Miners chip out ore, about 60 kg a day, and carry it 6 km to the road. At the factory the ore is ground with a small machine, and then reduced to a powder by manual labour. 60 kg of ore might produce 1 g of gold, worth 40 dollars to the miner. A tough way to make a living.

In the afternoon I took a ride on a small plane over the Nazca Lines, one of the mysteries of the ancient world. It's worthwhile checking the Nazca Lines out on the Internet.
The ride was a bit of a thrill, there lots of sharp turns. My stomach was quite happy to land.
Tonight I am off to Arequipa on an overnight bus.
Till later..