It's always a little strange to fulfill a goal set so long ago... from an idea planted who knows how in one's childhood, and seemed impossible to reach for all that time. And now I've done it... I've seen the Nazca lines. It doesn't change my life... but I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The four person plane, including pilot, was the smallest I've been on and have been slightly nervous about since yesterday, but the ride was perfectly calm and I did not feel queasy. We were one of the earliest planes to be off in the morning, and the primodial desert landscape and the mysterious lines were ours alone. The land is so impossibly barren, it's hard to imgine any civilized settlement, and to hear in the BBC video later that the lines were a prayer, or other means for water, it's incredible and sadly futile. (Then again, our greatest monuments can all said to be monuments to futile goals, be they the ideals of victory, peace, equality, or abundance.) For any purpose... the lines are beautiful in themselves, and on the flight back, the poor farmlands closer to Nazca seemed positively lush in contrast. The earth will always be our greatest canvas.