Paracas National Reserve - Ballestas Islands - Nazca Lines
Mudder & Hagelstein Tour: 6 - 7 May 2004
Nazca ceramic vessel
with a mythic scene, c. 200 AD.
Photo: Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia
e Historia del Peru.
... one of the most baffling enigmas in all archaeology.
Land Price (2 days/1 night)
De Luxe US$ 1,010
The land price includes escorted transfers, private excursions with professional guides and chauffeurs (Ballestas Islands cruise and Nazca Lines overflight are semi-private), entrance fees, indicated category of accommodations, specified meals, bottled water and snacks, all transportation, including the Nazca Lines overflight, and travel insurance for U.S. or Canadian residents through the age of 59 years. Over that age, there is a supplementary fee. International residents receive a 5% reimbursement to purchase such insurance in their home country. All prices are per person based on two people sharing a guest room.
Intra-Tour Air Flights & Fares
The Nazca Lines overflight is included.
Paracas Necropolis "manto",
c. 500 BC.
Photo:
Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru.
Located in the Ica Department of Peru on the south coast, Nazca is one of the most famous pre-historic cultures of the world on account of the beauty of its polychrome ceramics. The Nazca also left behind original textiles, the techniques and coloring of which have astounded the modern world.
The Paracas Necropolis constitutes the early phase of the Nazca culture, and it is distinguished by the world-famous "mantos" (large, decorated cloth) embroidered with polychrome, mythical figures. Paracas Necropolis is a cemetery located on the slopes of Cerro Colorado, in Ica Department, from which 429 funerary bundles were extracted. Each bundle is a mummy wrapped in abundant fine and rough textile.
-- Justo Caceres Macedo, The Prehispanic Cultures of Peru
Paracas ceramic vessel
with double spouts and bridge.
Photo: Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia
e Historia del Peru.
6 May: Lima - Colonial Haciendas - Tambo Colorado or Paracas National Reserve
Eight o'clock morning departure from your hotel in Lima in private car with guide and driver to the town of Ica, 300 km. south along the Pan-American Highway. In pre-Columbian times, this region was home to the Nazca culture, highly advanced in ceramics and textiles. It excelled not only in art but in technology, as evidenced by a complex system of subterranean aqueducts that still brings water and life to one of the driest deserts on earth. En route, visit the 18th century Hacienda Arona in the town of Cañete (Monday - Thursday) and Navarro, a local wine and pisco producer. Continue to the 1688 Casa-Hacienda San Jose for lunch. Upon arrival in Pisco, you may choose between going inland to the Inca site of Tambo Colorado or to the coast of the Paracas National Reserve, on the Pacific Ocean.
Chilean flamingo, native
to the Andes, Paracas National Reserve.
Photo: Walter H. Wust, Rumbos Magazine.
... an unspoiled natural paradise where the desert sands reveal
treasures of ancient civilizations ...
The Paracas Peninsula is the most important coastal formation in Peru -- an unspoiled natural paradise where the desert sands reveal treasures of ancient civilizations and the abundance of marine fauna -- birds, fish and sea mammals -- attracts visitors and ecologists, who are amazed by the profusion of sea life along the ocean shore. The Paracas National Reserve preserves the amazing beauty of the peninsula and the surrounding ocean, including the Ballestas Islands.
Added to its natural beauty, the Paracas National Reserve is the site of the Paracas Necropolis, an important archaeological site of one of the most advanced cultures that flourished in Peru, around 1,000 B.C. Here, archaeologists discovered hundreds of mummy bundles. The on-site Julio C. Tello Museum of Paracas civilization displays a few of them. The mummies are covered with the exquisite textiles in stylized design and combinations of many colors for which this culture is reknowned. Transfer to an oceanfront room at the Hotel Paracas. Overnight.
Hummingbird, Nazca Lines.
Photo: PromPeru
Archive.
7 May: Ballestas Islands - Nazca Lines - Huacachina Lagoon - Ica - Lima
Breakfast. Walk to the docks to board your yacht for a morning cruise with other passengers to the Ballestas Islands; rocky formations that are home to colonies of sea lions and thousands of resident and migratory sea birds, including pelicans, boobies, cormorants, terns and gulls. In the summer, condors are also frequent visitors and flamingoes occasionally pause at the bay. From the sea, you will observe the Candelabro, also known as Three Crosses, which may be related to the Nazca Lines.
After returning to port, drive in private car to the Ica airport for a 1-hour, 15-minute flight in a 12-passenger, Cessna Grand Caravan over the Nazca Lines -- one of the most baffling enigmas in all archaeology. You will also view the recently-identified Palpa Lines. Using as their canvas Pampa Coloradan (Red Plains), a plateau 37 miles long and 15 miles wide, Nazca artists etched works of monumental proportion: a montage of geometric designs, or "geoglyphs", and whimsical portrayals of plants and animals, such as the hummingbird, fish, dog, lizard, puma, spider, condor and monkey. Figures of birds -- there are 18 different kinds -- create a veritable aviary in this menagerie that prowls the pampa.
So similar are the animal drawings to the stylized pottery figures found at nearby burial sites, it is clear the two were linked in time to the major period of Nazca civilization from 200 B.C. to 600 A.D., although some of the more primitive figures on mountain slopes are attributed to the earlier Paracas culture, dating as far back as 900 B.C.
The lines spread over hundred of square miles and were created by removing the rust-colored stones that cover the desert, revealing the light-colored soil beneath. In this dry, rainless environment erosion has been practically nil, allowing the markings to endure virtually intact for 1,500 to 2,000 years.
Huacachina Lagoon.
Photo: Carlos
Sala, PromPeru.
Continue in private car to a true desert oasis: the Huacachina Lagoon, where you will have lunch at the Hotel Mossone. Set in a century-old mansion that was a plush resort hotel in the 1920s, the fully restored Mossone, is a soothing trip back in time. The rooms are built around an interior garden patio and dining is on a veranda that overlooks the lagoon. The hotel is noted for its "comida criolla", or typical cuisine. After lunch, visit the Ica Regional Museum's collection of Nazca and Paracas artifacts. Then, drive back to Lima, arriving at 7:00 pm. Time for dinner and to pick up your baggage at the hotel before departure to the airport at 9:00 pm to check in for your flight home.
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