Hi all together. Today I will invite You to accompany me on my memory travel to Nazca in the south of Peru. But let me tell You the whole story now.
During October 2018 I was travelling in Chile. Together with our great friend and exclusive distribution partner in Chile Andres Puglisevich (https://scem-chile.cl/) I visited SCEM`s new distribution & service center in Antofagasta in the north of Chile in the Atacama desert, where most of the big chilean copper mines are located. From there we went back to Chile`s capital Santiago, where we participated together in CAMCHAL`s (https://chile.ahk.de/es/) yearly big “Jornadas Economicas Chile – Alemania” event. From there I continued to Lima, Peru, where I was scheduled to participate in the AHK Peru`s ( https://peru.ahk.de/) yearly big event “Jornadas Economicas Peru – Alemania”. Between these two important events in these two beautiful countries I had a free weekend and – with very nice support by Antje Wandelt, Managing Director of AHK Peru – I decided to spent it in Peru and take the opportunity to visit for the first time in my life the famous Nazca Lines in the Naszca desert in the south of Peru.
Let`s ask wikipedia for explaning to us, what the Nazca Lines are: The Nazca Lines are a group of very large geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created between 500 BCE and 500 CE by people making depressions or shallow incisions in the desert floor, removing pebbles and leaving differently colored dirt exposed. Most lines run straight across the landscape, but there are also figurative designs of animals and plants. The individual figurative geoglyph designs measure between 0.4 and 1.1 km (.2 and .7 mi) across. The combined length of all the lines is over 1,300 km (808 mi), and the group covers an area of about 50 km2 (19 sq mi). The lines are typically 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) deep. The figures vary in complexity. Hundreds are simple lines and geometric shapes; more than 70 are zoomorphic designs, including a hummingbird, spider, fish, condor, heron, monkey, lizard, dog, and a human. Other shapes include trees and flowers. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general, they ascribe religious significance to them. They were designated in 1994 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Here a collage of some pictures from Peru – on the photo in the lower left corner I am together with Antje Wandelt, Managing Director, and Jan-Patrick Häntsche, Manager DE International, from the AHK Peru.
I already knew the Nazca Lines since my early childhood, because in the year 1968 Erich von Däniken made huge success with his best-selling book “Chariots of the Gods? (Was God an astronaut ?)”. Von Däniken is one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the “paleo-contact” and ancient astronauts hypotheses, means he made claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture. And the Nazca Lines were one of his most famous “proofs” for his crazy theories. But as a boy I found this kind of histories really amazing and they deeply impressed me. At least it created my live long desire, to to see the Nazca Lines one day with my own eyes. And finally this dream came true. Isn`t this wonderful?
But I may not forget to share with You the really exceptionally beautiful experience which I made on my way by car from Lima to Nazca. As I had arrived at Lima, Peru, airport from Santiago, Chile, around noon on a friday afternoon, it was clear that I would need to spent the night in a hotel at a place close to the Nazca desert, because I would anyhow need to drive approximately six hours until arriving there and the flights over the Nazca Lines from Nazca`s “Maria Reiche Neumann” airport (I will explain the background of this name in one of my future posts to You) always start very early in the morning.
Following the highly appreciated recommendation of my great friend, wonderful person and manager, Mrs. Antje Wandelt, Managing Director of the AHK Peru, I had booked a room for one night for me in the very beautiful Hotel Viñas Queirolo in the city of Ica, at about two hours car travelling distance to Nazca. But this payed fully out. Actually this very nice tourist hotel is located in the beautiful hills of the quite wellknown peruvian vineyard Inthipalka. As I arrived there only in the late afterrnoon and because I had to leave again from there for continuing my trip to the Nazca Lines very early on the next morning, I could not really take too much advantage of beeing in this wonderful hotel. But I will never forget the beautiful sundown which I enjoyed on the terrace of the restaurant and the excellent dinner there. For all those, who did not find the opportunity yet to try the peruvian cuisine, please go after this quickly and try as dish a nice ceviche or a delicious causa. The Peruvians have been very successful during the last decade with the promotion and spread of their very delicious and very special gastronomy all over the world.
My flight of approximately forty minutes with a small plane over the Nazca Lines surpassed all my expectations. It was so wonderful and impressive to see all these beautiful drawings in the desert ground from above in the sky. As young boy I had created certain imaginations of the different famous drawings there, like the colibri, condor, monkey, spider, “astronaut”, tree, hands and spiral. But like so often in life the reality can be much more impressive than the imagination of it. I can warmly recommend for all, who have thought to travel once there by themselfes, to really do it. Who knows, for how long these mysterious drawings in the gound of the Nazca Desert will be maintained undestroyed. Shortly after my visit there, the peruvian newspapers reported, that a truck driver lost his way on the road and was driving across some of the Nazca Lines without even noting it by himself.
After the leisure weekend in Nazca I participated as speaker (“Component Solutions for Smart Mining”) for our industrial division Vulkan Drive Tech (https://www.vulkan.com/en-us/drivetech ) in the very important first “Jornadas Economicas Peru – Alemania” event perfectly organised by Antje Wandelt and her marvelous AHK Peru team on ocasion of the 50th anniversary of the AHK Peru. I met lots of friends and business partners and I also made very interesting new contacts there. Peru – as the rising star of the mining industry in the Andes region – is one of our main markets for our couplings, brakes and backstops for all kinds of industrial applications, like for conveyor belts in the mines. Our full industrial portfolio of almost 2000 types, variants and sizes of products is beeing supplied to our customers all over Peru by our exclusive distribution partner Marco Peruana (https://www.marco.com.pe/es).
Did You find this interesting? I wonder, whether the one or other of You readers of my blog has also already visited the Nazca Lines and would like to share his/her own experience upon this with us.
See You here again tomorrow. Enjoy the wonderful sunday.
2 Responses
Really amazing, I have never heard about them before, for sure one of my future trips. Thanks for the knowledge and tip.
Please do it, my great friend Robson. And let me know afterwards, how You found it. If You need logistics support for the trip, just let me know. I have a fantastic helper, driver, guide etc. in Lima.