I’ve wanted to see the Nazca lines for quite a while, essentially since I first heard about them as a kid. Earlier this year, I finally had the opportunity to check off this long-standing item on my personal “bucket list.”

About the trip

Seeing the Nazca lines was actually part of a bigger journey — sparked when my wife and I compared notes one night, and realized that we both had long-standing wishes to see some things either in, or accessed from, South America. Much of the cost of this trip would come from the flights to / from the southern hemisphere, so it was only sensible to combine some regional wish-list items in one trip.

The core of our South-America-centric itinerary was a build-your-own Peru tour (the tour company had a list of options to choose from, rather than bundling everybody together on a pre-set list of sites); our overflight of the Nazca lines wound up being a day trip from Lima. As is the case for most visitors, our overflight started from the airport in Pisco, Peru (the town’s name may sound familiar for other reasons). Once you’re airborne, it takes about 40 minutes to get to the lines, you spend 30 minutes flying over them, then it’s another 40 minutes back to Pisco.

A digression for suggestions

1. Nazca line overflights are big business these days, and there are plenty of stories about operators with iffy records, so it pays to fly with a company that has a good reputation and fair-sized aircraft (vs. a small operator with tiny planes). Our tour company set us up with a flight by Aerodiana, who I can heartily recommend.
2. A flight over the lines will be dynamic — updrafts will buffet the plane, and the pilots will be banking from one side to the other to provide their guests the best views. We were advised in advance to fly on an empty stomach, and to take over-the-counter motion sickness medication before takeoff — two pieces of advice that worked well for us. I’d also suggest you bring a small plastic bag in case the flight doesn’t have enough air sickness bags to go around (just in case).
3. There are stringent weight limits for such small craft — in our case, the per-person limit was 95 kg / 209 pounds. This includes the passenger, the clothes they are wearing, and any gear they bring onboard. You’re weighed before boarding — if you are over the limit, you get charged for a second ticket on the spot (not cheap). So depending on how much you normally weigh, you may need to limit your photo gear (you won’t have time for lens swaps during the flight, anyway). I flew with an OM System OM-1 camera, and a 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro II lens — this plus my cellphone was more than sufficient for the task.

Back to the journey

Here was our trusty steed for the flight — it seats about 12 people, including a crew of 2.

As soon as you take off, you’re reminded that this desert is incredibly dry, almost completely lacking in native vegetation — but you’ll occasionally see some scattered sights of modern life. The long rectangular structures below are chicken sheds — only the ones on the right edge of this image appear to still be in use and maintained.

Not all the lines you’ll see on this flight are ancient — here’s a very optimistic real estate development. Streets are plotted out, plazas have sidewalks, curbs and such appear to be in place, but there are not many buildings (yet).

Finally, after about 40 minutes of flight, you first see the lines (formally speaking, geoglyphs). Created between 200 BC and 500 AD, there are rectangles, long thin triangles, trapezoids, animal and human figures — they’re all over. First viewing from a relatively high altitude (about 4000 feet / 1200 meters above the ground), we can see that they go for miles in every direction, often overlapping, and with no obvious overall organization.

Most of the lines cover a swath of desert plains from the town of Nazca paralleling the foothills. Our flight first crossed over the lines from northwest to southeast (descending in the process), at which point we flew back over the lines more slowly, toward the northwest.

Every company seems to take a slightly different route over the lines, here’s a map of the one ours took (the mustard line is the Trans-American Highway, the numbers on the graphic figures spell out our route):

By the time the serious touristic work started, we had descended to a fairly low elevation for better views — about 700 feet / 220 meters above the ground. Fortunately for us, by this point, many of the clouds had cleared as well — but the low elevation meant that the remaining clouds didn’t impact our visibility too much anyway.

Note that in-person, the lines are fairly low-contrast works (at least, compared to what you’ll often see presented online). In the interest of accuracy, I’ve increased the contrast during post processing *just enough* for readability, while trying not to get carried away.

The whale (thin lines, top center of the above photo) is one of the simpler geomorphs. Note that if you look at our aircraft’s shadow, you’ll see it was in a steep bank when I took this shot (it’s less obvious elsewhere, but that was the case for most of these photos).

The dog is an abstract, but more-involved figure.

The monkey — a bit crooked in places, but still a popular figure.

The hummingbird — likely the best known of the geoglyphs.

This is one of several spirals at the site. As you can see, one edge of this one was obliterated by knuckleheads driving in the desert some years back.

The condor — stylistically quite similar to the hummingbird.

The spider — definitely one of my favorite geoglyphs here.

The heron (alcatraz) — incised with an exceedingly crooked neck.

The tree and the hands, near modern viewing towers along the Pan-American Highway.

Banking around the viewing towers, here’s a shot of the lizard (also another view of the Tree).

A few miles north of the Nazca lines are glyphs left by the earlier Paracas culture in the Palpa valley. They were produced in a similar way to the Nazca lines (clearing dark pebbles off lighter sand), but were generally incised in hillsides rather than on the plains.

Finally, you see “The Paracas Family” (a.k.a. “The Royal Family”), also made by the Paracas culture.

Concluding thoughts

I like to tell my friends that a flight over the Nazca lines is going to be the most educational, and possibly most inspiring amusement park ride you’ll ever take. The sights and history are impressive, although (depending on the weather and your digestive fortitude) the flying itself might be challenging for you. A few fellow passengers either didn’t hear or didn’t heed the pre-flight recommendations (i.e., empty stomach and nausea meds) and definitely wound up both regretting their choices and missing many of the sights as a result. So do consider this in your travel planning.

Photo notes: for the duration of the flight I shot in aperture mode at f/2.8, with ISO set to 200. Using auto-exposure, most photos were taken at 1/2000 sec or faster, and I took most at around 30mm – 40mm focal length (on micro-4/3).