Crossing a picket line to visit a museum

Some lorries and buses coming towards us were sprayed with graffiti so we knew there was trouble ahead.  Before long, we saw protesters in the road holding a huge Peruvian flag across the carriageway.  We could go no further!  We pulled in to a garage forecourt.  Ritchie went to talk to the protesters to see if they would allow us to walk across the picket line to visit a museum about the Nazca Lines located just the other side.

'Nazca Lines' refers to the ancient geometric lines that crisscross the Nazca desert and the enigmatic animal geoglyphs that accompany them.  These great etchings are thought to have been made by a pre-Inca civilisation between AD 450 and 600.  Nobody really knows how.  

A few minutes later, Ritchie returned to say the strikers had agreed to let us walk through!  He said they were very good natured.  So, the majority of us walked the ten minutes or so through the lines of protesters and their families, across a bridge, and arrived at the museum.

The Museo Maria Reiche is dedicated to the work of a German born mathematician who became a Peruvian citizen and spent her entire life researching and mapping the mysterious Nazca Lines.  The museum is in her former home.  She lived in one spartan room which has been left as she had it.  Her VW combi van is in the garden.  She is also buried in the grounds, alongside her sister who worked with her.

It was fascinating to learn about Maria and her life and work.Read more