Nasca, Peru

After the flight yesterday, we still had half a day to kill in Nasca. We booked a tour yesterday, with the man who took us to the airport for our Nasca Lines flight, to see a cemetery. I read about the cemetery in the LPB when we were in Lima, so expectations where high..
After having breakfast (when the say breakfast included they really mean we will give you 4 pieces of white round bread and a little bit of strawberry jam) we went upstairs to pack our bags for storage  down stairs while we would go on our tour.
With the bags packed and loaded onto our shoulders and B drops a bombshell from left and right field...
"I can't find my wallet!"
Coming from a girl who manages somehow not to lose a thing. I immediately became nervous, and started to back track through last nights activities. I had nothing... We looked everywhere (pretty much looked through hand bag, where the wallet resides and nothing)
The wallet is bright red and huuuuggeeee, hard to imagine anyone could lose such an item. But somehow we did... 10:30 am and the phone rings, it was the tour guide ready to take us to the cemetery and the hotel waiting for us to check out of the room. Crap.. No wallet = No money = No Tour...
After a short argument with B about how our lives where just about over, because the wallet had all of our financial assets in it, I was sent downstairs to explain to the tour guide that we had no money and could not go on the tour. I felt bad, seeing the man's face he was also sad, but not because we had lost our wallet but because we where bailing out on his tour... Bstard.. He repeatedly kept saying, 'Do you have a card to put in slot' I kept saying 'We have lost wallet, with card to put in slot'
Really in my head I was saying 'Holy Shte where in the middle of the dessert and we've lost all our money. CRAP'...
All had seemed to be lost and our trip over when suddenly, I looked over the tour guides shoulder through the window and saw Bernadette walking down the stairs holding in her right hand her bright red wallet...
I was like 'thank you lord'
I got the attention of the tour guide and said 'Okay, let's go to the cemetery, we've found the wallet' the smile on the man's face was a wide as the socio-economic gap in Venezuela.
Trust B to find it.. The girl doesn't loose a thing, while I manage to lose every single thing that I get possession of.
Close call, though.. If we had lost that wallet.... GOOOOOONNNNEEEEE....
So back to the cemetery, the cemetery we went to was called
CEMETERY OF CHAUCHILLA about 27 km south of Nasca. The cemetery pre dates the Inca and the Nasca people. It is about 1000 years old and is dusty. The people buried in the tombs within the cemetery are the ICA people, all no higher than 150 cm.. I would have been a giant walking amongst them. hehehehe.. N the cemetery there were excavated tombs which showed mummies of children, priests, parrots, and other well of people in that society. All mummies are facing east to give worship to the sun god.. There are about 15 tombs excavated for public viewing, with mummies open to the atmosphere. The mummies where very well preserved, the guide explained how the sand in the desert contained special minerals which help keep the mummies in good condition. The climate of the area being dry and arid also help contribute to the preservation of the mummies over the years..
The mummies are all in the fetal position as the ICA people believed in reincarnation, and so the fetal position represented a rebirth. I don't know but I agree with Bernadette when she said 'it looks uncomfortable' Indeed it did look uncomfortable... Each tomb had only one body in it and parents and children where not allowed to be buried together. If you where an ICA baby and died, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes as the ICA people would slice the infants head and offer and use it as a sacrifice to the gods and bury the head separate from the body. In replacement of the baby's head a ball of cotton would be placed on top of the babies body....
The cemetery was okay, I thought it would be a lot more freakier than what was there... But what can you do.. After about the 5th tomb, we where kind of over it and wanted to get out of the searing heat more than anything. But 10 more tombs to go.....
After finishing up with the mummies B bought a couple of trinkets from a man selling trinkets..
hahahaha - trinkets..
Our tour guide took us back to the city at light speed. They drive fast here in Peru and line markings on the street don't really seem to account for much to all drivers. Meanwhile Bernadette is sitting in the front seat, white as a ghost, probably thinking in her head, 'why am i doing this?'
Back in the city for a quick bite to eat at a local restaurant across the road from the Cruz del Sur bus station and it was off to Arequipa......
Peace...

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