Ever since I read about them in Erich von Däniken's "Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past" many many years ago I have been fascinated by the mysterious lines and figures of Nazca that were etched into the Peruvian landscape thousands of years ago. There are many theories about how they got there, but I tend to go with von Däniken’s that says they are a result of Alien visitations from other parts of our Universe.

It is not a simple task to get to Nazca. We left our hotel in Lima for the bus terminal at 7:00 A.M. The bus was very nice with an attendant and even a nice snack. In 3½ hours we arrived at Paracas, a beach town on Peru's western coast. We were met at the Paracas bus terminal and were then driven another 20 minutes to the Paracas airport. Just seeing this airport was very strange. It is a beautiful new modern facility with probably 20 gates, but there was no one around. Not a soul, except for the counter where we checked in for our flight over Nazca.