No one knows exactly who made them, when they made them, or why they made them. But there they are. Enormous figures and geometrical shapes carved into the bleak desert of central Peru. They can be seen fully only from the air, so how did civilizations living hundreds or thousands of years before the Wright Brothers figure out how to draw these things? Some say extraterrestrials helped out. I doubt it.

"Maybe ET really did drop by."
Some had said they were disappointing. Not worth the $40 35 minute flight over the lines. I disagree. The bumpy, curvy flight was more stomach turning than jaw dropping... but it's still something I'm glad I did.

The Astronaut

The huge airstrip-looking shapes and alien-like figures looking up at you are enough to make you think just for a moment that maybe ET really did drop by just long enough to teach these guys how to draw in the sand.

Oh... I forgot to mention something that happened in Huaraz several days ago. I'm walking down the street and see a guy walking in front of me stoop down to pick something up. At first I thought it was a half-empty pack of cigarettes, but then saw it was a wad of cash in a plastic bag. When I looked at the guy he glanced at the person walking ahead of us and indicated that if I kept my mouth shut he'd give me half.

"I could risk retaliation."
I'm faced with an interesting choice between three options.
First, I could shut up and let him give me half the money. Second, I could risk retaliation and yell at the guy to come get his money back. Third, I could stay out of it and keep walking.

I've had several changes of heart on the matter. At the moment I became convinced it was a scam of some sort to get me into an alley or something and relieve me of some money. So I said "Quiero nada de esto," which I think means I want no part of this. I put my hand

The Spider

on my wallet and kept walking... only to have second thoughts that maybe it was for real and I should have told the guy about his missing money. Now, days later, I've decided it was indeed a scam. The plastic bag with the money just looked too much like a lure. Anybody heard of something like this?

So anyway... last night I took a bus from Nazca to Arequipa where I'm killing some time until my bus south to Tacna at 4pm. I wanted to go to a museum and monetary here but they were so expensive. The city block-size monetary now costs like eight dollars and the museum that's supposed to house three mummies only has one at the moment and costs three dollars plus a tip for the guide. So I'm walking around and catching up on email and the website.