80 DATE WITH THE GODSthe mayor of th e town, Alfredo Elias Va rgas, whom I'd
met about three weeks before at a horse show in Santa
Rosa, California. We had even traveled in the same
Braniff aircraft to Lima.
When I mentioned the purpose of my visit to Mr. Elias,
he called his brother, a pilot at the Pisco airport. The two
of them made arrangements for me to get a plane the
following morning.
Mr. Elias asked me to join him for a drink at the hotel
and also invited me to his hacienda the next day to look at
some of his horses. I accepted his invitation, excused
myself, and immediately headed to my room to get some
sleep. Even though I'd had an afternoon siesta, I was still
feeling the effects of the long drive and lack of sleep the
night before.
I arrived, fresh and rested, at the Pisco Airport around
7 o'clock Wednesday morning. The sun wa s bright; a
marvelous day for flying and exploring. The pilot arrived
with two other men. They spoke in German and were
not very friendly. The four of us strapped ourselves in
our seats and took off. In a few minutes we were viewing
a large fork-like figure on the side of a sandy cliff at the
Pisco Bay. The figure had three main stems, the one in
the center was longer than the other two. Spreading out
from the long stems were smaller branch-like stems, all
pointing in the same direction. It was about three to four
city blocks in length.
After flying about forty-five minutes, we were able to
see the Nazca Plains at a distance. We followed the
direction indicated by the fork-like figure. The pilot was
Peruvian, but had an excellent command of English. I
wanted to ask questions, but it was difficult to hear over
the noisy engine. I gathered that this was just a routine
flight for the pilot. But for the rest of us, it was an
exciting new experience.
We flew at a high altitude for a while, getting an