Peru and recollections 8 years on

LIMA

My notes said this was an Ok place – not sure 8 years on what this meant!  We watched the changing of the guards outside the Presidential Palace in a nice plaza, had a few beers and nice meals western style as like many cities, it is well geared up for tourists. There were loads of police and soldiers stationed everywhere with arms, riot shields or attack dogs. I recall seeing an old man walking slowly to his next begging spot accompanied by equally slow, bored, small black dog dressed up in a jersey, bobble hat and dark glasses.

BALLESTAS ISLANDS AND COAST

Series of interesting journeys as I had little idea so much of the Peruvian coast and hinterland was desert and one of the driest on earth. There was occasional greenery and posh resorts but on the whole, barren and rocky or rolling sand dunes.  We had an hour speed boat trip to the Ballestas Islands or Poor Man’s Galapagos and saw blue footed boobies, Peruvian boobies, Humboldt penguins, two types of Cormorants one with red legs and sea lions. The islands had tons of guano which continue to be annually harvested with buildings, jetties and winches in evidence. The depth when Europeans first started exploiting the material was 20-30m. The birds use the guano to build a nest. It was worth seeing and protecting  as a marine reserve but I wondered for how much longer there would be fish for either the fauna or small local boats as large vacuuming trawlers were anchored offshore.

We had another camping night at an oasis in the dunes of Huacachina. Camping was in two man tents which we put up / down ourselves and have a rota for helping to prepare meals, wash up, clean the Overland Truck etc. The truck stands high and one climbs up into it with good views and comfortable seats and tables..music onboard, cool boxes for water and beer and fruit choccie box. Camping is OK but very noisy if you want to sleep as some want to party with loud music from the truck 3m from the right ear until midnight orat 2am. The food is great with excellent variety and quantity comprising breads, cereals, fruit, coffee, pancakes etc with loads of fresh clean salad at lunch with meats, fish, peanut butter…and dinners such as stir fry, curry with rice, potatoes, pasta and beer. Good crowd and mix of mainly Aussies, Poms and Irish.

Walked up a dune for a good view over the sharply delineated green oasis valley and town. Lovely evening light over the absolutely bare sand dunes. Sat by the small pool and read and drank a beer.

Although the landscape seems dry and lifeless, the oases are intensively farmed making use of underground water coming from the mountains. Crops include those which need little water and I’d have thought more suited to the landscape /climate such as lima beans and chick peas but water demanding crops such as potatoes and cotton deliver a higher market price. Alfalfa is grown for cattle feed and cactus plants.

NAZCA LINES

Took the plunge and went up in a 12 seater plane for 40 min flight. Very glad I did not opt for the 4 seater as the 2 folk who like flying reported feeling yuk from the strong G forces and turbulence. The geoglyph lines were good and spectacular although I was expecting them to look HUGE from the air!! I could see fairly clearly a hummingbird, spider, heron bird with a very long beak, a condor, tree, parrot, monkey and astronaut. Some cover the size of a football pitch and the mosaic of simple lines and complex figures extends over 80km on the Pampas de Jumana. There were many other lines or channels across the landscape which I presume are from flash floods.

They were probably created by the Nazca culture between 200 BCE to 700 BE and some scientists consider they were made with simple tools and survey equipment by a team of people, rather than UFO´s and little green men landing… The lines are shallow and made by removing the iron oxide reddish pebbles which litter the landscape to reveal the whitish earth beneath. There are several theories as to why they were created with the main one being religious or cultural probably linked to the very strong dependency on water for growing of crops and Life,. The geometric patterns could represent the flow of water and animals fertility symbols. Fascinating to see and appreciate their longevity by being in a very dry, windless and constant climate of about 25 degrees.

CHAUCHILLA CEMETERY

Excellent guide and talk about at least 4 pre Inca cultures in the region including the Nazca culture which seemed to have well developed agricultural and cultural societies as seen in technically complex textiles etc. The graves were probably used for about 700 years from 200AD and have superbly preserved bodies due to the dry climate. We saw adults and children in 12 graves of various depths which reflected their status. Some of the skulls had holes from trephination used to heal battle wounds or for ritual purposes and their partial closure indicates they did not die from open brain surgery…the survival rate was high at about 60%. Some were very egg shaped either longitudinally or horizontally as cloth was put on a baby`s forehead with boards at the back to ensure the skull grew in a certain way.

After death the body was put into a foetal position by breaking the tendons which also helped to drain the blood and wrapped in embroidered cloth. The blood draining helped to preserve the organs, skin bones etc as well as a layer of salt and a chilli lotion acted as an insect repellant. They were buried facing east to mirror their beliefs in the rising sun and with goods for the afterlife such as food or a parrot as well as clothing, tools, gold and copper jewellery. The clothes, hair including Raffasterian dreadlocks, hand bones, feet and skin were clearly evident. There were small solidified piles of fossilised internal organs and blood and loads of bones skulls scattered across the landscape from the looting carried out by all and sundry.

PUERTA INCA

Another camp night at an old Inca port with impressive ruins on either side of a rocky small bay. The complexes had houses, storage huts and burial areas.

Had a great barbecue on the beach with a mini sunset over the Pacific ..but generally greyish all day and reminded me of England!

AREQUIPA

A beautiful city at 2380m built of Silla a pure volcanic white rock with many colonial buildings restored after several earthquakes, the last major one in 2001 which created a very damaging tsunami along the coast. Felt awful from appalling gut spasms and pain for last 2 days so walked around very slowly feeling very old! Anyway, went to the Santa Catalina convent which was founded in 1579 by nuns expelled from the church for not liking the restrictive practices..many were from rich families who had to pay for their keep but depending on which Bishop was in charge they waxed and waned between being allowed maids etc and a lot of praying whilst remaining isolated from the outside world and never returning to their families. Beautiful white Silla building with ochre and verdant blue painted walls, courtyards with geraniums and trees and water and frescoed walls amongst a network of small alleys and many whitewashed private cells set against a magnificent blue sky.

Also saw for great value too the Ice Princess or Juanita a 500 year old Inca mummy that has been very well preserved. Found on Ampato volcano in 1995 due to rock ice movement and there may well be more bodies. The girl had walked from Cusco accompanied by a great court of VIP`s having been blessed by the Inca in person who transmitted his divinity as she was one of the chosen for a ritual sacrifice to the mountain gods. Hell of a long walk and they had to hack their way in semi bare feet up ice slopes ..great stuff when you know you`ve been put on a fast so the sedative drink works faster before being whacked across the right eyebrow for death. Excellent small museum of some artefacts from the culture as well as the body itself kept at low ice temperature.

ALTIPLANO TO COLCA CANYON AND CONDORS

Beautiful rocky sparsely vegetated landscape at 3500 to 4000m with dawn breaking over the hills to reveal ice in the shallow depressions. Pebbly, gritty poor soil. Mix of greys, reds and yellowy green tufted rush – sedge. Harsh environment but some species such as the vulnerable Vicuña thrives and the endangered Guanaco. The vicuña wool is some of the best in the world and commands whacking prices with previous collecting methods of shooting the poor beasts for one wool harvest. Unlike the llama amd alpaca and hybrids they cannot be domesticated.

Passed networks of contouring earth sided leats and stone walled narrow channels bringing water from the snowy mountain peaks down into the valleys. Lots of terraced stone wall fields from Pre Inca times 200BC still in use today, giving the landscape a mixed palette of brown tilled soil, yellow wheat, green crops, grey stone walls. Mix of crops are still grown depending on the nature of the terrace and status of people ie the poor have the steeper ground for quinoa and sweet potatoes, the rich have the flat valley land for potatoes and the middle class are inbetween for wheat, barley and maize. A couple of tractors but mainly hand labour starting at dawn with hoes, mattocks etc and pairs of bullocks pulling simple ploughs.

Excellent guide who gave us detailed insight into the on-going social and economic divisions in Peru with Quechan speakers or poor rural inhabitants at the bottom of the list for medical, education and employment access with huge corruption. The tradition of family inheritance of land and increasing water shortages is causing legal and social unrest. Both the Shining Path and Government Forces were active in the Colca Valley with many deaths.

Locals in Andean dress with the hats…variable amonsgt different groups.

Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon but not quite as steep sided. Impressive landscape of volcanic basalt and lucky to watch an immature all grey black condor and a white and black adult soaring on the thermals over the canyon…fab! On the other side of the valley was a well defined path ..until it hit a massive bluff and unsure where it went then!..a pre Incan trial leading from the mountains to the coast such as Puerta Inca which adults and kids walked for 15 days to harvest fish. The lack of iodine in the water and soil still causes goitres today so fish with the salt from sea water were collected and brought back.

CUSCO AND SACRED VALLEY

Prior to Columbus this was the powerful capital of the Inca Empire. The Sun God sent his son and the Moon her daughter to spread culture through barbaric lands and the son on plunging his golden staff into the ground found fertile soil and so founded the city. The Incas shaped the city to look like a puma with one of the palaces Saqsaywaman being the head. The spaniards looted and settled to create many colonial buildings including the Cathedral on top of superb Inca masonry or from palaces as quarry stone.

The city is teeming with Inca and pre Inca remains and is totally over the top in hawking hassling vendors to gringos for everything from massages to paintings to animated looking ceramic llamas. I loathe being constantly hassled to buy stuff so although there is a beautiful and rich historical centre it be good to move on! Inca walls abound along the streets and as part of the hotel etc and as at other palaces etc the stonework is superbly crafted with massive 60 ton rocks so well edged to other rocks one cannot put a credit card between them.

Another excellent guide for the Sacred Valley tour…very touristy but its brought a very important income source to people living from just agriculture and so sellers abound at every viewpoint and jump at you as every coach load disengorges. Anyway, fascinating tour of a collective enterprise where locals have built a small farm to show gringos the differences between llamas, alpacas and hybrids and their various uses for wool, meat and transport etc with women weaving beautiful textiles and some of the leaves, bark and insects used to make the natural dyes.

Lots of palaces, military HQ, admin centres, food warehouses etc around the valley. We went to a couple with superb, extensive terraces for farming such as at Pisac where the stone walls create micro climates and different varieties of grains and potatoes were grown and are still grown at different altitudes on rich soils. There were also barracks and buildings for the nobles and commoners separated by a gate way connected by mountainside ledge paths all served by superbly engineered water channel system. Food storage chambers and holes in the mountainside for burials. Similar arrangement at the head of the valley at Ollantaytambo with examples of how the massive blocks from the mountain quarry about 5km away were probably transported on rollers of rounded river stones and men hauling ropes up ramps of timber or stone to heave UP a mountain AND then hoist and deposit on TOP of other blocks without cracking the white granite. Fantastic stonemasonry..again.

Privately arranged and paid a whack for a guide reasonably proficient in flora and fauna for half day trip to Wakaray Lake as I want a much better insight into the ecology of the area. Pretty good effort considering ecologists don´t really exist in Peru! .. saw several species of birds in the reed beds and shallow open water such as great egret, reg legged stilt, cormorants, various ducks and herons all against a backdrop of rugged mountains and green fields with people driving along a few cows or goats and men fishing from reed boats.

MACHU PICCHU

The train ride of about 3 hours was pretty spectacular through Andean scenery by the Vilcanota River with snowy peaks in the distance and Inca farming terraces on the lower slopes which are still in use dropping down into sub tropical forest.  Everybody seems to stay in Aguas Calientes for doing MP and it is a small town squeezed in next to the river deep within a Gorge and buzzing with hostels, hotels, cafes and the rail line where small kids played as engines chunted through and loads of people pushed barrows of construction materials or off loaded tons of food and drink for the gringos.

I was bored from sitting around for last 2-3 days so I hiked up a nearby small mountain called Putucusi, climbing vertical wooden ladders of 100 plus steps–I´m not that great at heights on that sort of stuff but I did it! After 1.5 hours turned a corner and as well as vast expanses of wall to wall forested Andean Mountains and some with snow caps, there was my first look at MP on the opposite mountain side!    It did look spectacular in its setting at 2432m in the afternoon sun..

MP —´Old Mountain´—is part of a mass granite mountain giving a grayish white granite with a high content of quartz, mice and feldsapr which the Inca masons used with superb skill.  A main Inca Site which was never found by the spaniards and ´found´by Bingham a N American professor in late 1890´s when covered in forest with a couple of local farmers using some of the lower terraces for growing a few crops.

We arrived by bus at about 6am before huge hoards arrived and had a 2 hour guided tour in low cloud and drizzle-rain so MP was adorned with many midgets in brightly coloureed plastic ponchos.    Site is split into upper and lower agricultural and urban or living zones.  Tiers of farming terraces which were also retention walls with soil brought up 400m or so from the river valley below.   There is a dug out terrace so it was lowered into the ground to create a micro-climate for agricultural experimentation as the Incas and Andean peoples have loads of crop varieties suited to many micro climates between valley floor and higher mountain slopes such as 4000-5000 potatoes.

Went to lots of features and some were the Storage Buildings with lots of ventilation windows -doors, Main Gate, Three Windows Temple, Temple of the Condor, Royal Enclosures, Main Plaza etc- Had great fun in what was probably the Sacristy which had many wall recesses and if you Uummhed¨a fab resonance was set up!    This was near the temples which had 3 tirered rock slabs representing the 3 Worlds–Under World, This World and After World ..where through slits or indentations which face East, the sun would strike only on the solstices and sacrifices of virgins and llamas were made.    Sacrificing men didn´t seem to be part of the menu..

The Incas were skilled in understanding geology as they purposefully built earthquake separation channels between complexes and despite these and mudslides, many Incan walls are still standing in contrast to more modern ones.   The dressed stone is fabulous for the more important buildings.   Others have rough stone and the packing material is mud and cactus juice.

Spent until 4pm on Site by hiking up MP mountain itself through different types of forest with orchids and dripping mossy branches to scrub and another flagpole of the Inca culture.  Stayed on top for 1.5hours with 8 others waiting for the dense low cloud banks to slowly rise and give fleeting glimpses, then longer views of MP…pretty fab especially when the sun appeared for a short while !  Then quick pace up the famous Inca Trial to The Sun Gate where people enter the Site and first see the complex.. yep..good!  Then I jogged back down the steps and road to AG in 50 mins as we had to catch the train back!

PUNO AND LAKE TITICACA

Long drive back across much of the Altiplano route we´d taken to Cusco..subsistence farming, small brick mud houses with tin, reed or pantile roofs, back breaking hand labour in the small ´strip´fields, piglets, dead dogs killed on the road and bleak landscape at 3500-4000m.

The higher cultures of the Andes flourished on LT as the Incas called it the Womb of Mankind as they believed this was their origin as the god Viracocha began his creations of the Empire of the Sun on Sun Island.   There have been many cultures around the Lake such as the Tiwanaku which began about the time of Christ and lasted for over a millenium.

We had 1.5 days on the Island itself by taking a 3-4 hour slow motor boat across to Taquile and Amantani Islands where we did the real gringo trail of walking ..very hard work on the lungs and my asthma was apparent..up hill to a plaza where a mini hoard of kigs and adults descended to sell trinkets, lunch in a restuarant and hike along a paved path to another small harbour passing many terraced fields growing maize, beans, potatoes with sheep, pigs and cows, houses and people in traditional costume.  We did a home stay on Amantani Island where we split up across x families who get paid for our accommodation and typical food and dress us up in traditional skirt, blouse, embroidered belt, poncho etc and a few dances.   There was a football match too which i didn´t join as the lungs were not fit for that ..but several others played for 50 mins which was dammed good going.

Lovely views across LT from the Islands or boat in the sunshine to snowy peaks on tranquil waters  ..which are receding very quickly as the weather patterns change…to the Uros or reed floating islands.  As most of the native fish have been over fished or eaten by introduced trout and catfish, the traditional economy of the reed islanders of fishing, collecting birds and their eggs and then bartering for other products has almost collapsed and due to the 7th Day Adventists they´ve accepted tourism as probably the only viable option and now show people like me how they build the islands, their dress, weavings and row us in a tourist reed boat for 15 mins whilst we take lots of piccies of them and us outside reed huts with a satellite dish alongside.   With nylon rather than reed cords to bing the reed mats togther, they now last about 30 years instead of 10 years and just get built up.

The Uros Indians fled in reed boats out onto the Lake to try and escape the spanish who forced millions to Lima or the mines to be coverted to christianity and die form brutal slave labour.