Have you ever heard about the Nasca lines? No?
They are hundreds of enigmatic designs spread over the Nasca dry pampa, they were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD.
The origin and signification of these lines is today still a big question. Various theories are developed, from aliens landing strips, to messages to God, passing by astronomical calendar.

It's true that a few facts are strange. First the depth of the lines, a few centimeters, make us wonder how they have been able to pass through 2500 years of wind and rain without being erased. Then, the length and perfection of straight lines, up to kilometers long, they couldn't be more straight and without flying, how men could have achieved such perfection?
So many questions and enigmas attract hundreds of tourists every day, a plane take off every 5min full of gringos to fly over the geometric figures.

As said before, I went to Nasca to visit the family of my friend. And I had the incredible chance to meet her brother, well known in Nasca and good friend of the archeologist in charge of the site. He took care of me, introduced me to his friend and I did something NO tourist has ever done before:
I WALKED BETWEEN THE LINES.
It is obviously strictly forbidden considering the fragility of the figures.

Here is how we achieved this exploit. Urbano, the archeologist, organized everything, he booked a taxi he knew and off we went to the site which is a few kilometers off Nasca along the panamericana. He then explained to the driver how things would unfold: "You will drop us along the highway and then go hiding in a corner, behind the mountain, if someone asks you what you're doing, you say your car is broken and you're waiting for help." Then he made a call, he called the control tower: "I will bring a journalist on site, don't report to the police if plane pilots signal people are stepping in the protected area". Of course a plane every 5min fly over the site so in a few minutes we could have been caught by the police. I guess I've spoilt a bit the photos of hundreds of tourists but who cares...hihihi

While the car waited, we walked through this lunar landscape, burnt by the late afternoon sun, it took 30min to reach the lines. And suddenly, here it was, the gigantic figure, 32m height occupy the whole mountain and look at us. It's called the Astronaut! I'm amazed!!
We make funny pictures, play around, and I get all the detailed explanations from my archeologist friend.
So for once I had to make the stupid touristic photo, this one is a one-million-dollars one... ;-)