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Another, our last, travel day beckons with stop offs at Kuntar Huasi and El Brujo scheduled before we roll into the coastal town to Trujillo for our final night on this tour.
The drive to Kuntar Huasi takes us away from our final destination, so it is an understatement to say the whole van is put out to find the the museum is closed on Mondays.
A local policeman, unfathomably dressed in black in the rising heat of the day, spots our disappointment and bids us look at the panoramic view from the balcony of a local hotel, opposite the police station. It is lovely, but it's not quite Carling!
His boss (think Peruvian George Clooney) comes over and whips out his smart phone to show us a photo to orient us to the site and the museum, suggesting we take the 800m climb in perhaps 35 plus degree, shadeless heat. We cavil and he starts to tell us about the local mining firm who paid for the building of the road we travelled upon to get here.
Fujimori signed a contract with the firm which paid the government 15% of the price of a gram of gold at the date of signature for the term of the 34 year contract. At signature gold was 350 USD per gram. Today it is 1,200 USD he says, and still the government receives only 50 USD per gram. However, one metric tonne of extracted earth used to produce 3 grams of gold 30 years ago. Now it is half that. With these kind of data points being tossed about by a dis-interested party, I'd love to hear a partisan argument!
The mining firm is currently under investigation for failure to meet its environmental commitments, while Fujimori languishes in Peru's most luxurious jail cell having been found guilty of corruption after leaving office (something of a pattern, apparently). Meanwhile his party is campaigning for his pardon on grounds of ill-health, which the newly installed president has said he will not grant as he's not ill enough.
Amazing what you can learn in an idle 5 minutes from a policeman!
I'll spare the details of the drive to El Brujo, save to say it was long, hot and tiring.
El Brujo was splendid. Excellent museum (again) at a wonderful coastal location. More details tomorrow!
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