On our last full day in Cusco it rained and rained. We visited the Inca museum which had some fantastic Inca pottery including some of the most enormous pots I've ever seen. There was a whole hoard of mummies in different situations(!), some in pots, some wrapped in woolen wraps, some in grass fibres. They were all under some sort of infra red lighting and looked quite spooky. We took one final look around the shops and then returned to the hotel to pack our bags and get ready to leave.
On Wednesday we left Cusco around 9pm to drive to Arequipa. On the way we stopped at Pikillacta, a Wari city (AD300 - 800) (the one we had failed to visit with Walter because of the strike). The Wari lived in much larger cities than the Inca (who limited theirs to around 1000 to prevent problems with the sewage!). The Wari city had about 3000 inhabitants and when the Inca arrived they called it the town of fleas (that is what Pikillacta means in Aymara (the language of the Inca). It was a city of white, all the buildings were made of red adobe bricks, but then inside and out (and on the floor) was a thick layer of white clay.... and more amazing than that they were all 3 stories high. Furthermore, the Wari had constructed an aqueduct over about 4 km to bring water from the surrounding mountains down to the city. At one point they had built a huge wall to enable the aqueduct to maintain its course; the Inca then adapted this wall, adding their typical amazing, perfectly fitting rocks, to make two doorways (one for the each of the two leaders that they always had (the military and the religious)) to allow their leaders to enter the region of Cusco at the same time.
It was a fine ending to our Incan adventure!
We drove on to Arequipa past delapidated Haciendas, the houses of the Spaniards who took over all the land and practically turned the locals into slaves on their own land. We saw some eagles and Cara Caras, and herds and herds of Llama and Alpaca.
On the journey the petrol guage was going up and up, instead of down. Celso opened up the tank, as we assumed that their must be some build up of gas, and then the needle just plummeted to empty. We knew that the tank was about half full so on we went. However the next 200km had no petrol stations and when we were about 35km away from Arequipa with fog and darkness coming down the car started to bunny hop and finally we came to a stop only about 100m from the top of the hill, (if we had made it over the top we could have rolled down the other side, but it was not to be). Celso had to hitch down to bring back some petrol as the fog got worse and worse, and by the time he returned we had to creep down the hill with no more than 5m visibility.
We managed to find our way back to the hotel we had stayed in before in Arequipa (more by luck than judgement!
Early on Thursday we started our journey south to the border. More and more and more desert, the road stretching for miles into the distance, completely straight and completely flat; then small stretches of winding through, up, over and down solidified sand dunes, 3 amazingly green valleys. Then, after lunch in the border town of Tacna and a small wild goose chase as we tried to find a Senat office where we were told we had to leave car papers before we left the country, but it turned out to be on the actual border, we finally made it to the border crossing.
What a farce; we had to fill out 4 copies of a form that they did not have; when we finally got the paper we had to sit and fill out the details 4 times and then queue to go to first the police then the immigration, then I had to visit another kiosk in the car to ensure that they knew that I had taken the car out of Peru, only to find that (although I had the paperwork saying that I had brought the car into the country that they had no record of it on their system!). With that fixed we were finally allowed to drive down to the Chilean side of the border where we had to get all the luggage out of the car, fill out several more forms and then carry the luggage to the immigration people, then to an Xray machine. Celso and Tristan then had to wait whilst I brought the car through a very superficial search and then fill out yet more forms to bring the car into the country.
Altogether it took about 2 hours to get through both sides and then we finally drove the last 20km or so into Arica and found a hotel with a car park for us to stay in.
We only realised much later that the time here is 2 hours ahead of Peru and we finally got out to eat at around 10pm local time. Celso was feeling a bit rough so he didn't eat and later in the night ended up going off to an emergency clinic as he was losing fluids from both ends and feeling really awful!
Today (Friday) we took it quite easy, Celso had returned at about 4am having been on a drip and having some medication. We went and picked up a prescription for him and took a short walk around the town. It was hot (around 30C), and after the cool of Cusco we didn't cope too well! We explored the church, a rather odd metal construction designed by Eiffel (before he built the tower in Paris), watched hummingbirds in the main square with a cool breeze blowing in off the sea, and then wandered through the streets full of market stalls. It all seems quite 'hippyish' here, loads of bangles and scarves, Hari Krishner followers in the streets, incense burning, buskers and long haired men with head bands! The streets are full of people, street cafes abound, quite cosmopolitan after Peru.
The food and drink is really cheap but everything elses price seems to be on a par with Britain. I haven't seen the price of petrol yet, that seemed to be the main cause of the price differences between Peru and Ecuador, in Peru the petrol was at least 3x the cost and this seemed to make everything else nearly 3x as expensive too.
Friday, 26 February 2010
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Inca adventure 3
Sunday 21st Feb
Today we set off with Walter for our 3rd and final day exploring the sites around Cusco. We headed south, back on the road we had arrived on from Puno. Our first stop was at Tipon, an Incan city whose military and temple regions have been destroyed but which has amazing terraces and an incredible water system fed from a natural spring at the top of the site. We had to wind our way up the mountain on an incredibly thin and really bad road, mud, lumps and bumps everywhere and a sheer drop down at the sides. Fortunately we only met one car and that was at a point where our side of the road was not on the sheer drop side - phew!
It seems that Tipon was a place where the Inca tried to develop new varieties of potato. No other pollen has been found at the site, and when the earth was dug they found hundreds of different types of potato. It seems that they were trying to adapt the potato to grow at higher and higher altitudes. The terraces here were larger, wider than any others we have seen and the water system at this place in unique. The irrigation system is wide and there are waterfalls over each terrace. From the single spring at the top the chanel is divided into two, then back into one, then into four fountains. Apparently the emergence of the water from the earth signifies birth, the two channels may either signify man and woman, or perhaps the two parts of the Inca society, the military or the religious, but whichever, these unite to give one family or one empire. The four is to do with mother nature (Pachamama) and the four elements in which the Inca believed - Earth, wind, fire and water.
Back down the horrid road we went to head further south to our next stop at Pikillaqta (a Wari city that was later used by the Inca as a prison), however our plans were foiled as there was a paro (a strike) in one of the towns that has been badly affected by the flood. They had covered the road in mud and burning tyres in an attempt to get the attention of the local government. Celso and Walter went to take a closer look. A man was protesting to the protestors about not being able to get through the village (this is the only road out of Cusco to North, South or West that is open and not blocked by landslides). A woman protestor said they were going to strike all week and that he was welcome to wait in the tent that she had been given by the authorities which leaked when it rained and to drink the dirty water that was all that was available, to use the toilet facilities that they had, basically a bucket that was then emptied into the river. She said all they owned had been destroyed when their home collapsed in the floods and that people had helped them by giving them food and water but that they had waited a month for help from the local government but all they had received was a leaky tent per family affected. I think they had reason to protest and so we turned around and drove back toward Cusco.
We stopped for lunch in a place that was famous for Cuy (guinea pig) and Celso and Walter shared one whilst Tristan and I ate fritada (fried pork, potatoes and a boiled choclo). Tristan and I tried a bit of Cuy but to me it was sort of sweet and a bit slimy! The fact that it still had its head, feet and claws was not very appetising!
We then headed back to Cusco and I spent about an hour trying to teach Walter how he could set up an album on Picasa so that he could advertise to tourists over the Internet. He could leave calling cards in hotels with the address and his contact details. At the moment he is dependent on some agencies recommending him to tourists and then he has to pay them a percentage of his earnings.
Walter then accompanied us to a small museum near the Plaza de Armas that has a small collection showing examples of potteries, textiles or tools from each era of occupation around Cusco, from prehistoric fossils, through stone tools, to the textiles and ceramics of the Incas and their predecessors. And then we had to say our fairwells and thank yous to Walter and off he went. - Nice guy!
Monday 22nd Feb
It rained all night, last night, it rained and rained and rained. I hate to think what those protestors were suffering. We waited until midmorning when the rain started to slow down and then went out in search of someone who would take us out on a horse ride. We found an office and after paperwork were taken up the hill near Saqsayhuaman to meet our 14 year old guide and the horses. We rode for about 1.5 hours (it could have been longer but it started to rain hard again!) on the top of the hills looking down over Cusco below. Tristan, who was riding for the first time, had a ball; he loved it; he managed to make the horse go where he wanted to most of the time and he didn't fell any discomfort. Both Celso and I dismounted and waddled for a while as we searched for some transport to take us down the hill back into town. We spent the afternoon exploring the hundreds of shops full of local handicrafts, woolens, paintings, ceramics and carvings. Incredible.
Today we set off with Walter for our 3rd and final day exploring the sites around Cusco. We headed south, back on the road we had arrived on from Puno. Our first stop was at Tipon, an Incan city whose military and temple regions have been destroyed but which has amazing terraces and an incredible water system fed from a natural spring at the top of the site. We had to wind our way up the mountain on an incredibly thin and really bad road, mud, lumps and bumps everywhere and a sheer drop down at the sides. Fortunately we only met one car and that was at a point where our side of the road was not on the sheer drop side - phew!
It seems that Tipon was a place where the Inca tried to develop new varieties of potato. No other pollen has been found at the site, and when the earth was dug they found hundreds of different types of potato. It seems that they were trying to adapt the potato to grow at higher and higher altitudes. The terraces here were larger, wider than any others we have seen and the water system at this place in unique. The irrigation system is wide and there are waterfalls over each terrace. From the single spring at the top the chanel is divided into two, then back into one, then into four fountains. Apparently the emergence of the water from the earth signifies birth, the two channels may either signify man and woman, or perhaps the two parts of the Inca society, the military or the religious, but whichever, these unite to give one family or one empire. The four is to do with mother nature (Pachamama) and the four elements in which the Inca believed - Earth, wind, fire and water.
Back down the horrid road we went to head further south to our next stop at Pikillaqta (a Wari city that was later used by the Inca as a prison), however our plans were foiled as there was a paro (a strike) in one of the towns that has been badly affected by the flood. They had covered the road in mud and burning tyres in an attempt to get the attention of the local government. Celso and Walter went to take a closer look. A man was protesting to the protestors about not being able to get through the village (this is the only road out of Cusco to North, South or West that is open and not blocked by landslides). A woman protestor said they were going to strike all week and that he was welcome to wait in the tent that she had been given by the authorities which leaked when it rained and to drink the dirty water that was all that was available, to use the toilet facilities that they had, basically a bucket that was then emptied into the river. She said all they owned had been destroyed when their home collapsed in the floods and that people had helped them by giving them food and water but that they had waited a month for help from the local government but all they had received was a leaky tent per family affected. I think they had reason to protest and so we turned around and drove back toward Cusco.
We stopped for lunch in a place that was famous for Cuy (guinea pig) and Celso and Walter shared one whilst Tristan and I ate fritada (fried pork, potatoes and a boiled choclo). Tristan and I tried a bit of Cuy but to me it was sort of sweet and a bit slimy! The fact that it still had its head, feet and claws was not very appetising!
We then headed back to Cusco and I spent about an hour trying to teach Walter how he could set up an album on Picasa so that he could advertise to tourists over the Internet. He could leave calling cards in hotels with the address and his contact details. At the moment he is dependent on some agencies recommending him to tourists and then he has to pay them a percentage of his earnings.
Walter then accompanied us to a small museum near the Plaza de Armas that has a small collection showing examples of potteries, textiles or tools from each era of occupation around Cusco, from prehistoric fossils, through stone tools, to the textiles and ceramics of the Incas and their predecessors. And then we had to say our fairwells and thank yous to Walter and off he went. - Nice guy!
Monday 22nd Feb
It rained all night, last night, it rained and rained and rained. I hate to think what those protestors were suffering. We waited until midmorning when the rain started to slow down and then went out in search of someone who would take us out on a horse ride. We found an office and after paperwork were taken up the hill near Saqsayhuaman to meet our 14 year old guide and the horses. We rode for about 1.5 hours (it could have been longer but it started to rain hard again!) on the top of the hills looking down over Cusco below. Tristan, who was riding for the first time, had a ball; he loved it; he managed to make the horse go where he wanted to most of the time and he didn't fell any discomfort. Both Celso and I dismounted and waddled for a while as we searched for some transport to take us down the hill back into town. We spent the afternoon exploring the hundreds of shops full of local handicrafts, woolens, paintings, ceramics and carvings. Incredible.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Incan adventure-2 20th Feb
Another fab day out in the field with Walter. We started off in the rain at 8:30am and went to visit the church that we had seen on the first day here with the impressive curved Inca wall at one end. What we hadn't found was that at the side you could enter behind the church where some of the Incan temples still stood - Corecancha. As I told you before it was the mission of the Conquistadors to pull down the Incan temples and replace them with Christian churches on the same sites. It was a statement to the locals that their gods were inferior to the Christian one. In this case though, being Cusco - the capital city of the Incas, there was not only one temple to the Sun but also other temples to other parts of Pachamama (or mother nature) that they worshipped. So in this place there was a huge temple to the sun and another to the moon, then one to the rainbow, another to the storm, and one to the stars or constellations. The temples to the sun and moon were destroyed and on top of them was built the church that we saw a couple of days ago, but then for some reason they didn't completely destroy the other temples but instead removed all the gold that they contained and then plastered over all the walls and painted them with Christian symbols such as cherubs and crosses. An earthquake in the 17th century toppled the church and its attached monestary but not the Incan buildings or foundations, everything was rebuilt and then in the Republican era another earthquake in the 1950's toppled everything colonial again, but again the Incan parts stood firm. With the plaster covering in ruins the Peruvians realised that there was Inca masonry work beneath and so the old temple walls were revealed in all there splendour, including the smallest ever stone found in an Incan wall - believed to be in the temple to show the humility of humanity compared to Pachamama. You can see in the photos how the religious stonework is much more orderly than the mighty military stonework. According to the chroniclers at the time of the conquest of the Inca by the Spanish the temples were lined with gold, of course this was all ripped out by the Spanish and taken back to Spain, apparently they were very angry to discover that it was not pure gold... the Inca used to mix the gold with copper to make it harder. In the temple to the stars the roof was covered in stars made from silver matching the constellations that were visible at two different times of the year. This temple also had openings to allow the priests to look at the stars, when the constellations matched those on the ceiling they could announce the start of the equinoxes and thus keep the calender correct. At one end of the complex is a series of terraces (now a park) that used to contain gold statues of all aspects of Pachamama, e.g. statues of insects, animals and plants, apparently there was no theft amongst the Inca, nor graffiti, but this did not apply to the new Spanish visitors who took everything. The rain continued as we made our way to the second stop of the day, the fortress of Saqsayhuoman (pronounced 'sexy woman', but with a longer 'o' in woman, like 'oh'!). In Quechua, it means 'satisfied falcon', because apparently on this hill above Cusco there was a great battle and the falcons came to feast upon the dead until they couldn't eat anymore! The impressive stonework that remains of this huge fort contains both the heaviest (120 tons) and the tallest (9m) stones found so far. A natural hill has been terraced to give 4 separate levels in the fort, the first (lowest) level was manned by Canari soldiers from Ecuador (because apparently they were the bravest and fiercest in the empire (we heard how they resisted the Incan conquest for 30 years or so when we visited Inca Pirca in sourthern Ecuador)), the second level by another tribe called the Chachpoya from the North of the Empire who were skilled with slingshots, and the third level by Incan soldiers. The fourth level was for the nobles from Cusco city who would come here if the city ever came under attack, it also contained a huge watchtower about 9m high. Poor Saqsayhuoman has been the victim of its situation high on the hill above Cusco, before protection if anybody needed some stone they would just topple some of the rocks down the hill and then cut them up to be used for more modern building work. That which remains is still very impressive though. With the rain slowing we moved on to Qenqo (sometimes written Kenko), a temple to the otter (or maybe the puma), it was found completely covered in Earth. This was the work of a special group of Spaniards in the early 17th century (1609) who were ordered to destroy all evidence of Incan religion or military might, they were called the Extripadores de Idolatrias. They ransacked temples and military sites all over Peru, including breaking sacred stones and tumbling buildings or covering them. Archeologists are now finding more and more temples around Cusco, it seems that as tribes were conquered by the Incas they were encouraged to build a temple in the area around Cusco and then to make pilgrimages to the area - a way of making Cusco important and relevant to even far off parts of the empire. Clever! Anyway, at this site, the temple was found completely covered in earth and in the centre of the temple is a rock that has been damaged but must have been important - it was either a statue of a puma or an otter according to all the research that has been done; what is known is that it was probably a temple of people from the jungle because in an enlarged natural tunnel in a big rock to the rear there is a room for mumification - and apparently the jungle folk were the experts at this. There is a huge table where the body was laid and then opened to remove the intestines; then the body is treated with all types of herbs (usually from the jungle) and salt to start the preservation process - there were all sorts of niches for storage of these essential items. Then the bodies were laid out in the sun in the foetal position and, when 'ready', dressed in their clothes and returned to their families. The families added grave goods, food and drink and anything else relevant to the 'recently departed's life' and then they were placed in holes in the hillsides and walled in, but leaving enough space for visits, and once a year to change the clothes, food and drink. The next place we visited, as the rain ceased, was a sort of guardpost or lookout post on the Inca trail from the East called Puka Pukara. Again it was built in a strategic position on a hill overlooking the valley that came from the East, the jungle region of the empire. When people were spotted then the soldiers would be on full alert and check the 'credentials' of those that passed (a bit like passport control). Of course the Inca did not have papers or writing, instead they carried their identification as a series of knots on string. Many of these 'documents' have been found but not much is known about how to interpret them as all knowledge of how they 'functioned' has been lost. From the top of the site we could see the remains of the Inca trail that lead away across the side of a hill, originally these paths were dotted with small huts at every 2km. In these huts sat the messengers, boys between 16 and 24, who could run (across uneven and undulating terrain) the 2km in 6 min or less. As one messenger approached a hut he would blow a horn to announce his arrival so that the next messenger would be ready to receive the message (either the knotted rope type or verbal) and continue, like a big relay race across the country. In this way news was transmitted at high speed across the empire. Next we drove less than a mile down to another temple site that also functioned as a resting site for noble families with a look out tower for their safety. This temple, they think, was to water as it has several fountains. However, as Tristan pointed out, only part of the site (the upper part) has the religious building style, the rest has the military style (even around the fountains), so it is all a bit strange. Impressive though. Finally we made our way to Pisaq (we were going to go yesterday but ran out of time!). The modern town of Pisaq is reached by a bridge over the sacred river which has collapsed on one side in the recent floods. We parked on the Cusco side and walked over the bridge to the town and ate lunch before catching a taxi up to the ancient Pisaq on the top of the mountain (well out of the way of any flooding). What a fabulous place. We walked above the terraces, past the buildings that housed the workers who farmed them, then to the fountains that provided the water for the houses above. I had a discussion with Walter about the design of the fountains, it seemed strange to me. In most sites each fountain is easily accesible, but here there were 4 fountains that could only be reached through one doorway and along an increasingly narrow corridor. Why, when you had to fill large storage jars with water, would they have made it so awkward to get in and out to the water supply? Since each fountain was in a little cubicle like section it appeared to me that they could be used as showers, but Walter insisted that the Inca would never allow 'dirty' water to continue in the water system, any dirty water that had been used had to be thrown onto the earth. The water from the fountains continued down a channel to lower areas of the site, he said it would have been against the law to send dirty water down that way. However, he agreed that the design was very strange and says he is going to do some research. We will be exchanging emails so I will await his findings, he also wants to know if, when we get to Easter island, we find any Incan style buildings as he has heard a rumour that there may be some there! Anyway, from the mystery of the fountains, we followed an Inca trail that wound round the mountainside and then through a natural fissure in the rock that had been widened to the far side of the complex where military lookouts, impressive temples and more terraces and workers' abodes awaited discovery. We walked around the site for over 1 3/4 hours and wondered at the views across the valley, the perfect temple stonework and the beauty of the terraces as they followed the contours of the mountain. We found a sacred bath, where the priest used to bathe before important ceremonies, complete with hand holes and steps. Humming birds flitted around the amazing plants and the clouds puffed and wafted over the surrounding mountains in the piercing blue sky. Completely breath taking in more than one sense.
As we returned to Cusco we stopped to buy Humitas (maize cakes) in the Plaza de Armas and then I have been writing this and sorting the photos ever since! One more day of major sites to go - we are not so frustrated about not going to Macchu Picchu now, it has been absolutely stunning.
As we returned to Cusco we stopped to buy Humitas (maize cakes) in the Plaza de Armas and then I have been writing this and sorting the photos ever since! One more day of major sites to go - we are not so frustrated about not going to Macchu Picchu now, it has been absolutely stunning.
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Incan adventure - 1 (18th - 19th Feb)
Thur 18th
We spent today wandering around to see what Cusco has to offer, we found a fab Indian restaurant and loads of shops selling all manner of handicrafts..... and of course we couldn't resist a few things. We have organised a private guide to take us round some of the major Inca sites around Cusco that are still open and we have confirmed that we definately will not be able to get to Macchu Picchu as the government has closed it and posted military personal around the perimeter to prevent anybody just walking in. Apparently they are being over cautious after the bad press they got when the flood hit. Macchu Picchu was completely untouched it is just the access routes that have been affected, the rail line washed away and the roads full of landslides. We just have to accept that we will have to come back another time (good excuse!).
Fri 19th
Up at 7am to start our Inca discovery tour at 8am with our guide Walter. First we drove up and out of Cusco (which is situated in a high valley surrounded by mountains; apparently it used to be a lake in the ice age) over the mountains to the North to an Inca town called Chinchero. Here we were introduced to the Inca raised town with terraces all around (the Inca never built houses along rivers, always on raised ground, the recent floods and the damage to so many properties may explain why); an incredible amount of work for each town. Of course the conquistadors have ruined the place by demolishing the Incan temples and building their own church on its base. Chinchero was a typical administrative centre for the Incas, it had 3 sections; a military area with a huge square or parade ground (this has a raised platform at one corner for announcements); a religious area with temple and niches for important mummies (of past priests) and another square for religious activities including weddings; the third area was for housing. The Incan marriage was monogamous and by choice on both sides, if a man wished to marry a girl he would offer her a pair of shoes, if she accepted then they were engaged; he would give her the shoes and ask if she would walk with him (for the rest of their lives), if she accepted she put on the shoes and then set about making him a woven jacket.
Each Incan town had a population of no more than about 1000, so they weren't huge but very impressive. We saw original flooring made of clay that was then burnt (so it was sort of like a ceramic floor, one huge tile), we saw the differenece in the military and religious style of building, both using the impressive interlocking stonework but the military style used larger stones with polygonal shapes (varying numbers of sides and sizes) whereas the religious sites were built with even rows (even height) of stones and they were quadrangles. The colonial era church was quite impressive with a completely painted ceiling and other wall paintings directly onto the plaster, again we weren't allowed to photograph but I shot from the hip so hopefully I will have caught a few memories! In the religious square there were loads of locals selling their amazing handicrafts and just outside there was a shop where the women showed us how they teased, died, and wove wool to make table coverings, hats, ponchos etc. It was all an incredible start to our day.
Next we drove on a track that at one point caused me to stop the car and switch to 4 wheel drive, to the base of a mountain where a pre-Incan Wari culture agricultural site called Moray amazed and stunned us. According to local lore a meteorite crashed here and made several depressions in the earth; according to archeologists an underground cavern collapsed; any way, however they were formed, the Wari made full use of the depressions. They built circular terraces in the hollows with retaining walls of stone with 'floating' steps in the walls to aid ascent and descent. As you go down the levels the average temperature rises by about 5 degrees and the Wari (and then the Inca) used the terraces to test which species will grow in which climates and also to adapt species to differnt climates. They brought plants (e.g. cocoa) from the jungle areas and planted it in the warmest place, at the bottom. Once the plant was growing well they would plant it on the next level up, many plants would die, but some would survive and adapt to the cooler temperature. They would repeat this process until they were able to collect seeds for a jungle plant that would now grow in some mountain climates. Conversely they could do this with mountain plants, starting on the top terraces and working downwards, so that they would be able to grow them at much lower altitudes. How incredibly advanced is that, this was happening in the first millenium! Since the area has not been used in centuries we asked how they (the archeologists) knew that this is how they were used. The site has no nearby town and there is evidence of pollen and seeds from many different plants and from many different varieties of these plants. The pollen is found very mixed on all levels of the terraces but the seeds are more organised and are found in higher concentrations on the levels (the temperatures) at which they would grow best. Some tourists were taking part in some sort of energising ceremony in the bottom of one of the circles lead by an Incan man who claims that the area is full of spiritual energy, I didn't feel energy (especially as we climbed out of the circles, the Wari were small people but their floating steps were so far apart!), I just felt awe.
Our last stop before we had a break for lunch was to go to another Wari (and later Incan) site called Salineras. On the way Walter was keen to clear up some myths about the Incan way of life. According to some early chroniclers (mostly mistiso men (i.e of mixed indigenous - Spanish parantage)) the Incan's never practised human sacrifice. They agree that some of the tribes that were conquered by the Incas continued this practice even though it was against Incan law. They state that the Spanish reported human sacrifice as being prevelant in order to spread disgust or loathing amongst the Spaniards back home in order that they would fund more campaigns to stop these ungodly horrors! (It sounds like all the misinformation/propoganda that was published during the world wars e.g. the English announced that the Germans killed babies by bayonetting them and then feeding them to pigs.) We just have to decide who to believe, the evidence for human sacrifice is scant, 5 cases have been discovered and these are in conquered areas, no evidence of human sacrifice has been found in the Incan homelands around Cusco.
We wound around a dirt track on the side of a hill until suddenly below us we could see hundreds of tiny terraces, built to store water from a salty spring. The water then evaporates or drains away from the terraces leaving a crusty layer of salt. More water is then allowed to enter and evaporate so that more salt is deposited, and then this is repeated again and again until a thick layer of salt forms which is then scraped up using a wooden rake type instrument. Another awesome sight, this is Salineras, the salt mine of the Wari and Inca. Appar
ently the people here had a rich lifestyle as people from near and far came to trade goods for salt. Celso tasted the water from the spring and said it was more salty than even sea water. As we went to take a closer look we found a man who made carvings out of solid blocks of salt (Walter tasted one and confirmed that it really was salt) and more people trying to sell their goods.
We drove down in to the Sacred Valley (named in republican times (after independence from the Spanish)) to attract tourists! The river was sacred to the Incas who used to burn offerings of llamas, weavings, and the best corn and rice, and then sprinkle the ashes into the river. They called the river the sacred river because it received their offerings, but the valley was never sacred! Our lunch was barley soup with potato and other veg (delicious) in a restaurant in a town that had been hit by the recent flooding. In fact, the restaurant's neighbouring adobe house collapsed entirely in the flood and now the family had to live in a plastic tent that had been handed out by the government. We spotted more and more of these tents by the side of the road as we made our way along the river in the afternoon.
Our next stop was probably my favourite of the day, Ollantaytambo, another town and administrative Incan centre. Originally the place was a village and resting place (tambo means resting place in Quechua, the Incan language and Ollantay was the governor of the place); resting places were built every 20km along Incan trails because that is how far men and llamas could travel in one day. Ollantay fell in love with the Incan ruler's daughter and persuaded the local people to fight the ruler, who was captured and then died (of old age), when his son came to power he did not want to fight and allowed Ollantay and his sister to marry, but because she was noble Ollantaytambo then became a much more important place. As we arrived we passed the original entrance gates into the town, there are two gates so that both the military and religious leaders could enter at the same time because they were both of the same rank! Then we drove through the town which again was destroyed by the conquistadors so that now the colonial age houses have the bottom half of their walls in the Incan stone style and the top halves in adobe. There are some fantastic streets with original Incan water channels and some huge imposing Incan stone doorways into some of the houses. This town too had suffered some damage from the rains and its bridge had been completely destroyed and was now replaced by a temporary bridge. We crossed this to enter the military and religious parts of the town. An enormous number of terraces rose in front of us up the side of a mountain. The mountain is made of a soft type of rock (I think it may be shale) and the terraces ensured that there were no landslides down onto the religious complex at its base. The military area was atop the terraces and at the time that the conquistadors arrived was being remodelled because a decree had been sent out that all the building work should now be in the style of Macchu Picchu with enormous stone blocks intricately carved so that they fitted together with perfection. The arrival of the conquistadors stopped this work in its tracks so that huge stones lie where they fell and apart from a couple of magnificent walls it just looks like the building site that it was! As we stopped half way up to take a breath, we turned to look back over the town to the other side of the valley and up on the mountainside we could see huge warehouses where freeze dried potatoes were stored for up to 10 years, it seemed incredible that they would build them so high up, having to carry the goods up there seemed like just too much hard work; however the sites were not chosen at random, the winds at those locations meant that the stored goods did not get damp and go mouldy. Near one of the warehouses Tristan told me he could see a face in the rocks and pointed it out to me, about 5 minutes later Walter told me that there was a face carved in the rocks, isn't my son brilliant! I had thought it a natural formation but apparently it was carved and depicts the founder of the Incan Empire, Wiracocha or Viracocha, a sort of prophet who chose people from different areas and brought them to the valley around Cusco and settled them there giving them laws to follow and the first semblance of an organised culture. No one knows where this 'prophet' came from but it is thought he may have come from the Wari or Tiwanaku descendents and that he was an old and wise man (sounds a bit like a Moses type figure to me).
Some of the building techniques were just amazing, the new style (starting in the 15th century) with huge rocks involved bringing volcanic (igneous) rock from across the valley, cut on the far side into perfect shapes but with protruberences left on to allow better attatchment of the ropes used to haul it on rollers across the valley floor and up slopes specially constructed for the purpose of allowing the rocks to arrive. How did the Incans get 90 ton rocks across the river in the bottom of the valley? Apparently they diverted the river to one side, pulled the rocks across, then diverted the river back the other way to complete the crossing! Amazing. The Incan tax system was such that each man had to pay 3 months labour to the empire, this meant that he was sent whereever people were needed to complete these great works. Some estimates say that up to 20,000 labourers were at Ollantaytambo when work ceased. 3 months sounds a lot, but it is only 25%, we pay about 33% don't we! Also during that time all the expenses of the worker were paid, they were provided with food, shelter and new clothing if needed whilst they were working for the empire, the Incan's had no money so it was a pretty clever tax system I think.
Between the enormous rocks in the new building work the Incas put a column of smaller, thinner rocks. As the rocks expanded and contracted each day with the changes in temperature they could have rubbed against each other and eventually cracked; however, with the small rocks inbetween it was more likely that the small rocks would suffer damage and then these could be easily replaced.
The religious area of the site was more damaged; the conquistadors never allowed a religious building to stand; but this time they had not built on top of it because it was full of fresh water springs, instead they carted away the stones and used them to build the church in the town. We spent about 20 minutes wandering around the back streets of the town and then set on our way again back along the edge of the Sacred River, past more damaged buildings, destroyed crops and blue plastic emergency housing tents. We had to cross a rickety bridge and then drive about 20 mins down a mud track to get back to the main road to Cusco because the main road's bridge had collapsed on one side (pedestrians can cross but no cars), and then we drove up over the mountains during another fantastic sunset and then back down into Cusco.
We invited Walter and his partner to come and eat an Indian meal with us (a completely new experience for them, we shall see how they cope with the spiciness tomorrow) and then arrived, exhausted, back at our hostel at around 8pm. More adventures await tomorrow!
We spent today wandering around to see what Cusco has to offer, we found a fab Indian restaurant and loads of shops selling all manner of handicrafts..... and of course we couldn't resist a few things. We have organised a private guide to take us round some of the major Inca sites around Cusco that are still open and we have confirmed that we definately will not be able to get to Macchu Picchu as the government has closed it and posted military personal around the perimeter to prevent anybody just walking in. Apparently they are being over cautious after the bad press they got when the flood hit. Macchu Picchu was completely untouched it is just the access routes that have been affected, the rail line washed away and the roads full of landslides. We just have to accept that we will have to come back another time (good excuse!).
Fri 19th
Up at 7am to start our Inca discovery tour at 8am with our guide Walter. First we drove up and out of Cusco (which is situated in a high valley surrounded by mountains; apparently it used to be a lake in the ice age) over the mountains to the North to an Inca town called Chinchero. Here we were introduced to the Inca raised town with terraces all around (the Inca never built houses along rivers, always on raised ground, the recent floods and the damage to so many properties may explain why); an incredible amount of work for each town. Of course the conquistadors have ruined the place by demolishing the Incan temples and building their own church on its base. Chinchero was a typical administrative centre for the Incas, it had 3 sections; a military area with a huge square or parade ground (this has a raised platform at one corner for announcements); a religious area with temple and niches for important mummies (of past priests) and another square for religious activities including weddings; the third area was for housing. The Incan marriage was monogamous and by choice on both sides, if a man wished to marry a girl he would offer her a pair of shoes, if she accepted then they were engaged; he would give her the shoes and ask if she would walk with him (for the rest of their lives), if she accepted she put on the shoes and then set about making him a woven jacket.
Each Incan town had a population of no more than about 1000, so they weren't huge but very impressive. We saw original flooring made of clay that was then burnt (so it was sort of like a ceramic floor, one huge tile), we saw the differenece in the military and religious style of building, both using the impressive interlocking stonework but the military style used larger stones with polygonal shapes (varying numbers of sides and sizes) whereas the religious sites were built with even rows (even height) of stones and they were quadrangles. The colonial era church was quite impressive with a completely painted ceiling and other wall paintings directly onto the plaster, again we weren't allowed to photograph but I shot from the hip so hopefully I will have caught a few memories! In the religious square there were loads of locals selling their amazing handicrafts and just outside there was a shop where the women showed us how they teased, died, and wove wool to make table coverings, hats, ponchos etc. It was all an incredible start to our day.
Next we drove on a track that at one point caused me to stop the car and switch to 4 wheel drive, to the base of a mountain where a pre-Incan Wari culture agricultural site called Moray amazed and stunned us. According to local lore a meteorite crashed here and made several depressions in the earth; according to archeologists an underground cavern collapsed; any way, however they were formed, the Wari made full use of the depressions. They built circular terraces in the hollows with retaining walls of stone with 'floating' steps in the walls to aid ascent and descent. As you go down the levels the average temperature rises by about 5 degrees and the Wari (and then the Inca) used the terraces to test which species will grow in which climates and also to adapt species to differnt climates. They brought plants (e.g. cocoa) from the jungle areas and planted it in the warmest place, at the bottom. Once the plant was growing well they would plant it on the next level up, many plants would die, but some would survive and adapt to the cooler temperature. They would repeat this process until they were able to collect seeds for a jungle plant that would now grow in some mountain climates. Conversely they could do this with mountain plants, starting on the top terraces and working downwards, so that they would be able to grow them at much lower altitudes. How incredibly advanced is that, this was happening in the first millenium! Since the area has not been used in centuries we asked how they (the archeologists) knew that this is how they were used. The site has no nearby town and there is evidence of pollen and seeds from many different plants and from many different varieties of these plants. The pollen is found very mixed on all levels of the terraces but the seeds are more organised and are found in higher concentrations on the levels (the temperatures) at which they would grow best. Some tourists were taking part in some sort of energising ceremony in the bottom of one of the circles lead by an Incan man who claims that the area is full of spiritual energy, I didn't feel energy (especially as we climbed out of the circles, the Wari were small people but their floating steps were so far apart!), I just felt awe.
Our last stop before we had a break for lunch was to go to another Wari (and later Incan) site called Salineras. On the way Walter was keen to clear up some myths about the Incan way of life. According to some early chroniclers (mostly mistiso men (i.e of mixed indigenous - Spanish parantage)) the Incan's never practised human sacrifice. They agree that some of the tribes that were conquered by the Incas continued this practice even though it was against Incan law. They state that the Spanish reported human sacrifice as being prevelant in order to spread disgust or loathing amongst the Spaniards back home in order that they would fund more campaigns to stop these ungodly horrors! (It sounds like all the misinformation/propoganda that was published during the world wars e.g. the English announced that the Germans killed babies by bayonetting them and then feeding them to pigs.) We just have to decide who to believe, the evidence for human sacrifice is scant, 5 cases have been discovered and these are in conquered areas, no evidence of human sacrifice has been found in the Incan homelands around Cusco.
We wound around a dirt track on the side of a hill until suddenly below us we could see hundreds of tiny terraces, built to store water from a salty spring. The water then evaporates or drains away from the terraces leaving a crusty layer of salt. More water is then allowed to enter and evaporate so that more salt is deposited, and then this is repeated again and again until a thick layer of salt forms which is then scraped up using a wooden rake type instrument. Another awesome sight, this is Salineras, the salt mine of the Wari and Inca. Appar
ently the people here had a rich lifestyle as people from near and far came to trade goods for salt. Celso tasted the water from the spring and said it was more salty than even sea water. As we went to take a closer look we found a man who made carvings out of solid blocks of salt (Walter tasted one and confirmed that it really was salt) and more people trying to sell their goods.
We drove down in to the Sacred Valley (named in republican times (after independence from the Spanish)) to attract tourists! The river was sacred to the Incas who used to burn offerings of llamas, weavings, and the best corn and rice, and then sprinkle the ashes into the river. They called the river the sacred river because it received their offerings, but the valley was never sacred! Our lunch was barley soup with potato and other veg (delicious) in a restaurant in a town that had been hit by the recent flooding. In fact, the restaurant's neighbouring adobe house collapsed entirely in the flood and now the family had to live in a plastic tent that had been handed out by the government. We spotted more and more of these tents by the side of the road as we made our way along the river in the afternoon.
Our next stop was probably my favourite of the day, Ollantaytambo, another town and administrative Incan centre. Originally the place was a village and resting place (tambo means resting place in Quechua, the Incan language and Ollantay was the governor of the place); resting places were built every 20km along Incan trails because that is how far men and llamas could travel in one day. Ollantay fell in love with the Incan ruler's daughter and persuaded the local people to fight the ruler, who was captured and then died (of old age), when his son came to power he did not want to fight and allowed Ollantay and his sister to marry, but because she was noble Ollantaytambo then became a much more important place. As we arrived we passed the original entrance gates into the town, there are two gates so that both the military and religious leaders could enter at the same time because they were both of the same rank! Then we drove through the town which again was destroyed by the conquistadors so that now the colonial age houses have the bottom half of their walls in the Incan stone style and the top halves in adobe. There are some fantastic streets with original Incan water channels and some huge imposing Incan stone doorways into some of the houses. This town too had suffered some damage from the rains and its bridge had been completely destroyed and was now replaced by a temporary bridge. We crossed this to enter the military and religious parts of the town. An enormous number of terraces rose in front of us up the side of a mountain. The mountain is made of a soft type of rock (I think it may be shale) and the terraces ensured that there were no landslides down onto the religious complex at its base. The military area was atop the terraces and at the time that the conquistadors arrived was being remodelled because a decree had been sent out that all the building work should now be in the style of Macchu Picchu with enormous stone blocks intricately carved so that they fitted together with perfection. The arrival of the conquistadors stopped this work in its tracks so that huge stones lie where they fell and apart from a couple of magnificent walls it just looks like the building site that it was! As we stopped half way up to take a breath, we turned to look back over the town to the other side of the valley and up on the mountainside we could see huge warehouses where freeze dried potatoes were stored for up to 10 years, it seemed incredible that they would build them so high up, having to carry the goods up there seemed like just too much hard work; however the sites were not chosen at random, the winds at those locations meant that the stored goods did not get damp and go mouldy. Near one of the warehouses Tristan told me he could see a face in the rocks and pointed it out to me, about 5 minutes later Walter told me that there was a face carved in the rocks, isn't my son brilliant! I had thought it a natural formation but apparently it was carved and depicts the founder of the Incan Empire, Wiracocha or Viracocha, a sort of prophet who chose people from different areas and brought them to the valley around Cusco and settled them there giving them laws to follow and the first semblance of an organised culture. No one knows where this 'prophet' came from but it is thought he may have come from the Wari or Tiwanaku descendents and that he was an old and wise man (sounds a bit like a Moses type figure to me).
Some of the building techniques were just amazing, the new style (starting in the 15th century) with huge rocks involved bringing volcanic (igneous) rock from across the valley, cut on the far side into perfect shapes but with protruberences left on to allow better attatchment of the ropes used to haul it on rollers across the valley floor and up slopes specially constructed for the purpose of allowing the rocks to arrive. How did the Incans get 90 ton rocks across the river in the bottom of the valley? Apparently they diverted the river to one side, pulled the rocks across, then diverted the river back the other way to complete the crossing! Amazing. The Incan tax system was such that each man had to pay 3 months labour to the empire, this meant that he was sent whereever people were needed to complete these great works. Some estimates say that up to 20,000 labourers were at Ollantaytambo when work ceased. 3 months sounds a lot, but it is only 25%, we pay about 33% don't we! Also during that time all the expenses of the worker were paid, they were provided with food, shelter and new clothing if needed whilst they were working for the empire, the Incan's had no money so it was a pretty clever tax system I think.
Between the enormous rocks in the new building work the Incas put a column of smaller, thinner rocks. As the rocks expanded and contracted each day with the changes in temperature they could have rubbed against each other and eventually cracked; however, with the small rocks inbetween it was more likely that the small rocks would suffer damage and then these could be easily replaced.
The religious area of the site was more damaged; the conquistadors never allowed a religious building to stand; but this time they had not built on top of it because it was full of fresh water springs, instead they carted away the stones and used them to build the church in the town. We spent about 20 minutes wandering around the back streets of the town and then set on our way again back along the edge of the Sacred River, past more damaged buildings, destroyed crops and blue plastic emergency housing tents. We had to cross a rickety bridge and then drive about 20 mins down a mud track to get back to the main road to Cusco because the main road's bridge had collapsed on one side (pedestrians can cross but no cars), and then we drove up over the mountains during another fantastic sunset and then back down into Cusco.
We invited Walter and his partner to come and eat an Indian meal with us (a completely new experience for them, we shall see how they cope with the spiciness tomorrow) and then arrived, exhausted, back at our hostel at around 8pm. More adventures await tomorrow!
Thursday, 18 February 2010
La Paz to Cuzco 15th-17th Feb
Wed 15th
Today we did a lot of wandering around La Paz, agian trying to avoid foam and water that now seemed to be flying with less accuracy due to the fact that many were on there 3rd or 4th day of drinking. It had rained hard last night so the streets smelt slightly nicer! However, there was still a lot of blessings going on, this involves scattering petals around a building to be blessed, applying a liberal amount of pure alcohol and then setting off fire crackers - very nerve wracking for those who have not noticed that it is going to happen (like me - I don't think I've ever had so many shocks in one day!)
The streets were lined with people selling their goods, some had blue plastic coverings over fairly large amounts of carnival goods such as costumes, streamers, tins of foam, alcohol and masks; others were simply a cloth laid out on the floor with piles of petals separated by colours; then there are the little wheeled carts with sweets and cigarettes and finally people wandering around with their goods offering them to all who passed. It is a scene of colour, noise and confusion!
We were looking for some paintings; the typical Andean painting of women in local costume sitting around in their bowler hats, we had fallen in love with some in our hotel room but they wouldn't sell them to us!! We wandered for hours and found a few artists in their little back workshops but no paintings in the style that we wanted, it was very frustrating because we could sometimes see them through windows but many of the shops were closed for the carnival.
Our wanderings allowed us to explore all the cobbled back alleys though, past the shops selling llama foetuses and lucky charms (we bought one for travellers and one for health), through a maze of little shops selling alpaca wool goods (we bought some warm bed socks) and through squares full of drunk revellers with imposing colonial churches with intricate carved facades towering above. We also managed to make our way to the terminal terrestre (bus station) to buy tickets to Puno for tomorrow.
Finally we returned exhauseted (by the altitude and by the fact that you had to keep on swerving to avoid people (who never get out of the way here), or ducking flying foam or jets of water) and started packing up for our return journey to Puno in Peru.
Thursday 16th
Up at 6:45; our bus was supposed to leave at 7:30 but we finally left at around 8am with our bags on the roof under another ill fitting tarp! The journey out of La Paz involves a circuit around the city as the road gradually climbs higher and higher until at the highest point just when the bus is able to pick up speed you hit the city of Alta (High), which is also celebrating Carnival, and we spent another hour creeping along its main street through a throng of minibuses (the public transport) that stop anywhere and everywhere to drop off or pick up passengers and goods, avoiding people carrying impossibly enormous bundles of goods and police who blow there whistles at all the drivers but don't really achieve any control! Once out of the cities and onto the altiplano we finally managed to make a bit of ground and then along the edge of Lake Titicaca, over the ferry again, enough time to buy choclo y queso (maize and cheese) and then on to Copacabana.
I sat next to a Belgian girl who had spent 6 months in La Paz as part of her Psychology degree working in an orphanage, she had started a program for the volunteers who work there to follow to stimulate the babies and toddlers; apparently they get so little attention that their speech is delayed by 1 to 2 years by the time they are 5 making them even more disadvantaged than their orphan status alone. Tears welled in her eyes as she talked about some of the kids, what heart wrenching work.
In Copacabana we had to change to a Peruvian bus, our driver told us that we needed to be back at the bus at 1pm so that he could load our bags and we could leave by 1:30. (We spent the hour that we had looking for paintings in the local shops and found a couple of small prints, not exactly what we wanted but the best we had found.) We should have known that we were working on South American time; all the passengers were back at the bus at 1pm but there was no sign of the driver; then at about 1:15pm he appeared but he wouldn't let us board until about 1:25pm so we had all been standing around in the heat and were all a bit flustered as we got on and were given customs and border crossing papers to fill out. We left at around 1:45 and wound around the lakeside for 8km to the border crossing as we tried to fill out all the forms.
The border crossing went smoothly; we bid our fairwells to Bolivia; and then we all piled back into the bus and after another 2.5 hours of winding around Lake Titicaca, with fantastic views across the lake to one side and mountains and plains to the other, we arrived in Puno. We made our way back to the hotel where we had left our car and luggage and lay in the cool of our room for about an hour until our hunger drove us out again in search of sustenance.
Friday 17th
We left Puno at 9am to make the journey across the altiplano to Cuzco; it was probably the most beautiful journey we have made in Peru and so nice to be back in the car where we can stop when we want to gaze or take photos. Green plains with mountains rising on either side, animals tethered or wandering with carers and adobe and thatch homesteads dotted the landscape. People, bent under huge bundles of grass that they had gathered, walked along the edge of the road, taking the fodder back to their animals (probably guinea pigs or sheep). We followed the path of a red river along wide valleys (it is so flat that the meanders are huge) and the land was green, so green; such a contrast to all the desert and the dry grasslands we have seen in the rest of Peru. The Inca had chosen their capital city's location well, the valley was so fertile and even had terrraces up the hillsides and some right on the top of the highest mountaintops that we could see! As we drove along the river it suddenly became apparent that this was one of the rivers that had caused so much destruction in the recent rains; some fields were completely flooded, the crops ruined; the train track that we had been following had been cleared of mud and then we came upon a completely devestated village with the ruins of adobe houses still sitting in about a foot of water. The people here work so hard for what they have and then this happens.
We passed some impressive Inca walls (a fort that we will come back and have a look at), and then rose slightly away from the river and into Cusco. We found a hostel with a car park and then went out for a wander and some food. We found an impressive church, built on the foundations of an Inca building with the amazingly cut stones (that no one can reproduce!), women and children in local costume and the main square (an impressive sight with huge imposing churches on 2 sides and covered walkways on the other) as it got dark. The Spanish, once they had toppled most of the Inca buildings used the foundations and lower walls as a base to their own buildings constructed on top. This means that some of the streets are still as wide, and have the same layout as they were in the Inca times. It is really apparent how long lasting the Inca stone work is, with the crumbling colonial era masonry and plaster above.
We visited a few travel agents to gauge the mood about getting to Macchu Picchu. It seems that we will have to return another time as it is officially closed until April, but we got some ideas for other places to visit and we will explore those further tomorrow.
Today we did a lot of wandering around La Paz, agian trying to avoid foam and water that now seemed to be flying with less accuracy due to the fact that many were on there 3rd or 4th day of drinking. It had rained hard last night so the streets smelt slightly nicer! However, there was still a lot of blessings going on, this involves scattering petals around a building to be blessed, applying a liberal amount of pure alcohol and then setting off fire crackers - very nerve wracking for those who have not noticed that it is going to happen (like me - I don't think I've ever had so many shocks in one day!)
The streets were lined with people selling their goods, some had blue plastic coverings over fairly large amounts of carnival goods such as costumes, streamers, tins of foam, alcohol and masks; others were simply a cloth laid out on the floor with piles of petals separated by colours; then there are the little wheeled carts with sweets and cigarettes and finally people wandering around with their goods offering them to all who passed. It is a scene of colour, noise and confusion!
We were looking for some paintings; the typical Andean painting of women in local costume sitting around in their bowler hats, we had fallen in love with some in our hotel room but they wouldn't sell them to us!! We wandered for hours and found a few artists in their little back workshops but no paintings in the style that we wanted, it was very frustrating because we could sometimes see them through windows but many of the shops were closed for the carnival.
Our wanderings allowed us to explore all the cobbled back alleys though, past the shops selling llama foetuses and lucky charms (we bought one for travellers and one for health), through a maze of little shops selling alpaca wool goods (we bought some warm bed socks) and through squares full of drunk revellers with imposing colonial churches with intricate carved facades towering above. We also managed to make our way to the terminal terrestre (bus station) to buy tickets to Puno for tomorrow.
Finally we returned exhauseted (by the altitude and by the fact that you had to keep on swerving to avoid people (who never get out of the way here), or ducking flying foam or jets of water) and started packing up for our return journey to Puno in Peru.
Thursday 16th
Up at 6:45; our bus was supposed to leave at 7:30 but we finally left at around 8am with our bags on the roof under another ill fitting tarp! The journey out of La Paz involves a circuit around the city as the road gradually climbs higher and higher until at the highest point just when the bus is able to pick up speed you hit the city of Alta (High), which is also celebrating Carnival, and we spent another hour creeping along its main street through a throng of minibuses (the public transport) that stop anywhere and everywhere to drop off or pick up passengers and goods, avoiding people carrying impossibly enormous bundles of goods and police who blow there whistles at all the drivers but don't really achieve any control! Once out of the cities and onto the altiplano we finally managed to make a bit of ground and then along the edge of Lake Titicaca, over the ferry again, enough time to buy choclo y queso (maize and cheese) and then on to Copacabana.
I sat next to a Belgian girl who had spent 6 months in La Paz as part of her Psychology degree working in an orphanage, she had started a program for the volunteers who work there to follow to stimulate the babies and toddlers; apparently they get so little attention that their speech is delayed by 1 to 2 years by the time they are 5 making them even more disadvantaged than their orphan status alone. Tears welled in her eyes as she talked about some of the kids, what heart wrenching work.
In Copacabana we had to change to a Peruvian bus, our driver told us that we needed to be back at the bus at 1pm so that he could load our bags and we could leave by 1:30. (We spent the hour that we had looking for paintings in the local shops and found a couple of small prints, not exactly what we wanted but the best we had found.) We should have known that we were working on South American time; all the passengers were back at the bus at 1pm but there was no sign of the driver; then at about 1:15pm he appeared but he wouldn't let us board until about 1:25pm so we had all been standing around in the heat and were all a bit flustered as we got on and were given customs and border crossing papers to fill out. We left at around 1:45 and wound around the lakeside for 8km to the border crossing as we tried to fill out all the forms.
The border crossing went smoothly; we bid our fairwells to Bolivia; and then we all piled back into the bus and after another 2.5 hours of winding around Lake Titicaca, with fantastic views across the lake to one side and mountains and plains to the other, we arrived in Puno. We made our way back to the hotel where we had left our car and luggage and lay in the cool of our room for about an hour until our hunger drove us out again in search of sustenance.
Friday 17th
We left Puno at 9am to make the journey across the altiplano to Cuzco; it was probably the most beautiful journey we have made in Peru and so nice to be back in the car where we can stop when we want to gaze or take photos. Green plains with mountains rising on either side, animals tethered or wandering with carers and adobe and thatch homesteads dotted the landscape. People, bent under huge bundles of grass that they had gathered, walked along the edge of the road, taking the fodder back to their animals (probably guinea pigs or sheep). We followed the path of a red river along wide valleys (it is so flat that the meanders are huge) and the land was green, so green; such a contrast to all the desert and the dry grasslands we have seen in the rest of Peru. The Inca had chosen their capital city's location well, the valley was so fertile and even had terrraces up the hillsides and some right on the top of the highest mountaintops that we could see! As we drove along the river it suddenly became apparent that this was one of the rivers that had caused so much destruction in the recent rains; some fields were completely flooded, the crops ruined; the train track that we had been following had been cleared of mud and then we came upon a completely devestated village with the ruins of adobe houses still sitting in about a foot of water. The people here work so hard for what they have and then this happens.
We passed some impressive Inca walls (a fort that we will come back and have a look at), and then rose slightly away from the river and into Cusco. We found a hostel with a car park and then went out for a wander and some food. We found an impressive church, built on the foundations of an Inca building with the amazingly cut stones (that no one can reproduce!), women and children in local costume and the main square (an impressive sight with huge imposing churches on 2 sides and covered walkways on the other) as it got dark. The Spanish, once they had toppled most of the Inca buildings used the foundations and lower walls as a base to their own buildings constructed on top. This means that some of the streets are still as wide, and have the same layout as they were in the Inca times. It is really apparent how long lasting the Inca stone work is, with the crumbling colonial era masonry and plaster above.
We visited a few travel agents to gauge the mood about getting to Macchu Picchu. It seems that we will have to return another time as it is officially closed until April, but we got some ideas for other places to visit and we will explore those further tomorrow.
Monday, 15 February 2010
Tiwanaku
Tues 14th
Up and breakfasted, we were collected around 8:30 and piled into a battered old mini bus to take a tour to Tiwanaku, the capital city of the Tiwanaku culture (that we had learnt about on the Isla del Sol). The journey took us through streets filled with markets and crowded with people and then out onto the high antiplano (high plains) where cattle, pig and sheep were tethered across the landscape between patches of potatoes, beans and quinoa. Our first stop was a museum housing artefacts from each phase of occupation in Bolivia.
The first evidence of human activity here is from 20,000 BC with stone tools and arrow heads, a hunter gatherer culture. The Tiwanaku culture (along with 2 others that eventually merged with the Tiwanaku) emerged in around 1500BC (that's about the time of the Hamurabi, before the Greeks and the Romans), their first acheivement was to domesticate the llama and to build settlements with fields of maize, potatoes (over 300 types) and quinoa along the shores of lake Titicaca. About 200AD they started their temple building phase and then later their statue building phase. The city of Tiwanaku was built on the shores of lake Titicaca at a time when the water level was much higher and covered the 12km between the current shoreline and the city, they built canals between raised fields and fished the lake for food. In about 800AD they conquered both the jungle region to the east and the coastal region to the west and this then lead to the break up of the culture into 5 different cultures in different areas, one of these slightly to the north eventually became the Incas.
The museum had ceramics from each of these phases; bone work, from which they made pins, needles and flutes, and also metal work (copper and Tin used to make bronze) that was made into clamps to hold large stones together in their building efforts, clothes pins and ceremonial knives. Small amounts of gold work have also been found but most has been robbed from the site. It also had an example of a mummy wrapped up in a sack made of dry grass with its head poking out so that it could be given food and drink once a year at the new year (the summer solstice/shortest day for this slightly southern region). Mummification involved removing the intestines and then curling up the knees into the abdominal cavity , the foetal position to allow them to be born again into the next life, they were treated with the liquid that was remove from their freeze-dried potatoes (which they could store for up to 20 years). They also had several skulls showing clear evidence of cranial manipulation to make the skull taller. Apparently this was done to signify people of the upper classes but the upper class was not as we would think today. Children were chosen to be upper class during their first year of life, the first to walk or speak were chosen and their heads wrapped in tight cloths until they were around 14 years old, they would become the priests and shaman of the future.
The largest of the statues (7m tall and 19 tons) found at the site was housed in another museum and we weren't allowed to photograph it but I snuck a quick shot; however, it doesn't show the amazing detail of the carvings on the statue. The statue is of a priest holding ceramic jars filled with offerings, it has a masked face with extra eyes to see the future and a hat and tunic resplendent with pictures of sun warriors, condor warriors, puma and fish; all sacred symbols of the culture. The condor represents the sky, the puma the earth and the fish the water and underworld. The back of the head shows braids which made the first archeologists think that the priests were female (but in fact both sexes wore their hair long and braided), and the leggings have circular images (48 of them) that represent the weeks of the year (another 4 weeks are not shown as these are the weeks of celebration at the important times of the year - the equinoxes and solstices).
Then out to see the practically robbed out site, the astronomical pyramid of Kalasasaya which is nearly completely destroyed and looks like a mound of dirt with a few remaining huge stone walls and evidence of amazing drainage systems with gutters and drainage hole. On the top is the remains of a large cross which points to north, south, east and west and had a central pond which apparently was used to gaze at the stars (without having to look up!) but all the perfectly cut stones were robbed out to build the catholic church in the nearby town. Near the top there are also the remains of ritual rooms with double walls the gap filled with mud (an early form of cavity filled walls). Below, there is a sunken temple in which the largest statue was found, its interior wall is decorated with stone heads, probably the heads of the important people in the society. When they were first found some stories of alien contact were circulated due to the fact that a couple of the heads look alien in nature.
A large raised temple is next to the sunken temple with 2 more statues on the top and the 'Sun door', Puerta del Sol which is an amazing piece of carving out of one piece of stone which depicts the god Viracocha (the sun god) with sun and condor warriors and the sun. Originally these carvings were plated with gold that has all been robbed out. The rock has split in two parts because the original foot long pins made from bronze that inserted into the base of the door and into the floor had been robbed away allowing it to fall and break. The bronze clamps that held together rocks in the building have also been robbed away just leaving the marks where they originally clamped.
There is also a cemetary at the site where the important people (with the pointy skulls) were buried in tombs around the edge of a large ceremonial square. Of course the tombs were openable so that food and drink could be put inside.
The incredible thing about all these huge carvings and building stones is that the rock (which is either red sandstone or grey granite) was all brought from kilometers away and the culture did not know the wheel. They assume that they must have used reed boats and tree trunks to have moved the pieces which in some cases way up to 40 tons.
The last thing we visited was the 'Puma Port', Puerto del Puma which also had amazing carved doorways and elaborately carved stone buildings and wharves. However the state of this site is even worse than that at the temple and pyramid. But there are a few rocks with the Andean cross on and other geometric designs that have been protected from weathering by their being tumbled and then covered; these show an amazing smoothness in the way the rock was cut, quite incredible after 2000 years.
There is one archeologist who has a different time line for the site. He beleives that the Tiwanaku were a very advanced culture before a great flood that killed most of them off and left a few to carry on the culture in a more basic way (there is a story of an ancient devastating flood in the Ayamara culture, like the biblical flood) . His studies have shown that the buildings were aligned with stars and that due to the regular change in the alignment of the earth to the stars due to changes in our orbit that the temple must have been built in around 3500BC (these calculations have been confirmed by other independent astronomers). He points to the precision in the carving, some of which would be difficult to acheive with todays machinary without computers and points out that bronze, copper, gold, silver and Tin (the only metals attributed to the Tiwanaku) would not have been hard enough to have been used to make such carvings.
We finished our tour and then ate quinoa soup in a local restaraunt before introducing ourselves to some local goats who had been tethered to eat around the railway line; then we all piled back into the minibus just as it started to hail really heavily and we made our way back to La Paz. As we entered the city we got caught up in the carnival and followed a dancing group of men dressed as women with enormous boobs down the street. Eventually we could hardly see out for the amount of foam that had been sprayed at us, but it was all very good natured and eventually they went one way and we went the other, arriving at our hostel at around 4.30pm. We chilled out in our room for an hour or so and then went out to dinner in a Dutch pub that served great steaks, satay chicken and apple pie, another great find.
Up and breakfasted, we were collected around 8:30 and piled into a battered old mini bus to take a tour to Tiwanaku, the capital city of the Tiwanaku culture (that we had learnt about on the Isla del Sol). The journey took us through streets filled with markets and crowded with people and then out onto the high antiplano (high plains) where cattle, pig and sheep were tethered across the landscape between patches of potatoes, beans and quinoa. Our first stop was a museum housing artefacts from each phase of occupation in Bolivia.
The first evidence of human activity here is from 20,000 BC with stone tools and arrow heads, a hunter gatherer culture. The Tiwanaku culture (along with 2 others that eventually merged with the Tiwanaku) emerged in around 1500BC (that's about the time of the Hamurabi, before the Greeks and the Romans), their first acheivement was to domesticate the llama and to build settlements with fields of maize, potatoes (over 300 types) and quinoa along the shores of lake Titicaca. About 200AD they started their temple building phase and then later their statue building phase. The city of Tiwanaku was built on the shores of lake Titicaca at a time when the water level was much higher and covered the 12km between the current shoreline and the city, they built canals between raised fields and fished the lake for food. In about 800AD they conquered both the jungle region to the east and the coastal region to the west and this then lead to the break up of the culture into 5 different cultures in different areas, one of these slightly to the north eventually became the Incas.
The museum had ceramics from each of these phases; bone work, from which they made pins, needles and flutes, and also metal work (copper and Tin used to make bronze) that was made into clamps to hold large stones together in their building efforts, clothes pins and ceremonial knives. Small amounts of gold work have also been found but most has been robbed from the site. It also had an example of a mummy wrapped up in a sack made of dry grass with its head poking out so that it could be given food and drink once a year at the new year (the summer solstice/shortest day for this slightly southern region). Mummification involved removing the intestines and then curling up the knees into the abdominal cavity , the foetal position to allow them to be born again into the next life, they were treated with the liquid that was remove from their freeze-dried potatoes (which they could store for up to 20 years). They also had several skulls showing clear evidence of cranial manipulation to make the skull taller. Apparently this was done to signify people of the upper classes but the upper class was not as we would think today. Children were chosen to be upper class during their first year of life, the first to walk or speak were chosen and their heads wrapped in tight cloths until they were around 14 years old, they would become the priests and shaman of the future.
The largest of the statues (7m tall and 19 tons) found at the site was housed in another museum and we weren't allowed to photograph it but I snuck a quick shot; however, it doesn't show the amazing detail of the carvings on the statue. The statue is of a priest holding ceramic jars filled with offerings, it has a masked face with extra eyes to see the future and a hat and tunic resplendent with pictures of sun warriors, condor warriors, puma and fish; all sacred symbols of the culture. The condor represents the sky, the puma the earth and the fish the water and underworld. The back of the head shows braids which made the first archeologists think that the priests were female (but in fact both sexes wore their hair long and braided), and the leggings have circular images (48 of them) that represent the weeks of the year (another 4 weeks are not shown as these are the weeks of celebration at the important times of the year - the equinoxes and solstices).
Then out to see the practically robbed out site, the astronomical pyramid of Kalasasaya which is nearly completely destroyed and looks like a mound of dirt with a few remaining huge stone walls and evidence of amazing drainage systems with gutters and drainage hole. On the top is the remains of a large cross which points to north, south, east and west and had a central pond which apparently was used to gaze at the stars (without having to look up!) but all the perfectly cut stones were robbed out to build the catholic church in the nearby town. Near the top there are also the remains of ritual rooms with double walls the gap filled with mud (an early form of cavity filled walls). Below, there is a sunken temple in which the largest statue was found, its interior wall is decorated with stone heads, probably the heads of the important people in the society. When they were first found some stories of alien contact were circulated due to the fact that a couple of the heads look alien in nature.
A large raised temple is next to the sunken temple with 2 more statues on the top and the 'Sun door', Puerta del Sol which is an amazing piece of carving out of one piece of stone which depicts the god Viracocha (the sun god) with sun and condor warriors and the sun. Originally these carvings were plated with gold that has all been robbed out. The rock has split in two parts because the original foot long pins made from bronze that inserted into the base of the door and into the floor had been robbed away allowing it to fall and break. The bronze clamps that held together rocks in the building have also been robbed away just leaving the marks where they originally clamped.
There is also a cemetary at the site where the important people (with the pointy skulls) were buried in tombs around the edge of a large ceremonial square. Of course the tombs were openable so that food and drink could be put inside.
The incredible thing about all these huge carvings and building stones is that the rock (which is either red sandstone or grey granite) was all brought from kilometers away and the culture did not know the wheel. They assume that they must have used reed boats and tree trunks to have moved the pieces which in some cases way up to 40 tons.
The last thing we visited was the 'Puma Port', Puerto del Puma which also had amazing carved doorways and elaborately carved stone buildings and wharves. However the state of this site is even worse than that at the temple and pyramid. But there are a few rocks with the Andean cross on and other geometric designs that have been protected from weathering by their being tumbled and then covered; these show an amazing smoothness in the way the rock was cut, quite incredible after 2000 years.
There is one archeologist who has a different time line for the site. He beleives that the Tiwanaku were a very advanced culture before a great flood that killed most of them off and left a few to carry on the culture in a more basic way (there is a story of an ancient devastating flood in the Ayamara culture, like the biblical flood) . His studies have shown that the buildings were aligned with stars and that due to the regular change in the alignment of the earth to the stars due to changes in our orbit that the temple must have been built in around 3500BC (these calculations have been confirmed by other independent astronomers). He points to the precision in the carving, some of which would be difficult to acheive with todays machinary without computers and points out that bronze, copper, gold, silver and Tin (the only metals attributed to the Tiwanaku) would not have been hard enough to have been used to make such carvings.
We finished our tour and then ate quinoa soup in a local restaraunt before introducing ourselves to some local goats who had been tethered to eat around the railway line; then we all piled back into the minibus just as it started to hail really heavily and we made our way back to La Paz. As we entered the city we got caught up in the carnival and followed a dancing group of men dressed as women with enormous boobs down the street. Eventually we could hardly see out for the amount of foam that had been sprayed at us, but it was all very good natured and eventually they went one way and we went the other, arriving at our hostel at around 4.30pm. We chilled out in our room for an hour or so and then went out to dinner in a Dutch pub that served great steaks, satay chicken and apple pie, another great find.
La Paz
Mon 13th
We awoke and packed our things and moved to our new hostal which is twice as expensive but 5x nicer. Then we set out to try and explore the city. The carnival was in full flow with people squirting others with water and foam but mainly those that were also armed, so it was all quite 'fair'. We were 'got' by an old man in the back of a passing car and Celso gave him a right talking too! We visited the main square with the government buildings on two sides guarded by some very bored looking soldiers and military police. There was also a very grand cathedral with a fairly tame interior (for a Catholic church), there was a service going on but we sneaked in to take a look, but no photos. Tristan fed the pigeons in the square and became covered in them. We then made our way towards a museum that we wanted to visit, all the time trying to avoid the main area of the carnival. We only had to cross one main route filled with revelers in clown costumes and covered in foam and water, but we managed to avoid being badly soaked. The museum was closed so we decided to make our way back to the hostel along streets full of revelers and market places full of colourful fruits and veg, including over 200 types of potatoes! We found a street full of shops selling goods to be used as offerings to the gods. These offerings include young or aborted llama, some sort of sea urchin, various different plants that are burnt like insence and a huge number of ceramic figures each for a different type of prayer like health, money, safety for travellers or fertility.
Tristan guided us to a great Asian restaurant that he had found on a brochure, it had Japanese, Thai and Indian food. We had our 2nd fantastic meal in 2 days, Tristan had Sushi, Celso had a Thai soup type dish and I had Indian. La Paz seems full of contrast, terrible poverty and then great restaurants, adobe buildings with thatched rooves and modern high rises.
We awoke and packed our things and moved to our new hostal which is twice as expensive but 5x nicer. Then we set out to try and explore the city. The carnival was in full flow with people squirting others with water and foam but mainly those that were also armed, so it was all quite 'fair'. We were 'got' by an old man in the back of a passing car and Celso gave him a right talking too! We visited the main square with the government buildings on two sides guarded by some very bored looking soldiers and military police. There was also a very grand cathedral with a fairly tame interior (for a Catholic church), there was a service going on but we sneaked in to take a look, but no photos. Tristan fed the pigeons in the square and became covered in them. We then made our way towards a museum that we wanted to visit, all the time trying to avoid the main area of the carnival. We only had to cross one main route filled with revelers in clown costumes and covered in foam and water, but we managed to avoid being badly soaked. The museum was closed so we decided to make our way back to the hostel along streets full of revelers and market places full of colourful fruits and veg, including over 200 types of potatoes! We found a street full of shops selling goods to be used as offerings to the gods. These offerings include young or aborted llama, some sort of sea urchin, various different plants that are burnt like insence and a huge number of ceramic figures each for a different type of prayer like health, money, safety for travellers or fertility.
Tristan guided us to a great Asian restaurant that he had found on a brochure, it had Japanese, Thai and Indian food. We had our 2nd fantastic meal in 2 days, Tristan had Sushi, Celso had a Thai soup type dish and I had Indian. La Paz seems full of contrast, terrible poverty and then great restaurants, adobe buildings with thatched rooves and modern high rises.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
into Bolivia 10-12 Feb
Wed 10th
Up at 6 (again) we got a taxi to the terminal terrestre (the bus station) to get our 7:30am bus to La Paz. We had bought tickets for a grand looking bus with toilet facilities aboard but what we got was a mini bus and all our bags went onto the roof under an ill fitting tarp. One of the passengers that got to sit in the front was some sort of reporter for a Peruvian radio station so we got a running commentary of some of the places that we passed through as he spoke to his radio station by mobile phone or made videos on a hand held video camera. It was quite interesting to listen to but not of any real worth for the blog. It was all about how the mayor of a town we were going through was murdered for his political beliefs or how this town was known for its church; and we got a few detours into villages on the way as the driver showed him some of the sights! I'm glad we had decided not to drive as there was about 20 miles of absolutely hideous road and the rest of it wasn't very nice either. We wiggled along the edge of Lake Titicaca with a few fairly hairy overtaking manouvers on sharp bends or the brows of hills but luckily no incidents. It seems that the local government has been giving out 'dunnies' as every house seemed to have a little blue corrigated iron one with a white chimney, it all looked very odd amongst the adobe and thatched roof buildings! There were also loads of places with fish farms and people rowing around standing in their little wooden boats. And then there it was, the fronteir, basically just a chain across the road, and we were dumped unceremoniously by the road and our bags pulled of the roof and off the driver went without telling us where or what we were to do.
We found our way through the Peruvian immigration and then past the chain in the road for a 30m or so walk through no man's land (I suppose) until we reached a stone arch which marked the entrance into Bolivia. Bolivian immigration was clearly signposted and easy for us but some of our fellow travellers found that they had to pay $55 US for visas, but after that we didn't know where to go, where was our bus to continue our journey?
Eventually, after a lot of asking, we found a minibus that said he was our bus to Copacabana about 8km further down the road where we would get our 'big' bus to La Paz, however there wasn't enough room for all of us and even though we said not everyone was present he drove away anyway. When we got to Copacabana we were informed that there was a strike on and that the roads had been blocked with stones by people protesting about the government policy on petrol prices (which they had just announced were rising again). So there was nothing for it but to find somewhere to stay and wait out the strike.
We had planned to stop off in Copacabana on our return to Peru to visit the Isla del Sol, the Island of the Sun, the most important place for the Inca and pre Incan civilisations because it was there that the sun was born; the father of their people. So we decided to do our trip to the island whilst we were there. Fortunately I had some dollars on me and had been to the bank in Puno before we left so I also had some Peruvian Soles to exchange for Bolivianos, because there is no cash machine in Copacabana and the one bank will allow you to take money on your credit card but charges you loads for the privalege. Still, our money situation was quite tight so we found a cheap hotel and then wandered the streets to see what the town had to offer.
The town could have been really nice with its veiws of the lake and its sandy beach but the place was full of rubbish and the streets smelt of urine, the only place that really looked pleasant/clean was the cathedral and its square. The doors had amazing carvings, the ceiling was like some sort of grand spider's web, the pulpit was highly decorated and the altar was another of those over the top, but quite incredible, Catholic monstrousities (sp?). Some of the carvings didn't look Catholic at all, nor indigenous, there were some heads on the altar that looked like some sort of Greek myth character, and one of the stain glassed windows had the Bolivian sheild on it which I thought was quite strange in a church. As we left the church through the front entrance (we had come in through the side) the priest arrived in his sun hat; that amused me. Opposite the entrance was a little park with carved stones depicting Incan or preIncan god like symbols and there were loads of people selling candles, religious pictures and offerings in little stalls.
We returned to the hotel and drank Coca tea; Celso is still suffering with headaches from the altitude; I have no headache but I do find myself exhausted by even the smallest uphill slope; Tristan seems to be the least affected but he says he does notice that he is more out of breath than usual.
We bought tickets to the Isla del Sol for the next morning and then found a great little Mexican restaurant. It was run by one guy with no help at all, so he took orders and then disappeared as he cooked, so it was all very slow but he had loads of games and cards to keep people occupied and the seats were covered in Alpaca fur so it was all very warm and cozy compared to the cold, dry air outside. We had great Nachos and Buritos and then returned to our hotel to sort out our bags so that we would only need to take one backpack to the island.
Thurs 11th
Up early (again) we ate bread and jam in the hotel; left one large and one small backpack in the hotel lock-up (complete with squashed, dead mouse on the floor) and then went down to the docks to get our 8:30am boat to the North end of the Isla del Sol. There seemed to be no limit to the number of passengers that they would take on the boat, we just all crammed in. Amazingly we left on time, but then we went back to pick up some late comers! Our boat had everyday metal chairs that had been crudely screwed into a floor that looked like it had been made from packing cases, some of the windows were ill fitted or simply not there and there were 4 lifejackets for about 40 passengers, about 30 inside and the rest sitting on the roof. One of the two outboard motors wasn't working so we made slow progress (and were passed by two other boats) out to the island. One of the late comers then said that he wanted to go to the south end of the island instead of the north so we had to make a detour into the bay to drop him off and then an islander made a boat to boat crossing with all her goods wrapped in brightly coloured cloths to a boat that came out to meet her. And so we arrived at the North end of the island with sore bums from the terrible chairs and later than we should have due to all the above. A local man then rushed us to buy our tickets that gave us permission to enter some of the sites on the island and kept hounding us because we had arrived late. It was all very exhausting at this altitude and we all needed a wee after our 2.5 hours on the boat! We visited a little museum that had some of the cermaic artifacts (the gold ones have been taken to La Paz) found from the earliest culture known on the island called the Tiwanaku, 1500BC to around 800AD. They were found in 1968 by Jacques Coustea when he found a submerged temple about 10m down off the edge of the island that had been completely covered as the water level rose, it must have happened pretty suddenly since they left all the goodies there!
Then we walked across the beach and up to the top of the hill (exhausting) to a sacraficial table and a sacred rock called Titicaca in the local language (the rock is Titicaca (puma rock) not the lake, the lake is pachamama - mother water, our guide was unable to tell us who or why the lake was given the name Titicaca). Llamas were sacrificed at the sacraficial table in front of the sacred rock that has the head of a puma and the face of one of their gods - Viracocha on it. This is the site were the sun was born, and then he formed a union with Pachamama to give birth to the Tiwanaku people (and later the Incas who took over the island in the 1400s). Near to the site is a Labarynth Temple built by the Tiwanaku and guarded by 30 priests who administered the holy waters from a sacred spring within the temple (that we were allowed to wash our hands and faces in once we had made a tribute of Coca leaves); they also performed the sacrifices and other rituals during the soltaces and equinoxes. Once we had all put our hands on to the sacred rock; to be filled with energy; we were left to go our own ways, some back to the boat to be driven (or in the case of our boat, phutted, very slowly) to the south end of the island, some to walk the 7km along a sacred Inca path that lead from the temple of the sun (in the south) to the Tiwanaku sacred area (in the North).
We stopped and ate freshly cooked chips from a little trolley on the top of the hill! Everyone else that was walking went on their way and out of sight, then we started the walk with the trail, the island, the lake and the sky to ourselves. It was a tough walk, only 7km but up and down over rough ground and sometimes stone paths, with the intensely dry air and constant dry wind but fortunately not too much sun as it was fairly overcast. In the distance, at the edge of the lake, we could see thunderstorms with amazing lightening bolts and we were entertained by various birds; some plover like birds who were perfectly camouflaged in the rocky, scrubby landscape, but who squealed at us angrily as we passed so that we could find them, silly things; a cuckoo like bird and lots of little sparrows with reddy orange scarves and top knots. Tristan managed to spot several skinks that skuttled off the path in front of us, but I was bringing up the rear and failed to spot even one! The path kept to the high part of the island but amazingly there were still a couple of houses along it and people suddenly appeared selling ceramics and knitwear in the middle of nowhere. About half way along the trail we were asked for 5 Bolivianos each, a trail maintenance fee, by a woman in the middle of nowhere, no shelter, no visible sign of anywhere she might live, but with official tickets - all very mysterious.
Finally we started to descend into the village at the south end of the island, perched on top of the hill, we were charged another 5 Bolivianos each to enter the village and then were accosted by a young boy who wanted to help us find lodging. We checked out a few places, all very basic and with not very nice bathrooms until we settled on one with a great view, a large bedroom and a flushing loo (shared with everyone else in the place though, about 8 other people).
We managed to arrange for Tris to get a donkey ride (he's been dying to do it since we arrived, loads of donkeys carry things here and there on the island as there are no motorized vehicles at all), and then we went into a small restaurant to get a well deserved meal. The views all around were fantastic, huge snow capped mountains on the Bolivian side and huge stretches of water on the Peruvian side, over which we saw yet another fantastic sunset, and then later, after it was dark, we watched more fantastic lightening, dancing behind the clouds and occasionaly cracking down to earth on the edges of the lake.
Tristan did some maths by candlelight and then we washed our teeth and weed in the back garden rather than brave the shared loo and went to bed.
At 3 in the morning Tris and I were woken by Celso who was doing some sort of native dancing around the room, he would crouch down here, then jump up, cross the room and do the same again. He said he could hear something and a few minutes later I heard it too, a tiny pitter pattering, like rain on the window, but it was in the room. The light came on and Celso started his strange dance again, placing a shoe here, looking in the bin, running round the bed and crouching down. He caught it in my boot, a little mouse; Tristan wanted a look before he was to be dumped outside; but as Celso opened up the boot out the mouse leapt onto Celso's arm and away he scampered behind him. And so the dance started again until once again the boot became the mouse's prison and he was liberated in the great outdoors.
Fri 12th
We awoke quite late and Celso, who had been unable to sleep after the mouse excitement, just couldn't wake up, so I left the boys snoozing and went out for a wander to try to find the Inca Temple of the Sun ruins. I got some directions and followed a path down through a grove of Eucalyptus trees to a path that headed out to the southern peninsula. The path went down and down and then split in 2, one heading further down and one climbing up. It would be easy to go down but then the walk back would be horrid. If I went up and that was wrong then that would have been a great effort too. I gave up; sat and looked and looked at the view out over the lake to Isla de la Luna (Moon Island). This island is where the Inca Temple of the Virgins was situated, the Tiwanaku and other early cultures did not practice human sacrifice but when the Inca arrived they built the temple on Moon Island to house young girls who would be sacrificed on special occassions. When I returned to the hostel the boys were still abed and not up and packing as they had promised so it was all a bit of a rush to pack, eat breakfast and get down to the docks in time for the boat back to Copacabana. The steep steps down to the dock were Inca built and half way down we found a lovely cool fountain to wet our foreheads. It was bad enough going down the steps, I can't imagine how awful it must be to have to climb up them!
Our boat service was run by the islanders and there was absolutely no limit to how many passengers they were allowing on. Down both sides of the boat there were benches (with a slight cushion covering this time), these seats quickly filled and rucksacks were loaded between. It started to rain and yet more and more people were crammed into the boat, bags on top of bags, people sitting on the floor and then some finally accepting that no more could squeeze inside so they sat up on the roof huddled in blankets. This boat, too, had windows missing and the rain dripped in down the backs of the unfortunates who were sitting below them, the wind howled in and lightening flashed in the distance. Off we chugged into the choppy waters with the locals not wasting a minute, some were sewing, one was thinning out her wool, she wrapped it around some sort of wooden device that she spun between her fingers then left hanging as she pulled out the thread; this process was then repeated and repeated until the thread was thin and twisted. There was a fine display of hats and coloured clothing and bundles on display that I hope I caught in some photos I took. We passed the Inca temple to the sun ruins that were not at all impressive as most of the stones have been robbed away, so I don't feel so bad about missing it this morning!
Finally we reached Cocacabana and went to retrieve our rucksacks from the dead mouse storage room in the hotel. Then we had to climb four blocks to where the buses left for La Paz. Again our bus was not what had been promised (no loo) but our driver was fairly sensible and safe and we stopped firstly for a small ferry ride and then for a rest break later on so the 4.5 hour trip was fairly relaxing and comfortable. Again we wound our way around lake Titicaca, the houses and the countryside looked unchanged from that around the lake in Peru. When we descended into the town of Tiquina to make our ferry crossing we had to pay 1.5Bs each (about 21c or 13p)to be ferried across to the other side in little motor boats whilst the bus was taken on very rickety looking wooden boats with outboard motors. (The ferry crossing saves about a 100km drive around the edge of a bay of lake Titicaca.) We all boarded again and were on our way arriving in La Paz at around 5.30pm. We had a flyer for a hostel that Tristan had picked up in Puno and since we knew of nowhere else we asked a taxi to take us there. We ended up in the heart of the old city in a road with a market in and an impossible number of people and cars all vying for the same space. It is carnival tomorrow and the whole world and his wife were out buying costumes, water pistols, spray foam, flowers and offerings.
The hostel was not very salubrious but we decided to get a room, leave our stuff and then go out and scout around for some other places to stay for another couple of nights. We managed to avoid being badly squirted with water and foam, found a nicer hostel which we will move into tomorrow and then wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. We stumbled across a little Moroccan restaurant in a cobbled back street and ate the most delicious food since we left Ecuador, fantastic soup, juicy stews, chicken in potato with a sour cream like dip and cous cous. Fantastic after the dry food that both Peru and Bolivia seem to offer, just rice and potatoes and meat or fish, no stews, sauces or gravies, everything so dry. We returned to our grotty room and tried to sleep but the fiesta seemed to be starting and the hooting of cars below us in the street went on all night, along with the shouting of drunks and the load engines of buses. Crazy.
Up at 6 (again) we got a taxi to the terminal terrestre (the bus station) to get our 7:30am bus to La Paz. We had bought tickets for a grand looking bus with toilet facilities aboard but what we got was a mini bus and all our bags went onto the roof under an ill fitting tarp. One of the passengers that got to sit in the front was some sort of reporter for a Peruvian radio station so we got a running commentary of some of the places that we passed through as he spoke to his radio station by mobile phone or made videos on a hand held video camera. It was quite interesting to listen to but not of any real worth for the blog. It was all about how the mayor of a town we were going through was murdered for his political beliefs or how this town was known for its church; and we got a few detours into villages on the way as the driver showed him some of the sights! I'm glad we had decided not to drive as there was about 20 miles of absolutely hideous road and the rest of it wasn't very nice either. We wiggled along the edge of Lake Titicaca with a few fairly hairy overtaking manouvers on sharp bends or the brows of hills but luckily no incidents. It seems that the local government has been giving out 'dunnies' as every house seemed to have a little blue corrigated iron one with a white chimney, it all looked very odd amongst the adobe and thatched roof buildings! There were also loads of places with fish farms and people rowing around standing in their little wooden boats. And then there it was, the fronteir, basically just a chain across the road, and we were dumped unceremoniously by the road and our bags pulled of the roof and off the driver went without telling us where or what we were to do.
We found our way through the Peruvian immigration and then past the chain in the road for a 30m or so walk through no man's land (I suppose) until we reached a stone arch which marked the entrance into Bolivia. Bolivian immigration was clearly signposted and easy for us but some of our fellow travellers found that they had to pay $55 US for visas, but after that we didn't know where to go, where was our bus to continue our journey?
Eventually, after a lot of asking, we found a minibus that said he was our bus to Copacabana about 8km further down the road where we would get our 'big' bus to La Paz, however there wasn't enough room for all of us and even though we said not everyone was present he drove away anyway. When we got to Copacabana we were informed that there was a strike on and that the roads had been blocked with stones by people protesting about the government policy on petrol prices (which they had just announced were rising again). So there was nothing for it but to find somewhere to stay and wait out the strike.
We had planned to stop off in Copacabana on our return to Peru to visit the Isla del Sol, the Island of the Sun, the most important place for the Inca and pre Incan civilisations because it was there that the sun was born; the father of their people. So we decided to do our trip to the island whilst we were there. Fortunately I had some dollars on me and had been to the bank in Puno before we left so I also had some Peruvian Soles to exchange for Bolivianos, because there is no cash machine in Copacabana and the one bank will allow you to take money on your credit card but charges you loads for the privalege. Still, our money situation was quite tight so we found a cheap hotel and then wandered the streets to see what the town had to offer.
The town could have been really nice with its veiws of the lake and its sandy beach but the place was full of rubbish and the streets smelt of urine, the only place that really looked pleasant/clean was the cathedral and its square. The doors had amazing carvings, the ceiling was like some sort of grand spider's web, the pulpit was highly decorated and the altar was another of those over the top, but quite incredible, Catholic monstrousities (sp?). Some of the carvings didn't look Catholic at all, nor indigenous, there were some heads on the altar that looked like some sort of Greek myth character, and one of the stain glassed windows had the Bolivian sheild on it which I thought was quite strange in a church. As we left the church through the front entrance (we had come in through the side) the priest arrived in his sun hat; that amused me. Opposite the entrance was a little park with carved stones depicting Incan or preIncan god like symbols and there were loads of people selling candles, religious pictures and offerings in little stalls.
We returned to the hotel and drank Coca tea; Celso is still suffering with headaches from the altitude; I have no headache but I do find myself exhausted by even the smallest uphill slope; Tristan seems to be the least affected but he says he does notice that he is more out of breath than usual.
We bought tickets to the Isla del Sol for the next morning and then found a great little Mexican restaurant. It was run by one guy with no help at all, so he took orders and then disappeared as he cooked, so it was all very slow but he had loads of games and cards to keep people occupied and the seats were covered in Alpaca fur so it was all very warm and cozy compared to the cold, dry air outside. We had great Nachos and Buritos and then returned to our hotel to sort out our bags so that we would only need to take one backpack to the island.
Thurs 11th
Up early (again) we ate bread and jam in the hotel; left one large and one small backpack in the hotel lock-up (complete with squashed, dead mouse on the floor) and then went down to the docks to get our 8:30am boat to the North end of the Isla del Sol. There seemed to be no limit to the number of passengers that they would take on the boat, we just all crammed in. Amazingly we left on time, but then we went back to pick up some late comers! Our boat had everyday metal chairs that had been crudely screwed into a floor that looked like it had been made from packing cases, some of the windows were ill fitted or simply not there and there were 4 lifejackets for about 40 passengers, about 30 inside and the rest sitting on the roof. One of the two outboard motors wasn't working so we made slow progress (and were passed by two other boats) out to the island. One of the late comers then said that he wanted to go to the south end of the island instead of the north so we had to make a detour into the bay to drop him off and then an islander made a boat to boat crossing with all her goods wrapped in brightly coloured cloths to a boat that came out to meet her. And so we arrived at the North end of the island with sore bums from the terrible chairs and later than we should have due to all the above. A local man then rushed us to buy our tickets that gave us permission to enter some of the sites on the island and kept hounding us because we had arrived late. It was all very exhausting at this altitude and we all needed a wee after our 2.5 hours on the boat! We visited a little museum that had some of the cermaic artifacts (the gold ones have been taken to La Paz) found from the earliest culture known on the island called the Tiwanaku, 1500BC to around 800AD. They were found in 1968 by Jacques Coustea when he found a submerged temple about 10m down off the edge of the island that had been completely covered as the water level rose, it must have happened pretty suddenly since they left all the goodies there!
Then we walked across the beach and up to the top of the hill (exhausting) to a sacraficial table and a sacred rock called Titicaca in the local language (the rock is Titicaca (puma rock) not the lake, the lake is pachamama - mother water, our guide was unable to tell us who or why the lake was given the name Titicaca). Llamas were sacrificed at the sacraficial table in front of the sacred rock that has the head of a puma and the face of one of their gods - Viracocha on it. This is the site were the sun was born, and then he formed a union with Pachamama to give birth to the Tiwanaku people (and later the Incas who took over the island in the 1400s). Near to the site is a Labarynth Temple built by the Tiwanaku and guarded by 30 priests who administered the holy waters from a sacred spring within the temple (that we were allowed to wash our hands and faces in once we had made a tribute of Coca leaves); they also performed the sacrifices and other rituals during the soltaces and equinoxes. Once we had all put our hands on to the sacred rock; to be filled with energy; we were left to go our own ways, some back to the boat to be driven (or in the case of our boat, phutted, very slowly) to the south end of the island, some to walk the 7km along a sacred Inca path that lead from the temple of the sun (in the south) to the Tiwanaku sacred area (in the North).
We stopped and ate freshly cooked chips from a little trolley on the top of the hill! Everyone else that was walking went on their way and out of sight, then we started the walk with the trail, the island, the lake and the sky to ourselves. It was a tough walk, only 7km but up and down over rough ground and sometimes stone paths, with the intensely dry air and constant dry wind but fortunately not too much sun as it was fairly overcast. In the distance, at the edge of the lake, we could see thunderstorms with amazing lightening bolts and we were entertained by various birds; some plover like birds who were perfectly camouflaged in the rocky, scrubby landscape, but who squealed at us angrily as we passed so that we could find them, silly things; a cuckoo like bird and lots of little sparrows with reddy orange scarves and top knots. Tristan managed to spot several skinks that skuttled off the path in front of us, but I was bringing up the rear and failed to spot even one! The path kept to the high part of the island but amazingly there were still a couple of houses along it and people suddenly appeared selling ceramics and knitwear in the middle of nowhere. About half way along the trail we were asked for 5 Bolivianos each, a trail maintenance fee, by a woman in the middle of nowhere, no shelter, no visible sign of anywhere she might live, but with official tickets - all very mysterious.
Finally we started to descend into the village at the south end of the island, perched on top of the hill, we were charged another 5 Bolivianos each to enter the village and then were accosted by a young boy who wanted to help us find lodging. We checked out a few places, all very basic and with not very nice bathrooms until we settled on one with a great view, a large bedroom and a flushing loo (shared with everyone else in the place though, about 8 other people).
We managed to arrange for Tris to get a donkey ride (he's been dying to do it since we arrived, loads of donkeys carry things here and there on the island as there are no motorized vehicles at all), and then we went into a small restaurant to get a well deserved meal. The views all around were fantastic, huge snow capped mountains on the Bolivian side and huge stretches of water on the Peruvian side, over which we saw yet another fantastic sunset, and then later, after it was dark, we watched more fantastic lightening, dancing behind the clouds and occasionaly cracking down to earth on the edges of the lake.
Tristan did some maths by candlelight and then we washed our teeth and weed in the back garden rather than brave the shared loo and went to bed.
At 3 in the morning Tris and I were woken by Celso who was doing some sort of native dancing around the room, he would crouch down here, then jump up, cross the room and do the same again. He said he could hear something and a few minutes later I heard it too, a tiny pitter pattering, like rain on the window, but it was in the room. The light came on and Celso started his strange dance again, placing a shoe here, looking in the bin, running round the bed and crouching down. He caught it in my boot, a little mouse; Tristan wanted a look before he was to be dumped outside; but as Celso opened up the boot out the mouse leapt onto Celso's arm and away he scampered behind him. And so the dance started again until once again the boot became the mouse's prison and he was liberated in the great outdoors.
Fri 12th
We awoke quite late and Celso, who had been unable to sleep after the mouse excitement, just couldn't wake up, so I left the boys snoozing and went out for a wander to try to find the Inca Temple of the Sun ruins. I got some directions and followed a path down through a grove of Eucalyptus trees to a path that headed out to the southern peninsula. The path went down and down and then split in 2, one heading further down and one climbing up. It would be easy to go down but then the walk back would be horrid. If I went up and that was wrong then that would have been a great effort too. I gave up; sat and looked and looked at the view out over the lake to Isla de la Luna (Moon Island). This island is where the Inca Temple of the Virgins was situated, the Tiwanaku and other early cultures did not practice human sacrifice but when the Inca arrived they built the temple on Moon Island to house young girls who would be sacrificed on special occassions. When I returned to the hostel the boys were still abed and not up and packing as they had promised so it was all a bit of a rush to pack, eat breakfast and get down to the docks in time for the boat back to Copacabana. The steep steps down to the dock were Inca built and half way down we found a lovely cool fountain to wet our foreheads. It was bad enough going down the steps, I can't imagine how awful it must be to have to climb up them!
Our boat service was run by the islanders and there was absolutely no limit to how many passengers they were allowing on. Down both sides of the boat there were benches (with a slight cushion covering this time), these seats quickly filled and rucksacks were loaded between. It started to rain and yet more and more people were crammed into the boat, bags on top of bags, people sitting on the floor and then some finally accepting that no more could squeeze inside so they sat up on the roof huddled in blankets. This boat, too, had windows missing and the rain dripped in down the backs of the unfortunates who were sitting below them, the wind howled in and lightening flashed in the distance. Off we chugged into the choppy waters with the locals not wasting a minute, some were sewing, one was thinning out her wool, she wrapped it around some sort of wooden device that she spun between her fingers then left hanging as she pulled out the thread; this process was then repeated and repeated until the thread was thin and twisted. There was a fine display of hats and coloured clothing and bundles on display that I hope I caught in some photos I took. We passed the Inca temple to the sun ruins that were not at all impressive as most of the stones have been robbed away, so I don't feel so bad about missing it this morning!
Finally we reached Cocacabana and went to retrieve our rucksacks from the dead mouse storage room in the hotel. Then we had to climb four blocks to where the buses left for La Paz. Again our bus was not what had been promised (no loo) but our driver was fairly sensible and safe and we stopped firstly for a small ferry ride and then for a rest break later on so the 4.5 hour trip was fairly relaxing and comfortable. Again we wound our way around lake Titicaca, the houses and the countryside looked unchanged from that around the lake in Peru. When we descended into the town of Tiquina to make our ferry crossing we had to pay 1.5Bs each (about 21c or 13p)to be ferried across to the other side in little motor boats whilst the bus was taken on very rickety looking wooden boats with outboard motors. (The ferry crossing saves about a 100km drive around the edge of a bay of lake Titicaca.) We all boarded again and were on our way arriving in La Paz at around 5.30pm. We had a flyer for a hostel that Tristan had picked up in Puno and since we knew of nowhere else we asked a taxi to take us there. We ended up in the heart of the old city in a road with a market in and an impossible number of people and cars all vying for the same space. It is carnival tomorrow and the whole world and his wife were out buying costumes, water pistols, spray foam, flowers and offerings.
The hostel was not very salubrious but we decided to get a room, leave our stuff and then go out and scout around for some other places to stay for another couple of nights. We managed to avoid being badly squirted with water and foam, found a nicer hostel which we will move into tomorrow and then wandered around looking for somewhere to eat. We stumbled across a little Moroccan restaurant in a cobbled back street and ate the most delicious food since we left Ecuador, fantastic soup, juicy stews, chicken in potato with a sour cream like dip and cous cous. Fantastic after the dry food that both Peru and Bolivia seem to offer, just rice and potatoes and meat or fish, no stews, sauces or gravies, everything so dry. We returned to our grotty room and tried to sleep but the fiesta seemed to be starting and the hooting of cars below us in the street went on all night, along with the shouting of drunks and the load engines of buses. Crazy.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Puno 7-9 Feb
Sun 7th February
We packed up and got under way for the journey to Puno by lake Titicaca. Up and up into the mountains again, this time with even more impressive views of the volcanoes that surround the area. Celso and my heads were pulsing from the altitude but it seems that Tristan is unaffected. We were treated to some fantastic bird life as we drove through the Salinas Aguadas Blancas Park, enormous moorhens, blue beaked ducks, some sort of herons and some flamingoes. There were also the llamas, vicunas and alpacas; some with the coloured strings tied through their ears; and of course there were the locals selling their wares in the most unlikely of places on top of the mountains.
As we headed further inland, eastwards, we met more desert but interspersed with lakes and rivers. Some Cara Caras (a bird that acts like a vulture, i.e. scavenges, but isn't one) were on the edge of the road with striking red beaks and black plumage.
We passed through a horrid city called Juliaca with dust everywhere and roads that had 2 foot holes in; so that, at times, it was like being in a small boat rocking and rolling over the waves. I was really suprised that some of the larger vehicles didn't get stuck with wheels in holes and undercariage grounded inbetween.
And then, there it was, Lake Titicaca; it didn't look that impressive as we approached (but we found out later that that was only because we could only see the bay, in fact it is 155km across) weaving around the mountains, then down into Puno and absolute chaos. We have arrived in the middle of an 8 day festival that is apparently the largest in Peru. It starts on the 2nd of February and ends on the 10th and every afternoon there are parades through the streets with costumed dancers, people squirting foam at each other and general merryment culminating in a horde of friendly drunks and several feeling very sick. It's a bit like carnival in Brazil except that the music is absolutely awful, monotonous drum banging and tuneless brass bands. Celso and I, already with headaches, felt really quite awful and the music (if you can call it that) was certainly not helping matters. The roads were absolutely crammed with people, cars, bike taxis and phut phuts, the driving was manic and after several failed attempts to reach the centre of town we parked up (in a pedestrian street that was all quiet!) and Celso went in search of somewhere to stay. The problem was that there are loads and loads of tourists in town for the festival so everywhere we asked was full.
Finally Celso returned and we have ended up in a really posh hotel (though they don't know how to fit windows!) with duvets, a bath, a shop and a restaurant, bell boys, car parking and wireless internet; really expensive for here but no more than we paid for motels in the States and Canada. I had a long hot bath and slept really well under my duvet!
Mon 8th
Up at 6am we had breakfast (included in the hotel price) and then went by minibus down to the port to board a boat for a tour around two islands out on Lake Titicaca. Our first stop was a floating Tortora reed island inhabited by 6 families who explained how they lived and allowed us into their houses. They are Aymara, an ancient people who originally came from the jungles to the area around the lake and then moved onto the floating islands to avoid conflict with some of the more warlike tribes (Collas and later Incas) who decided to conquer the area. The islands are made entirely out of reeds. First the root bed of the reeds; a tangled mat of roots in a peat like (rotting veg) soil is cut into large slabs about 1.5 metres deep and 2 to 3 metres square. These float naturally, and are secured one to the other by staking with wood and then tying them with string (used to be made out of plaited mountain grasses but now made out of synthetic fibre). On top of this floating base successive layers of cut reed are lain, each successive layer at right angles to the last. A new layer has to be laid about every 2 weeks as the lower layers rot. Digging down only about 10cm you find the rotting reeds that are full of water. The whole island is then anchored into the lake bed and Tortora reed beds with long stakes and ropes. The ropes are weighted down with stones so that they don't get tangled in passing boat oars or propellers. The reeds are also used to make their houses and boats, used as firewood and the soft white growing end is even eaten. We were invited into the houses and also to try on some of their clothes that were made from Alpaca wool and were really warm (which was good because it was overcast and cold). Each of the houses has a solar panel outside which was their snippet of modernity; but they have no running water and the loos are just lidded holes through the reeds and into the lake (which is about 16m deep at the point that the islands are located). They cook outside on a stone slab to prevent setting fire to their island, especially in the dry season. 7 of our group (of 25), ourselves included, then paid to take a trip on one of the reed boats. All the ladies lined up and sang songs to us as we departed. The songs were in Aymara, Quichua, Spanish and then strangely enough they sang Twinkle twinkle little star and then shouted 'Hasta la Vista Baby' as they waved and waved. Several children came on the boat with us and sang more songs in all sorts of languages including Twinkle twinkle again, Frere Jaque and a song in Japanese and another in German... it was all very strange but they were all very cute!
Our guide later explained that they are only able to maintain their way of life due to tourism. They used to make a living from hunting waterfowl and fishing but after the Peruvians introduced trout and the Bolivains introduced King fish to the lake the native fish died from a fungal infection and predation and the stocks plummeted.
We then had a 2 hour journey to our next stop as our boat chugged across the increasingly choppy water. Our guide took the time to explain some of the history of the area. The subduction of the Nazca (sea) techtonic plate under the mainland plate caused the uplifting of the Andes range, producing the volcanoes in the area and forming 3 lakes full of raised up sea water trapped between mountains. Titicaca was the highest lake but not the biggest, it was drained by a river known as Paw Paw (sp?) into lake Paw Paw and then that drained again into a third and largest lake in Bolivia. This lake is now an enormous salt lake and completely dry. Paw Paw only gets wet in the rainy season, and Titicaca has been so watered down that the water is now considered to be 'fresh' even though it still has 0.5g of salt per litre of water. Due to this salt and a high concentration of other minerals the water cannot be used for drinking or crop irrigation without treatment. He also told us about the giant frogs that are unique to the lake, they live at a depth of about 100m and never surface, they take in oxygen from the water through their skin and have no lungs, and the largest one ever found measured a metre. They were discovered by Jaque Cousteau in the 1970s. Our guide also told us about the first boat on the lake that was brought by mule by the British in the late 1800s. It took 5 years to transport and assemble the steam boat on the lake and it is now a floating museum.
The next island we visited was a natural one called Taquile (from the Spanish owner, Count Rodrigo de Taquila, who bought the island in the 1700s for 50 gold pieces who came from Andalucia).
The island has been inhabited since about 3000AD and has ancient terraces for farming which are still in use today. At this time it was a female only island. Girls were taken here at the age of about 10 to learn how to be a wife. They learnt farming, weaving, cooking and child care skills. Then they were married off without any choice in the matter. When the Spanish arrived and the island was sold, the new owner brought men to the island and made the island into a prison due to its isolation. The women adapted and a new type of society formed. The men were made to knit and only those that were proficient could find themselves a wife. With the outlawing of native dress they adopted some Andalucian style garments with a very unique native twist. They have a sort of colour coding to denote status. Long, knitted, nightcap style hats with a bobble on the end are made and worn by the men. If the hat is at least half white in colour then the man is unmarried. If he is not interested in looking for a wife then he will wear the bobble down the back, if he is looking he will wear the bobble to the side, if he is very, very keen he will also put on a white scarf to show that he isn't seeing anybody! When they are married the hat is red all over. The women wear a black shawl but with bobbles on the corners, if they are married then the bobbles are red and small. If they are seeing someone then they are larger and red, if they are looking for someone then they are huge and gaudily coloured in purples and oranges!
It is acceptable to be living with someone to try out a relationship (this is when they wear the 'seeing someone' colours), these relationships can be broken off at any time by either party, but once they are married then this can never be broken.
All the men were wandering around knitting, making their hats and special bags for carrying Coca leaves (these are either chewed or used to make tea to alleviate altitude sickness), they knit with up to four needles at a time.
In the 1970s the island was returned to them and they continue their traditions selling many of their knitted and woven goods to the tourists. They have set up restaurants and hostels which distribute profits to the community. Each boat of tourists that arrives is assigned a restaurant to go to so that all the restaurants are used. Their is no electricity on the island and so no refrigeration meaning that the only food available is locally produced vegetables and trout. We had a wonderful Quinoa and vegetable soup with warm, fresh bread - delicious!
The sun came out as we ate and was incredibly hot, on the boat trip back Celso travelled on the roof of the boat but Tris and I hid inside in the shade and played a two hour game of I Spy!
We returned to more mayhem as the carnival was on again and we couldn't even escape it in the restaurant that we ate supper in as it was being broadcast live on the TV!
I suppose I should really go out and photograph some of it but it is really quite an unbearable noise, even now, when our headaches have gone!
Tue 9th
Today was a lazy, lazy day. We had to take the car to a mechanic because some sort of oil was coming out of the back wheel, we did the laundry (or had it done anyway) and made plans for the next few days. We are going to leave the car here in Puno (it will cost about £1.05 per day for it to be stored in a garage) so that we don't have to go through all the problems to get through the border and then back again. So, we are going to go by bus and boat to La Paz and see what Bolivai has to offer before coming back here to go to Cuzco and try our luck with getting to Macchu Picchu.
We packed up and got under way for the journey to Puno by lake Titicaca. Up and up into the mountains again, this time with even more impressive views of the volcanoes that surround the area. Celso and my heads were pulsing from the altitude but it seems that Tristan is unaffected. We were treated to some fantastic bird life as we drove through the Salinas Aguadas Blancas Park, enormous moorhens, blue beaked ducks, some sort of herons and some flamingoes. There were also the llamas, vicunas and alpacas; some with the coloured strings tied through their ears; and of course there were the locals selling their wares in the most unlikely of places on top of the mountains.
As we headed further inland, eastwards, we met more desert but interspersed with lakes and rivers. Some Cara Caras (a bird that acts like a vulture, i.e. scavenges, but isn't one) were on the edge of the road with striking red beaks and black plumage.
We passed through a horrid city called Juliaca with dust everywhere and roads that had 2 foot holes in; so that, at times, it was like being in a small boat rocking and rolling over the waves. I was really suprised that some of the larger vehicles didn't get stuck with wheels in holes and undercariage grounded inbetween.
And then, there it was, Lake Titicaca; it didn't look that impressive as we approached (but we found out later that that was only because we could only see the bay, in fact it is 155km across) weaving around the mountains, then down into Puno and absolute chaos. We have arrived in the middle of an 8 day festival that is apparently the largest in Peru. It starts on the 2nd of February and ends on the 10th and every afternoon there are parades through the streets with costumed dancers, people squirting foam at each other and general merryment culminating in a horde of friendly drunks and several feeling very sick. It's a bit like carnival in Brazil except that the music is absolutely awful, monotonous drum banging and tuneless brass bands. Celso and I, already with headaches, felt really quite awful and the music (if you can call it that) was certainly not helping matters. The roads were absolutely crammed with people, cars, bike taxis and phut phuts, the driving was manic and after several failed attempts to reach the centre of town we parked up (in a pedestrian street that was all quiet!) and Celso went in search of somewhere to stay. The problem was that there are loads and loads of tourists in town for the festival so everywhere we asked was full.
Finally Celso returned and we have ended up in a really posh hotel (though they don't know how to fit windows!) with duvets, a bath, a shop and a restaurant, bell boys, car parking and wireless internet; really expensive for here but no more than we paid for motels in the States and Canada. I had a long hot bath and slept really well under my duvet!
Mon 8th
Up at 6am we had breakfast (included in the hotel price) and then went by minibus down to the port to board a boat for a tour around two islands out on Lake Titicaca. Our first stop was a floating Tortora reed island inhabited by 6 families who explained how they lived and allowed us into their houses. They are Aymara, an ancient people who originally came from the jungles to the area around the lake and then moved onto the floating islands to avoid conflict with some of the more warlike tribes (Collas and later Incas) who decided to conquer the area. The islands are made entirely out of reeds. First the root bed of the reeds; a tangled mat of roots in a peat like (rotting veg) soil is cut into large slabs about 1.5 metres deep and 2 to 3 metres square. These float naturally, and are secured one to the other by staking with wood and then tying them with string (used to be made out of plaited mountain grasses but now made out of synthetic fibre). On top of this floating base successive layers of cut reed are lain, each successive layer at right angles to the last. A new layer has to be laid about every 2 weeks as the lower layers rot. Digging down only about 10cm you find the rotting reeds that are full of water. The whole island is then anchored into the lake bed and Tortora reed beds with long stakes and ropes. The ropes are weighted down with stones so that they don't get tangled in passing boat oars or propellers. The reeds are also used to make their houses and boats, used as firewood and the soft white growing end is even eaten. We were invited into the houses and also to try on some of their clothes that were made from Alpaca wool and were really warm (which was good because it was overcast and cold). Each of the houses has a solar panel outside which was their snippet of modernity; but they have no running water and the loos are just lidded holes through the reeds and into the lake (which is about 16m deep at the point that the islands are located). They cook outside on a stone slab to prevent setting fire to their island, especially in the dry season. 7 of our group (of 25), ourselves included, then paid to take a trip on one of the reed boats. All the ladies lined up and sang songs to us as we departed. The songs were in Aymara, Quichua, Spanish and then strangely enough they sang Twinkle twinkle little star and then shouted 'Hasta la Vista Baby' as they waved and waved. Several children came on the boat with us and sang more songs in all sorts of languages including Twinkle twinkle again, Frere Jaque and a song in Japanese and another in German... it was all very strange but they were all very cute!
Our guide later explained that they are only able to maintain their way of life due to tourism. They used to make a living from hunting waterfowl and fishing but after the Peruvians introduced trout and the Bolivains introduced King fish to the lake the native fish died from a fungal infection and predation and the stocks plummeted.
We then had a 2 hour journey to our next stop as our boat chugged across the increasingly choppy water. Our guide took the time to explain some of the history of the area. The subduction of the Nazca (sea) techtonic plate under the mainland plate caused the uplifting of the Andes range, producing the volcanoes in the area and forming 3 lakes full of raised up sea water trapped between mountains. Titicaca was the highest lake but not the biggest, it was drained by a river known as Paw Paw (sp?) into lake Paw Paw and then that drained again into a third and largest lake in Bolivia. This lake is now an enormous salt lake and completely dry. Paw Paw only gets wet in the rainy season, and Titicaca has been so watered down that the water is now considered to be 'fresh' even though it still has 0.5g of salt per litre of water. Due to this salt and a high concentration of other minerals the water cannot be used for drinking or crop irrigation without treatment. He also told us about the giant frogs that are unique to the lake, they live at a depth of about 100m and never surface, they take in oxygen from the water through their skin and have no lungs, and the largest one ever found measured a metre. They were discovered by Jaque Cousteau in the 1970s. Our guide also told us about the first boat on the lake that was brought by mule by the British in the late 1800s. It took 5 years to transport and assemble the steam boat on the lake and it is now a floating museum.
The next island we visited was a natural one called Taquile (from the Spanish owner, Count Rodrigo de Taquila, who bought the island in the 1700s for 50 gold pieces who came from Andalucia).
The island has been inhabited since about 3000AD and has ancient terraces for farming which are still in use today. At this time it was a female only island. Girls were taken here at the age of about 10 to learn how to be a wife. They learnt farming, weaving, cooking and child care skills. Then they were married off without any choice in the matter. When the Spanish arrived and the island was sold, the new owner brought men to the island and made the island into a prison due to its isolation. The women adapted and a new type of society formed. The men were made to knit and only those that were proficient could find themselves a wife. With the outlawing of native dress they adopted some Andalucian style garments with a very unique native twist. They have a sort of colour coding to denote status. Long, knitted, nightcap style hats with a bobble on the end are made and worn by the men. If the hat is at least half white in colour then the man is unmarried. If he is not interested in looking for a wife then he will wear the bobble down the back, if he is looking he will wear the bobble to the side, if he is very, very keen he will also put on a white scarf to show that he isn't seeing anybody! When they are married the hat is red all over. The women wear a black shawl but with bobbles on the corners, if they are married then the bobbles are red and small. If they are seeing someone then they are larger and red, if they are looking for someone then they are huge and gaudily coloured in purples and oranges!
It is acceptable to be living with someone to try out a relationship (this is when they wear the 'seeing someone' colours), these relationships can be broken off at any time by either party, but once they are married then this can never be broken.
All the men were wandering around knitting, making their hats and special bags for carrying Coca leaves (these are either chewed or used to make tea to alleviate altitude sickness), they knit with up to four needles at a time.
In the 1970s the island was returned to them and they continue their traditions selling many of their knitted and woven goods to the tourists. They have set up restaurants and hostels which distribute profits to the community. Each boat of tourists that arrives is assigned a restaurant to go to so that all the restaurants are used. Their is no electricity on the island and so no refrigeration meaning that the only food available is locally produced vegetables and trout. We had a wonderful Quinoa and vegetable soup with warm, fresh bread - delicious!
The sun came out as we ate and was incredibly hot, on the boat trip back Celso travelled on the roof of the boat but Tris and I hid inside in the shade and played a two hour game of I Spy!
We returned to more mayhem as the carnival was on again and we couldn't even escape it in the restaurant that we ate supper in as it was being broadcast live on the TV!
I suppose I should really go out and photograph some of it but it is really quite an unbearable noise, even now, when our headaches have gone!
Tue 9th
Today was a lazy, lazy day. We had to take the car to a mechanic because some sort of oil was coming out of the back wheel, we did the laundry (or had it done anyway) and made plans for the next few days. We are going to leave the car here in Puno (it will cost about £1.05 per day for it to be stored in a garage) so that we don't have to go through all the problems to get through the border and then back again. So, we are going to go by bus and boat to La Paz and see what Bolivai has to offer before coming back here to go to Cuzco and try our luck with getting to Macchu Picchu.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Colca Canyon 5&6 Feb
Fri 5th February Leaving Tristan to have a teenage style lie-in, Celso and I set off to send a package to the UK with our latest purchases and to find a place to buy the Peruvian car insurance. We spent over an hour sealing up the package and filling out the various forms at the post office. The most crazy thing is that you have to attach a copy of your passport to the outside of the package in order for it to get through customs.... talk about easy identity theft! Not too far from the post office we found a place to buy our car insurance, it is called SOAT and covers anybody in the car's medical expenses in case of an accident. We had to buy a years worth of cover as they don't sell it by the month but it was only about £40 so it wasn't too much of a hardship. By 11am we were packed up and, after our hotel owner had wiped down our car - he insisted, we were on our way to Chivay at the start of the Colca Canyon. The drive involved going up and up over the mountains inbetween at least 5 different volcanoes, up to over 4000m, it must have been as we went down and down the other side into Chivay and that is at 3400m. The drive took us through the Salinas-Aguada Blanca National park where we saw Vicunas (a wild relative of the llama that is a little smaller and skinnier than the llama and doesn't appear to have as thick wool). Apparently flamingoes flock there at this time of the year too but we didn't see any of those. The park has loads of streams and wetlands that are such a contrast to the desert we have been driving through; and it was cold - very cold, it was great! Dotted through the park there are small thatched homesteads with stone walling and adobe, there are herds of llamas and alpacas some with coloured strings tied through their ears that denote ownership. At the highest point the volcanoes can be seen in every direction and people have built piles of stones (in the same way as the American Indians do) as offerings to the gods. I left the car in the bitter wind to take photos and found two women sitting amongst the stones happily spinning, they wear layers and layers of long skirts and alpaca knitted jumpers, their cheeks are rosy with the cold so that they always look merry! There was about 20miles of unpaved and really horrific road on the way, it was being worked on but it was amazing if we got above 40km/h. The whole journey was only 140km but it took us over 4 hours what with the frequent stopping for photos, the winding up and down the mountains and then the horrific bit of unpaved road. We arrived in Chivay and found a hostel and by 3.30pm we were wandering around the streets. This is the first place we have been where there are loads of people in traditional dress. Some of them take advantage of the fact and wander around with llamas or alpacas and allow tourists to take their photos for a small sum. This area has two main incomes, firstly tourism and then the crops that they are able to grow due to the presence of water; however, they are becoming more and more dependent on tourism as big industry starts up more and more irrigated crops in the desert and are able to reduce their prices due to the quantities that they can produce. As it got dark it got really, really cold. Our beds had 3 blankets on and we all had hot showers and got into our thermal pyjamas and bed socks (that we had bought in the states when it got really cold), but the blankets were so heavy that neither Celso nor I could sleep and we had to remove one so that I kept waking with cold feet. Sat 6th Up at 6:30am we got in the car to drive out along the Colca Canyon to the Cross of the Condors, the most likely place to see the Condors flying on the wind currents along the Canyon. The road was unpaved but not too awful (like the one yesterday) and all along the route the locals were out to take advantage of the passing tourists. Thye were selling all sorts of local wares such as knitwear; gloves, socks, hats, and jumpers in Alpaca wool; jewellery; silver and gold work, jewellery with beads and shells or local stones; woven articles; belts, hat bands, bracelets, purses and small bags; and all other types of work such as musical instruments, woven dolls and paintings. Some were also out in their traditional dress with their alpacas and llamas, and some with a pair of Andean Eagles. Apparently around 8:30am is the best time to see the Condors but it wasn't very windy and only one female made a brief appearance flying twice up and back down the canyon before landing somewhere beneath us. By 9:30 most of the, about, 150 tourists had given up and gone, but we hung in there and by 10am there were at least 4 birds flying at the same time and giving the few people that stayed an amazing show. We spent over 2 hours driving back to Chivay stopping to see all the views and the goods along the way. After a lunch of Quineoa soup and Alpaca steak (which is really tender and tasty) we planned to go for a walk out to some thermal springs about 3km out of town but our plans were ruined by the rain. The unpaved roads turned into quagmires and instead we only managed to walk around the town a bit between downpours. Many of the old buildings are built with adobe and there are covered canals along the streets for the water. The main river that has carved out the Colca Canyon runs just past the town and rushes off into the distance, apparently some people do white water rafting down it but it didn't look full enough for that and this is supposed to be the wet season; it seems that all the rain is falling on Macchu Picchu ... still.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Arequipa 3-4 Feb
From Camana we drove up and up into a highland desert which didn't look really any different from the lowland desert! We arrived in Arequipa around midday and found a hotel about a 10 min walk from the historic centre. After a bit of a rest we went to have a look around.
The streets are narrow and cobbled and packed with taxis driving manically without any indication of where they are going. The pavements are narrow and filled with people making it quite an effort to get anywhere. We found it very difficult to find cold drinks, it seems that, even though it is really hot, people drink room temperature drinks - strange!
We made our way up to the main square where cool colonnades allowed us to escape the sun. The municipal palace (town hall) was on one side surrounding a beautiful courtyard (that we weren't allowed in!) and opposite was the cathedral. Between was a park full of people sitting and chatting or feeding the pigeons. It seemed a very popular place to hang out.
After feeding the pigeons (and catching one to free it from some plastic rubbish that was tangled round its leg), we walked into and then through the cathedral into a lovely little shady passageway full of cafes. We sat on a rooftop and ate avocado and cheese sandwiches, pizza and Celso had a huge steak, mashed potato and veg.
We wandered the streets as the sun went down casting a hazy red light over the white colonial buildings and then returned to our hotel to find that we were too late for hot showers as the water was heated by a solar system and once it had cooled down there was nothing that could be done!
On Thursday we had an amazingly long lie in until after 10am - bliss.
Then off into the centre again to look at all the shops. We have bought an Alpaca rug for beside Tristan's bed so that he will remember his travels everytime he stands on it and a wooden carved mask that caught our fancy. We could have spent loads and loads but we are trying to be frugal!
We visited the Santa Catalina Convent (they call it a monestary but I thought that was only for monks), which was founded in 1579, only 40 years after the Spanish reached this area. It was a completely closed society until the 1970s but then the number of nuns dropped (there are now just 30) so they had to open the area to the public to try to maintain it. It is like a city within a city with named streets, cloistered squares, fountains and 'owned' cells. After an earthquake desimated the convent some of the nun's families help to rebuild the cells but then after that the cells were sold from one nun to the next. There is a real difference between cells, some are tiny single roomed affairs whilst others have private courtyards and kitchens.
All the goods that were delivered to the convent were placed on little rotating shelves that could then be turned to bring the goods within without any contact having to be made between the seller and the nuns. They also had a private area at the back of the church separated from the rest of the congregation by two wooden grates and any visitors were also spoken to through fine wooden grating. However the visitors had to have permission from the bishop first in order to gain an audience with any of the nuns.
Not anybody could become a nun, you had to pay 100 pesos for your board and lodging during your novice year and also provide the clothes, bedding and furniture for your cell, so it was mainly a rich woman's pursuit. The other option for them was to be married off to someone of their family's chosing, so I suppose it may have been an attractive option for some.
We had lunch accompanied by a couple of parrots in the little shady passageway again and then more wandering of the streets brought us finally back to the hotel (a little earlier this time to ensure we could get some hot water!).
The streets are narrow and cobbled and packed with taxis driving manically without any indication of where they are going. The pavements are narrow and filled with people making it quite an effort to get anywhere. We found it very difficult to find cold drinks, it seems that, even though it is really hot, people drink room temperature drinks - strange!
We made our way up to the main square where cool colonnades allowed us to escape the sun. The municipal palace (town hall) was on one side surrounding a beautiful courtyard (that we weren't allowed in!) and opposite was the cathedral. Between was a park full of people sitting and chatting or feeding the pigeons. It seemed a very popular place to hang out.
After feeding the pigeons (and catching one to free it from some plastic rubbish that was tangled round its leg), we walked into and then through the cathedral into a lovely little shady passageway full of cafes. We sat on a rooftop and ate avocado and cheese sandwiches, pizza and Celso had a huge steak, mashed potato and veg.
We wandered the streets as the sun went down casting a hazy red light over the white colonial buildings and then returned to our hotel to find that we were too late for hot showers as the water was heated by a solar system and once it had cooled down there was nothing that could be done!
On Thursday we had an amazingly long lie in until after 10am - bliss.
Then off into the centre again to look at all the shops. We have bought an Alpaca rug for beside Tristan's bed so that he will remember his travels everytime he stands on it and a wooden carved mask that caught our fancy. We could have spent loads and loads but we are trying to be frugal!
We visited the Santa Catalina Convent (they call it a monestary but I thought that was only for monks), which was founded in 1579, only 40 years after the Spanish reached this area. It was a completely closed society until the 1970s but then the number of nuns dropped (there are now just 30) so they had to open the area to the public to try to maintain it. It is like a city within a city with named streets, cloistered squares, fountains and 'owned' cells. After an earthquake desimated the convent some of the nun's families help to rebuild the cells but then after that the cells were sold from one nun to the next. There is a real difference between cells, some are tiny single roomed affairs whilst others have private courtyards and kitchens.
All the goods that were delivered to the convent were placed on little rotating shelves that could then be turned to bring the goods within without any contact having to be made between the seller and the nuns. They also had a private area at the back of the church separated from the rest of the congregation by two wooden grates and any visitors were also spoken to through fine wooden grating. However the visitors had to have permission from the bishop first in order to gain an audience with any of the nuns.
Not anybody could become a nun, you had to pay 100 pesos for your board and lodging during your novice year and also provide the clothes, bedding and furniture for your cell, so it was mainly a rich woman's pursuit. The other option for them was to be married off to someone of their family's chosing, so I suppose it may have been an attractive option for some.
We had lunch accompanied by a couple of parrots in the little shady passageway again and then more wandering of the streets brought us finally back to the hotel (a little earlier this time to ensure we could get some hot water!).
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Journey to Arequipa
We headed south again from Nazca, the road headed out to the coast again and then South to Camana through more desert. About 50km out of Nazca and about 30km from anywhere I suddenly spotted a man lying on the edge of the road. In fact it just looked like a bundle of rubbish but I was so convinced it was a man that I slowed down, turned around and went back. It was a man, half dead from exposure and dehydration, he didn't move when we spoke to him. He had a thick jumper on but no shoes, socks, trousers or pants, we put a bottle of water next to him and out came a hand and all the water was guzzled down. We tried to talk to him but he just didn't respond even though by now he was half sitting up. We left him another bottle of water and some fruit (that was all we had) and drove on determined to get him some help. We noted down the nearest km marker signs and then continued. About 5km further down the road we came across some traffic police and stopped to tell them about the guy. Their first response was 'yes, he's a mad man.' That really got me angry; we said that he may be mad but that didn't mean he should be left to die; they said they would go and investigate; I hope they did or he surely will die.
When we got to the coast we found the worst roads yet, just when the driving conditions needed better. For the first time we were on twisty, winding, roads that followed the contours of the coastal hills or compacted dunes, or perhaps they were sandstone hills, and the road was full of cracks and pot holes and desperately slow lorries; some travelling slower than 10km/h up the hills.
I was on the point of overtaking one of these slow coaches when I saw a police car with lights flashing coming up behind us so I pulled over. All the police who have stopped us so far in Peru have just said hello, asked us where we were from and where we were going and then waved us on our way, so I wasn't at all worried. However, this time, the policeman approached with a book and pen in his hand and told us that he was fining us because Celso was not wearing a seat belt. We protested because he was wearing his seatbelt but he also had a shirt wrapped around his shoulder because it was getting burnt in the sun. He started saying things such as we shouldn't call him a liar, and, did we think he was blind; however we kept on protesting our innocence and so he changed tack and asked to check all our papers. We have had them checked before so we handed them over feeling a bit more comfortable. But after looking at all, even our travel insurance, he told us he was going to give us an 800 Sol (about £180) fine for not having a Peruvian insurance policy. We asked him to help us out and finally he said we could give him some money to buy some coffee! 20 Soles got him off our back - our first encounter with corruption that is suffered by many, and we got away quite lightly.
Later we got to Camana and found a hotel. Camana is just a place to stay the night on the way to Arequipa, we can't find anything of any interest here at all. However we did go into town and ask about whether we needed to have a Peruvian insurance policy and found out that 'yes', we probably do or we need to get a stamp that indicates that our travel insurance will suffice.
The only places of interest that we stopped at on this 5 hour drive were a small museum in the middle of the desert that houses an 'in situ' fossil of a now extinct whale and loads of Megladon shark teeth. At this place we had to drive about 3 km into the desert, the last km of which we were accompanied by a dancing, barking dog; who insisted on trotting in front of the car making it a very awkward journey.
The other place we stopped for a couple of hours was Puerto Inca, a small cove in which there are a large number of Inca ruins and now a modern hotel where we ate some lunch. The Inca ruins consist of hundreds of well-like storage holes in the earth and several other buildings, warehouses and processing rooms for the fish and other sea life that was caught and processed and then transported to the Inca capital Cusco.
The only other impressionable site on this journey was an incredibly green valley that we came across in the middle of the desert. It had a full river and hundreds of rice fields. It took our breath away after the blandness of the hundreds of miles of sand that we have passed.
When we got to the coast we found the worst roads yet, just when the driving conditions needed better. For the first time we were on twisty, winding, roads that followed the contours of the coastal hills or compacted dunes, or perhaps they were sandstone hills, and the road was full of cracks and pot holes and desperately slow lorries; some travelling slower than 10km/h up the hills.
I was on the point of overtaking one of these slow coaches when I saw a police car with lights flashing coming up behind us so I pulled over. All the police who have stopped us so far in Peru have just said hello, asked us where we were from and where we were going and then waved us on our way, so I wasn't at all worried. However, this time, the policeman approached with a book and pen in his hand and told us that he was fining us because Celso was not wearing a seat belt. We protested because he was wearing his seatbelt but he also had a shirt wrapped around his shoulder because it was getting burnt in the sun. He started saying things such as we shouldn't call him a liar, and, did we think he was blind; however we kept on protesting our innocence and so he changed tack and asked to check all our papers. We have had them checked before so we handed them over feeling a bit more comfortable. But after looking at all, even our travel insurance, he told us he was going to give us an 800 Sol (about £180) fine for not having a Peruvian insurance policy. We asked him to help us out and finally he said we could give him some money to buy some coffee! 20 Soles got him off our back - our first encounter with corruption that is suffered by many, and we got away quite lightly.
Later we got to Camana and found a hotel. Camana is just a place to stay the night on the way to Arequipa, we can't find anything of any interest here at all. However we did go into town and ask about whether we needed to have a Peruvian insurance policy and found out that 'yes', we probably do or we need to get a stamp that indicates that our travel insurance will suffice.
The only places of interest that we stopped at on this 5 hour drive were a small museum in the middle of the desert that houses an 'in situ' fossil of a now extinct whale and loads of Megladon shark teeth. At this place we had to drive about 3 km into the desert, the last km of which we were accompanied by a dancing, barking dog; who insisted on trotting in front of the car making it a very awkward journey.
The other place we stopped for a couple of hours was Puerto Inca, a small cove in which there are a large number of Inca ruins and now a modern hotel where we ate some lunch. The Inca ruins consist of hundreds of well-like storage holes in the earth and several other buildings, warehouses and processing rooms for the fish and other sea life that was caught and processed and then transported to the Inca capital Cusco.
The only other impressionable site on this journey was an incredibly green valley that we came across in the middle of the desert. It had a full river and hundreds of rice fields. It took our breath away after the blandness of the hundreds of miles of sand that we have passed.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Nazca 1st Feb 2010
Mon
Another early start as we were due to be picked up at 7:30am to go to the airport for our flight over the Nazca Lines. The Nazca Lines are a series of figures and geometric shapes that were created in the deserts outside the town of Nazca by the Nazca civilisation that dominated this area in the years 400BC to 400AD. They didn't call themselves Nazca; we don't know what they called themselves because they left no written record; it was the Incas, who conquered the Wuaris, who had conquered the Nazcas, that gave the name Nazca to the area; in the Inca language Nazca means 'desolate or hardship'.
The lines were rediscovered in the 1920's when a Peruvian and German archeologist who were working on the Nazca civilisation (which was first discovered in 1905), were walking in the desert and found straight lines in the form of paths; the top stones of the desert had been cleared to the sides forming little ridges at the edges of clear areas; which they assumed to be some sort of religious processional routes; they already knew from the discoveries they had made in the area that the Nazca culture was very superstitious and religious.
Later, when a German woman called Maria Reich arrived to help map out and document the lines, they found drawings of animals and birds formed by the same process. Maria spent the rest of her life here searching for more lines and trying to figure out what all the work had been done for. There are several theories including the original religious procession one; that the long lines were landing strips for aliens; that the shapes were some sort of signs for aliens (as they can only really be seen from the air as they are so large,) or Gods; that the Nazca knew how to make some sort of hot air balloons and so they could see the figures from the air; that they are some sort of astronomical calender (like our star signs), and a few other theories besides.
In normal South American style, our ride to the airport arrived about 20 minutes late and then, of course, we did a circuit to pick up several other people who also wanted to take the flight. On the drive to the airport our guide pointed out a huge sandy coloured mountain, he said it was one of the tallest sand dunes in the world at 1080m. (We are visiting the largest in the world (I think) in Namibia but I will have to look up how tall they are). We had booked in a small plane that guaranteed each passenger a window seat and Tristan quickly voluteered to be the copilot! Celso and I were in the back our knees up round our necks and feeling like our bottoms were dragging on the ground! Two other passengers sat between us and the pilot.
It was a bit of a bumpy ride, (though the pilot said that it was a good day!) and Celso had to reach for the sick bag. Fortunately for us all, he didn't have to use it; we hadn't eaten any breakfast as we had been warned. Of course, the views were spectacular across the desert, you could see the tracks made by water, but those have been there for hundreds of years, there certainly hasn't been any significant rain in living memory nor since records began. You could also see how people who have driven through the desert have damaged some figures, but none of that is allowed anymore, and how the main road, the Panamerican Highway, has completely chopped one figure of a lizard in half. All too quickly the ride was over and we returned to terra firma with another scraping of our bottoms along the runway (or so it felt!).
After some confusion and hanging around (because our transport and guide had disappeared) we finally were called together to get back into town. We had a fry up breakfast in a restaurant in the main square which had some pretty passable bacon! Then we met up with a new guide who was going to show us some of the other sites that Nazca has to offer.
First we drove South out of town a bit and then off the paved road into the desert to visit a Nazca cemetery that has been uncovered and is now protected. Most of the graves had been disturbed by grave robbers before they were excavated, the grave robbers target Nazca cemeteries because of the ceramics which, it is claimed, is the best of the preconquistador pottery due to its fine shapes, intricate painted patterns and detailed finishing. Unfortunately the Nazca marked their graves very clearly so it has been an easy job for the grave robbers and a difficult job for those trying to find in tact graves to try to learn a bit more about the culture. These are the things that are known: -
Families had communal graves that were dug into the sand and lined with stones, they were covered by a wooden roof that could be reopened to inter the next person.
All people, of any rank, were mummified, this process consisted of bathing the body in water infused with herbs and medicinal plants, removing the intestines and lungs (but not the brain), leaving the body in the sun for a couple of days and then treating the skin with a mixture of oil, salt and chilli peppers which acted as a preservative. Then the mummy was dressed, placed in the foetal position and wrapped in a bundle of cotton. The mummy sat in the grave facing east with grave goods around them such as ceramic bowls filled with food, textiles and sometimes pets (e.g a parrot).
The younger the person, the higher they were placed in the grave; they hadn't completed a full life cycle so they needed to be given a head start to the after life.
Important people such a shamen (medicine men) were buried together in communal graves or, if buried in the family grave, in a partitioned off section.
The shaman didn't cut their hair but wore it bundled into one big rasta-like dreadlock.
We were attacked by several dust devils during our walk around the cemetery, Tristan said that we had displeased the gods!
Then back into Nazca (town) to visit a workshop where they restore original Nazca ceramics and make replicas using original techniques. First the rocks from which the clay is made is placed in water for around 40 days to 'ferment', that is what the man said; then it is filtered through a fine cloth and then left to sediment out. The result is a really fine, smooth clay which is mixed with a small amount of sand to make it slightly porous. The clay is moulded into shape and smoothed with a bone tool then left in the sun for about 12 hours to go hard, but not dry, it is then smoothed again with the bone to a really, really smooth finish. Rocks are crushed to make pigment and mixed with oil and a small amount of the clay; these pigments are applied to the hard, but not dry, pottery; the porosity of the clay means that the pigments adhere to the clay. After a single coloured undercoat the paint is left to dry, then using a very smooth stone which is wiped on the skin around the nose to get some grease, the whole pot is buffed to an amazingly brilliant shine. Now the detail is applied to the pot, first the colours, which are allowed to dry and are buffed as before, then the detail lines, again dried and buffed. Now the pot is ready for firing. After around 14 hours in the oven, which reaches 1400 degrees C, the pot is buffed a final time and then it is ready for use. You can see some amazing examples of these ceramics in the photos.
Next on to a gold working workshop. Here they explained the gold extraction process, much like in the US but a little more sophisticated in the final process it seems! Crush the rocks to a fine powder, mix with some mercury and move around viciously! Wash away the dust, put the mercury which is now covered in gold into a fine cloth; add water and ring; much of the mercury goes through the cloth and is collected and recycled; the gold and some mercury remains.
This mercury-gold mix is placed into a pot and heated, the mercury evaporates at a lower temperature than gold so it comes off as a gas. Then (and this is where is seems a bit more sophisticated than the US process,) the mercury gas is passed through a cooling system in a series of pipes through water so that it condenses back into a liquid and is collected and recycled.
So probably not as many mad Peruvian gold workers as American!
We returned to our hotel for a couple of hours rest and respite from the sun, and then at 4pm we met up with Carlos (our guide) again to go on another trek. This time we visited one of the ancient Nazca aqueduct systems. There are 46 aqueducts around Nazca and these bring all the water used for farming in the region.. there is no other water supply for farming at all. The construction is amazing; the underground parts have never been maintained and have survived some severe earthquakes; they are built with smooth rounded river stones along the bottom and sides of the aqueducts (this shape of rock apparently withstands earthquakes because they can rock and roll without cracking) and then covered with a roof of a local timber (that grows in the desert). Just think... that means that the wood and the underground tunnels are around 2000 years old, and survival here in the desert is practically completely dependent on them!
About every 50m or so of the covered system there is a spiral walkway that allows you to walk down to the water course to inspect or to extract water - incredible. The aqueducts eventually leave their underground course and the water then flows through open stone lined channels to their destination. Nowadays the locals have built reservoirs to store the water which has never stopped flowing in recorded history even when the local rivers are dry. The river through Nazca is completely dry, it last had a tickle running down it in March of 2009 and no records show when it last had a large enough supply to be used for anything!
After the aqueducts we went to climb a small mountain to look down on a very early Nazca line drawing depicting weaving. It has lines representing the warp and weft, criss cross design, with an enormous needle at the side; and threaded through the needle is a thread that ends in a spiral (the ball of cotton).
Finally we visited the only Inca building that has been found in the area, an administrative centre with warehouses, a military barracks, a market square and many small office like buildings. It is clearly Inca from the beautifully cut stones (I think limestone or marble but our guide said they were volcanic in origin?) in the lower levels of the walls. But strangely, the upper levels were adobe and also some walls were made with rounded river stones, the use of either is very unusual for an Incan building. Much of the site has been robbed out and vandalized by locals; the main road to Cuzco used to pass through the site with the stones from the walls used to make walls along the edges of the roads! Very sad.
A fab and tiring day. We are now covered in dust and ready to wash and sleep.
Another early start as we were due to be picked up at 7:30am to go to the airport for our flight over the Nazca Lines. The Nazca Lines are a series of figures and geometric shapes that were created in the deserts outside the town of Nazca by the Nazca civilisation that dominated this area in the years 400BC to 400AD. They didn't call themselves Nazca; we don't know what they called themselves because they left no written record; it was the Incas, who conquered the Wuaris, who had conquered the Nazcas, that gave the name Nazca to the area; in the Inca language Nazca means 'desolate or hardship'.
The lines were rediscovered in the 1920's when a Peruvian and German archeologist who were working on the Nazca civilisation (which was first discovered in 1905), were walking in the desert and found straight lines in the form of paths; the top stones of the desert had been cleared to the sides forming little ridges at the edges of clear areas; which they assumed to be some sort of religious processional routes; they already knew from the discoveries they had made in the area that the Nazca culture was very superstitious and religious.
Later, when a German woman called Maria Reich arrived to help map out and document the lines, they found drawings of animals and birds formed by the same process. Maria spent the rest of her life here searching for more lines and trying to figure out what all the work had been done for. There are several theories including the original religious procession one; that the long lines were landing strips for aliens; that the shapes were some sort of signs for aliens (as they can only really be seen from the air as they are so large,) or Gods; that the Nazca knew how to make some sort of hot air balloons and so they could see the figures from the air; that they are some sort of astronomical calender (like our star signs), and a few other theories besides.
In normal South American style, our ride to the airport arrived about 20 minutes late and then, of course, we did a circuit to pick up several other people who also wanted to take the flight. On the drive to the airport our guide pointed out a huge sandy coloured mountain, he said it was one of the tallest sand dunes in the world at 1080m. (We are visiting the largest in the world (I think) in Namibia but I will have to look up how tall they are). We had booked in a small plane that guaranteed each passenger a window seat and Tristan quickly voluteered to be the copilot! Celso and I were in the back our knees up round our necks and feeling like our bottoms were dragging on the ground! Two other passengers sat between us and the pilot.
It was a bit of a bumpy ride, (though the pilot said that it was a good day!) and Celso had to reach for the sick bag. Fortunately for us all, he didn't have to use it; we hadn't eaten any breakfast as we had been warned. Of course, the views were spectacular across the desert, you could see the tracks made by water, but those have been there for hundreds of years, there certainly hasn't been any significant rain in living memory nor since records began. You could also see how people who have driven through the desert have damaged some figures, but none of that is allowed anymore, and how the main road, the Panamerican Highway, has completely chopped one figure of a lizard in half. All too quickly the ride was over and we returned to terra firma with another scraping of our bottoms along the runway (or so it felt!).
After some confusion and hanging around (because our transport and guide had disappeared) we finally were called together to get back into town. We had a fry up breakfast in a restaurant in the main square which had some pretty passable bacon! Then we met up with a new guide who was going to show us some of the other sites that Nazca has to offer.
First we drove South out of town a bit and then off the paved road into the desert to visit a Nazca cemetery that has been uncovered and is now protected. Most of the graves had been disturbed by grave robbers before they were excavated, the grave robbers target Nazca cemeteries because of the ceramics which, it is claimed, is the best of the preconquistador pottery due to its fine shapes, intricate painted patterns and detailed finishing. Unfortunately the Nazca marked their graves very clearly so it has been an easy job for the grave robbers and a difficult job for those trying to find in tact graves to try to learn a bit more about the culture. These are the things that are known: -
Families had communal graves that were dug into the sand and lined with stones, they were covered by a wooden roof that could be reopened to inter the next person.
All people, of any rank, were mummified, this process consisted of bathing the body in water infused with herbs and medicinal plants, removing the intestines and lungs (but not the brain), leaving the body in the sun for a couple of days and then treating the skin with a mixture of oil, salt and chilli peppers which acted as a preservative. Then the mummy was dressed, placed in the foetal position and wrapped in a bundle of cotton. The mummy sat in the grave facing east with grave goods around them such as ceramic bowls filled with food, textiles and sometimes pets (e.g a parrot).
The younger the person, the higher they were placed in the grave; they hadn't completed a full life cycle so they needed to be given a head start to the after life.
Important people such a shamen (medicine men) were buried together in communal graves or, if buried in the family grave, in a partitioned off section.
The shaman didn't cut their hair but wore it bundled into one big rasta-like dreadlock.
We were attacked by several dust devils during our walk around the cemetery, Tristan said that we had displeased the gods!
Then back into Nazca (town) to visit a workshop where they restore original Nazca ceramics and make replicas using original techniques. First the rocks from which the clay is made is placed in water for around 40 days to 'ferment', that is what the man said; then it is filtered through a fine cloth and then left to sediment out. The result is a really fine, smooth clay which is mixed with a small amount of sand to make it slightly porous. The clay is moulded into shape and smoothed with a bone tool then left in the sun for about 12 hours to go hard, but not dry, it is then smoothed again with the bone to a really, really smooth finish. Rocks are crushed to make pigment and mixed with oil and a small amount of the clay; these pigments are applied to the hard, but not dry, pottery; the porosity of the clay means that the pigments adhere to the clay. After a single coloured undercoat the paint is left to dry, then using a very smooth stone which is wiped on the skin around the nose to get some grease, the whole pot is buffed to an amazingly brilliant shine. Now the detail is applied to the pot, first the colours, which are allowed to dry and are buffed as before, then the detail lines, again dried and buffed. Now the pot is ready for firing. After around 14 hours in the oven, which reaches 1400 degrees C, the pot is buffed a final time and then it is ready for use. You can see some amazing examples of these ceramics in the photos.
Next on to a gold working workshop. Here they explained the gold extraction process, much like in the US but a little more sophisticated in the final process it seems! Crush the rocks to a fine powder, mix with some mercury and move around viciously! Wash away the dust, put the mercury which is now covered in gold into a fine cloth; add water and ring; much of the mercury goes through the cloth and is collected and recycled; the gold and some mercury remains.
This mercury-gold mix is placed into a pot and heated, the mercury evaporates at a lower temperature than gold so it comes off as a gas. Then (and this is where is seems a bit more sophisticated than the US process,) the mercury gas is passed through a cooling system in a series of pipes through water so that it condenses back into a liquid and is collected and recycled.
So probably not as many mad Peruvian gold workers as American!
We returned to our hotel for a couple of hours rest and respite from the sun, and then at 4pm we met up with Carlos (our guide) again to go on another trek. This time we visited one of the ancient Nazca aqueduct systems. There are 46 aqueducts around Nazca and these bring all the water used for farming in the region.. there is no other water supply for farming at all. The construction is amazing; the underground parts have never been maintained and have survived some severe earthquakes; they are built with smooth rounded river stones along the bottom and sides of the aqueducts (this shape of rock apparently withstands earthquakes because they can rock and roll without cracking) and then covered with a roof of a local timber (that grows in the desert). Just think... that means that the wood and the underground tunnels are around 2000 years old, and survival here in the desert is practically completely dependent on them!
About every 50m or so of the covered system there is a spiral walkway that allows you to walk down to the water course to inspect or to extract water - incredible. The aqueducts eventually leave their underground course and the water then flows through open stone lined channels to their destination. Nowadays the locals have built reservoirs to store the water which has never stopped flowing in recorded history even when the local rivers are dry. The river through Nazca is completely dry, it last had a tickle running down it in March of 2009 and no records show when it last had a large enough supply to be used for anything!
After the aqueducts we went to climb a small mountain to look down on a very early Nazca line drawing depicting weaving. It has lines representing the warp and weft, criss cross design, with an enormous needle at the side; and threaded through the needle is a thread that ends in a spiral (the ball of cotton).
Finally we visited the only Inca building that has been found in the area, an administrative centre with warehouses, a military barracks, a market square and many small office like buildings. It is clearly Inca from the beautifully cut stones (I think limestone or marble but our guide said they were volcanic in origin?) in the lower levels of the walls. But strangely, the upper levels were adobe and also some walls were made with rounded river stones, the use of either is very unusual for an Incan building. Much of the site has been robbed out and vandalized by locals; the main road to Cuzco used to pass through the site with the stones from the walls used to make walls along the edges of the roads! Very sad.
A fab and tiring day. We are now covered in dust and ready to wash and sleep.
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