We drive along by the sea for the first hour, but then head off into the desert and the mountains. And after a while we see the resemblance of another familiar landscape, from a different part of the world. It looks very much like what we saw in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. Ridgy sterile mountain sides, narrow green valleys with a trickle of water in a mostly dry riverbed. Enough for farming, small-scale.
Finally we arrive at a huge flat plateau, without any bushes or trees. This is where the Nazca 2Â 000 years ago, and probably hundreds of years before that the Paracas Indian cultures created the illustrated desert, what is commonly called the Nazca lines.
In the town of Nazca the taxi takes us to a tiny airport right by the desert, and we have to smile when we get to the “departure hall”. It’s like a normal living room in size, with two doors, or “gates”. We embark through Gate 2 and there’s the little Cessna with six seats that will take us and two fellow passengers on a 30 minute flight over the mysterious lines, geometrical figures and depictions of animals.