"It's hotter than the sun in 'ere" -- Iain 'Cheese' Rudkin

Lima came and went. It's a huge city, and I mainly drifted around the Miraflores district, also known as "gringo central", and tried to acclimatise to the heat. A fella I met at the dorm said how much Lima reminded him of Los Angeles. Not having been, I have no idea. Do the following photos show any likeness?

After having my fill of Lima, I took a bus from the capital to the city of Nazca. I'd heard of the Nazca Lines when I was a lot younger, and had always wanted to see them. Before booking myself onto one of the flights, however, I thought it'd be a bit of fun to tag along with another group of people who were being taken out to the Pre-Incan Necropolis.

The graves, and their mummies, were preserved in the desert's dry heat as best as possible, save for the activities of grave robbers who had taken complete pieces of textile and pottery. There were a number of graves like these around the one site, and even on the surface, the entire area was littered with human bone fragments.

What surprised me most, was the Nazca aqueduct system or Puquios. They are over 1400years old, but are still used today as sources of water for the city.

The canals are mainly covered over, with small tunnels left such as that shown in the photo below. The height of the tunnel is barely a meter, but they are still cleaned out in the same ancient way -- by having a man climb down one of the spiralling "manholes", and crawl through the tunnel removing any rubbish along the way.

The aqueduct tunnels -- the light in the distance is the next "manhole"

The spiraling path down to the "manhole" -- these are spaced out along the path of the aqueduct

The Nazca lines themselves are amazing. I met someone on this trip who said they were content with seeing photos of the lines rather than get into a tiny plane and risk losing their breakfast to see the lines for themselves. I totally disagree -- the flight cost $90 for around a 30-40 minute flight, but to me, it was worth every penny!

The astronaut

The monkey

It was something definitely crossed off the bucket list.

I spent 5 days in Nazca, and then left on another bus to Cuzco. The 15 hour, overnight bus trip turned into a 21 hour journey. Out route took us near a river which had burst its banks and caused mudslides down the mountain and onto the road. I know it can't be helped, but why, oh why, did they have to put a Mel Gibson film on to entertain us?!

More from Cuzco soon...