Peru - the Egypt of South America

So we spent two days relaxing in Cusco after the trek. Cusco is actually really nice and there so much to do around there you could easily stay for a month to see all the inca sites. We just wondered round the centre a bit. Its really beautiful. The central square has a pretty gaudy gold statue of an inca in it - south america has some of the worst public sculptures i have ever seen - but we were shocked to discover that until 2011 the statue had been of an aztec!! what a kick in the teeth that must have been!

We also visited the medicinal and holy plants museum - which had some very interesting information on the socio historical issues around the coca plant. The coca leaf is legal in peru - but cocaine isnt. The leaf itself is sacred to indigenous culture and contains 12 alcaloids each with its  own special health giving properties. What I didn't realise is that Peru has overtaken colombia and bolivia in cocaine production and distribution in the last 5 years.

After cusco we had a short stop off in arequipa. Originally to do a tour of the colca canyon - which is twice as deep as the grand canyon. But i was really ill and couldnt do the 2am start. Arequipa itself was nice though - 360 days of sun a year! Its surrounded by four volcanoes that seem to just come up from nowehere. We visited the museum devoted to the ice mummies found there. Incas would choose a child from a rich family to be sacrificed to the mountain gods if there was any trouble from the volcanos. They were chosen from birth and kept in a special house to maintain their purity. If there was any unusual happenings in the climate the child would walk for anything up to two months up the volcano and then be hit over the head by a priest and buried. Pretty brutal, but it shows how unstable the climate and environment is here. nearly every where we have been was flattened by an earthquake at some point in the last fifty years. and all the civilisations that existed here up to the inkas were destroyed by either el niño  or eruptions.

We also visited the convent there - a huge complex cut off where the girls of rich families were sent to live out their lives in (albeit quite luxurious) isolation. Couldnt help drawing some comparisons.......








I also tried my first alpaca burger! in a very nice restaurant next to a park. After two months of chicken rice and chips (yes - rice AND chips.) we have been indulging a little in peru. The burger was pretty nice - kind of like a really lean beef. And i got to wear a dashing bib as it was served on hot volcanic stone which made the burger spit everywhere.

While we were eating there was a protest of indigenous people from the canyon in the park next to us. Aparently there is some kind of natural disaster taking place there and they wanted changes to the walk ways to be made. Political activism seems to alive and well in ecuador and Peru.

From Arequipa we flew to trujillo where there are more historical sites. It was only recently discovered that the first civilisation in peru (and therefore all the americas) actually occured around 3000 bc. That´s comparable to the first civilisations in greece,egypt and china. The caras culture was unique in that they had not developed ceramics - although this skill came to be the crowning technological glory of later groups. The most unusual thing about all the precolombine cultures is that they had no system of writing or money- right they way up to the conquestodores.

We visited some moche pyramids from around 100ad. They were really impressive - but it was also sad as not only had they been ´'mined' by the spanish and looters - extracting some 4 tonnes of gold artifacts which were melted down. But now, the largest - the pyramid of the sun - was being left exposed and unexcavated as the peruvian government has no money for it. Even though people believe that a big el niño is coming this winter which could do immeasurable damage when it floods the desert areas.

Peru has enough history to be as big a Egypt and the economic benefits of sustainable and well organised tourism is very much needed. Our guide said that they would have the infrastructure within the next five to ten years. i hope so.

We finished our time in Trujillo by visiting the house of Casinelli . Its a private collection of cermaic artifacts owned by an italian immigrant. The museum is in the basment of the petrol station he used to own. The pieces were incredible - moche art has a kind of graphic design quality to it. The museum has over 6000 pieces of which 2000 were on display - including the very explicit sex themed pots - which are locked in a cupboard and you have to ask the elderly lady attendant to open it for you. Highly embarrasing.  he spent most of the last years of his life campaigning to have his collection recognised by the government and put in a proper museum. Unfortunately he died at 94 this march. According to my book, he was quite a character and it is widely known that the vast majority of pieces were bought off looters.