Lima
Nazca & Paracas — Skulls, the Candelabro & the Lines
The Mystery
Nazca & Paracas — Skulls, the Candelabro & the Lines
The full south-coast expedition: everything in our Paracas trip — the elongated skulls, El Candelabro, the Wari Kayan necropolis, the Band of Holes — plus a third day south to Nazca to fly the Lines, walk the Cantalloc aqueducts and stand at Chauchilla's open-air mummy cemetery.
Some of the Nazca figures are the length of a football pitch. Some of the straight lines run arrow-true for kilometres across the pampa, over hills and down the far side without a waver. And almost none of it reads from the ground — you only see the hummingbird, the spider, the monkey and the owl-eyed 'astronaut' once the aircraft banks and the whole desert resolves into a drawing. That half-hour in a light aircraft is the headline of this trip, and the one thing our two-day expedition deliberately leaves out.
Because this is the full version: everything in our Paracas & Pisco Valley expedition, plus a third day deep in the south. You'll sail the Ballestas Islands past El Candelabro and its rival origin theories, walk the red cliffs of the Paracas Reserve, meet the elongated skulls and hear the honest story behind the 'alien' legend — then stand on the Wari Kayan necropolis itself, the hillside the skulls came out of.
In Nazca the ground tells its own story. The Cantalloc puquios — corkscrew stone wells spiralling into the desert — still pull water underground after some 1,500 years. At Chauchilla, mummies sit in open desert tombs with their textiles and braided hair intact. And on the flight, the question everyone actually comes for: why? Your guide lays out the serious archaeology — astronomical calendar, water ritual, ceremonial pathways walked in procession — beside the ancient-astronaut reading that made the lines famous, and lets you weigh them from a thousand feet up.
The road home runs through the Pisco valley for the trip's last two enigmas: the Band of Holes marching over a mountainside in rows no one has explained, and Tambo Colorado, the best-preserved Inca adobe fort on the coast, still wearing its original paint. Three long, extraordinary days — the mysteries are real, and so is the honesty.
The Day
Your day, hour by hour
A sample plan — timings flex with the season, the weather and your own pace on the ground.
Day 1 · 06:00
Depart Lima for the south coast
An early start down the Panamericana Sur (~250 km), with the mysteries briefing en route — and the honesty rule: proven, open, legend.
Day 1 · 10:00
Ballestas Islands & El Candelabro
A ~2-hour boat around the guano islands — sea lions, Humboldt penguins, clouds of seabirds — passing El Candelabro and the rival theories of who carved it and why.
Day 1 · 14:30
Paracas National Reserve & the skulls
The desert-meets-ocean reserve — La Catedral, Red Beach, the Julio C. Tello site museum — then the Paracas History Museum's elongated-skull collection: cranial deformation told straight, legends labelled. Overnight in Paracas.
Day 2 · 08:00
The Wari Kayan necropolis
Cerro Colorado at first light — the wind-scoured hillside where Tello lifted 429 mummy bundles and the elongated skulls out of the sand.
Day 2 · 10:00
South to Nazca
Down the Panamericana through Ica and Palpa (~3 hrs), where hillside figures older than Nazca hint at where the tradition began.
Day 2 · 14:30
Cantalloc aqueducts & Chauchilla
The spiral puquios still channelling water beneath the desert, then the open tombs of the Chauchilla necropolis — mummies with their textiles and braided hair intact. Overnight in Nazca, with an evening talk on María Reiche's decades mapping the lines.
Day 3 · 07:30
The overflight
A 30-minute light-aircraft flight in the calm morning air — the hummingbird, spider, monkey, condor and 'astronaut' resolving out of the desert below. (≈ US$120 per person with taxes, paid locally; weather-dependent.)
Day 3 · 10:00
North up the coast
The long leg back up the Panamericana (~3.5 hrs to the Pisco valley), with the desert unspooling past the windows.
Day 3 · 13:30
The Band of Holes & Tambo Colorado
Up the Pisco valley for the finale: thousands of unexplained pits marching over the mountainside at Monte Sierpe, and the painted adobe fort of Tambo Colorado — with a late valley lunch.
Day 3 · 16:00
Return to Lima
The final stretch up the coast, arriving in the city in the evening.
Rates & Booking
Reserve your place
Per-person rates fall as your group grows. Pay securely with PayPal to confirm your date, or send a request and we'll be in touch to arrange payment.
| Group size | Price per person |
|---|---|
| 1 traveller | $1,450 |
| 2 travellers | $1,030 |
| 3 travellers | $925 |
| 4 travellers | $860 |
| 5 or more travellers | $799 |
Prices per person, in USD, for the 3 days · 2 nights tour.
The Nazca Lines overflight is charged separately: ≈ US$120 per person — the 30-minute flight (~US$85–100, seasonal) plus S/77 in airport tax and the Nazca Lines tourist ticket, paid locally in cash. Flights are weather-dependent; if yours can't operate, the flight cost isn't charged.
Calculated from your group size and trip. Adjust if you've agreed a custom price with us.
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On Location
Stand where the questions were carved
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