Happy Birthday Ack

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick... It is now midnight so I can be the first to wish Ack a happy birthday!!!
It won't be June 6 for a couple of hours yet in Canada. By my calculations, you must be 40! So, welcome to the fabulous 40s!

I thought about what to post for this event. I don't have any digital photos of the Ack, so I can't do a nice retrospective. Instead, this will be a normal Curious Llama post, but with the Ack in mind. I have chosen something that: a) has a connection with the year 1968; b) involves weaving; c) has a connection with Lincoln; and d) is older that ALL of us put together. I present to you today, in honour of Ack's birthday: The Nazca Lines!!!!!!
One of my 'things to do before I die' was to see the Nazca lines. The first I had heard of the NazcaLines was when a friend of mine, Crystal Bramble (a nice little Baptist girl who lived on the Lincoln Road beyond the Dairy Delight), lent me a book by Erich Von Daniken called 'Chariot of the Gods'. This book was first published in 1968 (note: I was at least in grade 5 when I read this, so the book had been knocking around for some time).

The premise of this book was that aliens had visited Earth during ancient times and that many of the classic ancient monuments were indeed linked to these aliens.

Amongst the many famous monuments that he 'explains' in his book are the Nazca Lines. Check out the figure above! Von Daniken said that this looked like an astronaut. He said that the head looked like a helmet.

Now, the Nazca Lines were a bit of a puzzle for archaeologists. The Nazca people, who created the lines, had a major culture between 300BC until 800AD. The thing about the lines is that at ground level, you can't really make out what they are. Below is a photo taken from a tower along the Pan American highway.

Here is the tower. It was built by Maria Reiche. More about her later.
You can make out some of the lines, but not much. The lines were not 'rediscovered' until people started flying planes in over this area of Peru. From the air, the pilots noticed remarkable figures outlined in the Nazca desert. Maria, a German Archeologist, was one of these people who spotted the figures from the air. She devoted the rest of her life to studying the lines. This tower is situated along the Pan American highway. Here is Robert on the Pan Am.

When the highway was originally built, people didn't appreciate that the Lines were there. In fact, the highway cuts across one figure called the 'lizard'. His tail is on one side of the road, separated from the rest of his body. Once people became curious about the lines, Maria was concerned that they would be destroyed by people walking across them. So, she built the tower so that people could view them.

The big Nazca puzzle is who could (and why would) an ancient people create something that could only be appreciated if you flew over it (obviously not an option for the ancient Nazca culture). Von Daniken's answer was that these were made for people who could fly: aliens from outer space. Before I provide any contemporary answers to these questions, let us go back to our journey to the lines.
As I said previously, I had always wanted to see the Lines. Robert and I were in Bolivia in the summer of 2007 and this was on my list of things to do. Robert is not really into 'archeology stuff', but even he thought that going to the Lines 'might be cool'. I had arrived in Bolivia a few weeks before Robert to get started on my research project. I also did some alternative research on the best way of getting from Bolivia to the Nasca Lines. It turned out that a tour company ran a luxury tourist bus service from La Paz to Lima. One of the stops (20 hours along the road) was Nazca. A luxury bus service means that: a) the seats recline; b) there is a video machine which plays pirated DVDs; c) it has a toilet; and d) the prices are high enough that common pickpockets and thieves won't be on board. The chap I booked this with (a Peruvian living in Bolivia) ensured me that this was a Peruvian luxury bus and not a Bolivian luxury bus. Luxury in Bolivia means that you own two chickens as opposed to just one, so we did find this somewhat reassuring. It was a lovely bus. We were even amazed that instead of the normal free-for-all when you board a Bolivian bus, we had to check our luggage in at the ticket desk (like for an airplane). We sat by our 'departure gate' and saw the piece of baggage above being wheeled towards our bus. It could only be a surf board.
Robert insisted on having his photo take with the surf board. Why? We were at 3800m above sea level. Bolivia, having no coast line, is not exactly a surfer's paradise. Nazca, and eventually Lima, where the bus was going did have a coast and surf. However, how on earth did a surfer, complete with board end up at 3800m???? This is yet another Nazca mystery.
We passed through customs (Bolivia to Peru) at Desagardero. I am firmly a 'glass half full' person, but even I have little good to say about Desgardero. What they do have that is good/interesting are rickshaws (you can see one front left in the photo). What is bad about Desagrdero is that once you arrive at the border you are pounced upon by helpful people who want to escort you through the border process. This is, indeed, slightly complicated and it is probably worth forking out the tip your 'helpers' if this is your first time at this crossing. This was not our first time, we knew exactly where to go, what to do, and in what order. I politely told these 'helpful' people that we were fine. Robert took the more direct approach and wasn't so polite. Neither approach had much impact on the swarms of 'helpers'. I did, however, admire the determination of the people who offered to help me even when I waived my entry to Peru visa in front of them.

Once in Peru, it started to get dark. We watched pirated DVDs until we fell asleep. Robert was introduced to Shrek 3 (in Spanish) without having seen Shrek 1 and 2. The best movie of the night was 'Lord of War' with Nick Cage (again in Spanish...Robert had checked out in his reclining seat long before this was on). We woke up to...

The Atacama Desert and the Pacific Coast. The Atacama Desert, along with the Nanibian Desert are two parts of the world where Mother Nature is at her most perverse. These are both deserts along the coast, however, fresh rain water very, very rarely falls in either places. So, you have miles of the above and then you see...

This photo was taken from the window of my bus within about 20 minutes of the previous photo. the road crossed a stream, so this must be some sort of oasis. I was curious about what type of trees these were...

When we pulled close, I was amazed to see that these were Olive Trees!!!!!! You do have to admire the mentality of the first person who looked at the Atacama Desert and thought: 'I could put a few olive trees here'.

So, after 20 hours of bus travel, we arrived at our hotel. The best way of seeing the lines is to take a flight over them, this has been booked by one of my contacts in La Paz. So, the next morning, after settling into the town of Nazca, our tour minibus picked us up to take us to the airport. Our driver's wife was at work that morning, so he had his daughter in tow and was going to drop her off at school on the way back from taking us to the Nazca 'airport'. . She oozed serious cuteness. She crawled onto Robert's lap to make room for the other tourists and he completely melted. One should not be able to conquer men at such a young age.

Because of air turbuence, flights over the lines are either done early in the morning or late afternoon. My Bolivia contact said that we were better off going for the early morning flight as there was less haze.
The plane was tiny. It sat 4 plus the pilot. Here is Robert.
Here is me. You can appreciate that there isn't much space to take photos.The headsets are so that you can hear the pilot when he tells you what figures are below. These didn't work very well. However, we did have a pre flight video, so we knew what to look out for. What follows is a comination of my own photos (where the figures are there, but not too clear) and digitally enhanced photos I pulled off the web).
Above, you can see a good 'off the web' photo of the Hummingbird Figure. Below is what I saw from the plane (mind you, the photo quality is a bit misleading as from the plane I clearly saw the figures). Hint: my bird is facing the other way from the 'off the web' version
This is what I took a photo of from the plane. In real life, the figure is quite prominent.
Above, is a photo of the 'spider' that I pulled off the web. My own spider from the flight was quite clear to me sitting in the plane but didn't come out so well in the photos: spot the spider!!
My favourite 'line' is the 'monkey'
This is what he looks like with a bit of digtal enhancement (photo pulled off the web).
Here is a nice flower (taken from the plane):
Time for bed! It is now nearly 3 hours since I started today's post. Happy Birthday Ack. Don't feel disturbed by the fact that I am still up at nearly 3am.This is quite normal. I have always been a night owl. It is quite cute that my students recognise this. I had to meet one of my students before her flight to Paraguay. I came into the office at 8:30am to meet her. She, sweet thing that she is, had brought me a large cup of takeaway coffee. She handed the coffee to me and said: 'here...you will probably need this'.

Naples Part 1: Pompei

Above is a photo from Pompei. However, before talking about Pompei, I should first say something about Naples. After Sardinia, we arrived in Naples in southern Italy. This was our first time there and we both loved it. A lot of the guide books about Italy complain about Naples. They say that it is chaotic, there are no proper traffic lights so crossing the street is 'interesting', and that you have to watch out for pickpockets. The books were right about the chaos. The main square in front of the train station is a busy place. It is filled with cars, buses and street vendors from all over the world (most notably from Africa). The books were also right about the traffic. Your best bet for crossing the street is to tuck in behind someone who looked local and just follow as closely as you can. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any pickpockets, but you could imagine that they were out there.

Ironically, it is the chaotic nature of Naples that made us both love it (it reminded us of South America). We have been back a number of times since. Apart from the chaos, one of the other plus points for Naples (and one of the reasons why we return) is that it is where pizza was invented. The Napolitanos take pizza seriously. However, you will get more about pizza later on in my series of Naples blogs. Below is a photo of the Bay of Naples. In the background you can see Mount Vesuvius. As we all know from our history classes, this volcano is why Pompei is such a famous archaeological site.

As you may remember from the Sardinia post, we took an over night ferry from Sardinia to the Italian mainland. This didn't land in Naples. It arrived in Civitaveccia near Rome. So we had to take a bus, the Roman underground rail system and then an normal train to arrive in Naples (maybe a three hour trip). We didn't had a hotel booked and so wandered around a number of places before we found one with a room. At this point, Robert just wanted shower and sleep (the deck of a ferry not being the best place for a restful night's sleep). I, on the other hand, went to Pompei, which is in a suburb of Naples. Robert later commented that I must have really, really wanted to see Pompei to set off in the full heat of mid-day after a night of almost no sleep. He was right. Pompei was on my list of 'things to do before I die'.
What makes Pompei so famous was its loss and rediscovery. It (and another settlement called Herculaneum which I will discuss in another post) was covered by ash from an eruption from nearby Vesuvius in 79AD. It lay forgotten until 1748 AD when it was accidentally rediscovered. The place is still being dug out. However, what we get is essentially a time capsule of life at that time. This is one of the streets. You can see that it is paved with stone. It also has larger stepping stones that you can use to cross the street when rains floods the streets (which must be a rare occasion, given the climate).

Above, you can see some of the ruins. More importantly, you can see Vesuvius. Geologists say that this would have been a perfect cone shape. So, you can see just how much of the mountain was ejected into the air by looking at what is left of the cone.

The mind boggles at what the archaeologists had to do to dig this place out. Here is a photo of the Coliseum.

Here is yet another area that must have taken a lot of digging. If I remember correctly, this was a public meeting area.

What I found particularly appealing about Pompei, were the little details. Above, you have a courtyard from a wealthy residence. It is quite staggering to think that this little statue managed to survive the volcanic fallout and was completely covered for centuries before being rediscovered.

Here is another example of the little details: a water spout. Obviously, the brass bit is recent, however, there are a number of these spouts on the site that actually work. In the heat, a bit of water to splash on your face is very welcome indeed.
Although I am not an artist, I am always aware of forms and patterns. I think that it is quite amazing that this house wall is build of bricks layed 'diamond-like' as opposed to on the flat.
I was also impressed by the three-dimentional effect in this marble floor.

Also notable were the frescos in the houses of the more affluent Pompeians. It is quite remarkable that they have survived for so long. This particular house was full of frescos: very well off people indeed.

I particularly liked the frescos in this house. It was all beautiful and delicate work.

Above is a close up of the previous photo.
Of course, what Pompei is really famous for are the bodies. Along with the ash from the eruption came poisonous gasses. People died where they stood (or huddled). Their bodies were covered with ash, which then solidified. As the bodies rotted, they left their shapes in the hardened ash. Later archaeologist were able to pour plaster into these molds to get an impression of the bodies. I was expecting Pompeii to be littered with such castings. This wasn't the case. Most of them have been removed. In a few houses, the castings are there, but in glass boxes. Still, the amount of detail is amazing.
I found it particularly moving to be able to see the details of this person's sandal on his/her foot.

The most bizarre thing about the body casts, is that they are stacked up with other artefacts awaiting analysis or placement back onto the main site.
This person, for example, was in the site storage area. You can just imagine the pain and horror that this person experienced. He/she is crunched down, he/she is covering their nose and mouth with their hands because of the toxic fumes... and this is how they died. All very horrible and yet in a voyeuristic way, I snapped photos of this cast along with all the other tourists. If you want to know more about Pompei and the excavations (and to see more photos), Wikipedia has an excellent entry.