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Two days ago in Nasca, we did 2 trips. In the morning we went to see the Nazca lines they were spectacular and were started to be built around 500b.c. The Nazca lines are man made indentations in the desert about 5-6cms deep and of varying length and width (some 10cms wide, up to 6m wide, some go for 10kms). There are about 30 theories to explain their purpose the most conclusive appears that it would be some sort of combination of a star chart, markings to lead people to water and drawings to please their gods. There are about 20 drawings - monkey, tree, lizard, hands, whale and on and on. And hundreds and hundreds of lines - going for kilometers and kilometers. They were drawn over about 800 years and that means that a couple of different cultures did them. We went to see them by lookout - there's a hill you can see them from and a man made lookout tower where you can see the lizard, monkey and tree. the lines weren't found until the 1920s when someone when over the area in a plane and saw them. Beforehand the local people hadn't been high enough to see the pictures and simple thought the lines were ancient roads. There's a German lady who moved to Peru and spent her life trying to decypher a meaning - she thinks they're a star chart - but she's the one who made them famous and got them to be preserved.
After this tour was done Karl wanted to get his Mohawk hair cut much to Jane's initial resistance, so we found a hairdresser that charged us about $3.5 (apparently expensive) and we are both happy with the resulting cut. Then wondering around Nazca finding somewhere to eat after some bad interpretation Jane got a soup for lunch with some form of beef in it, it was white and after eating a few pieces asked what it was... Tripe it turned out to be. Karl had curried chicken leg (the safe option). We then departed on our sand dune guided tour onboard a severely modified Nissan Patrol from the 80's, we came across an aqueduct where we stopped. It was built by the Nazca so that they could use it for farming. Much of Peru is desert it is really quite supprising how much, the land is completely infertile apart from a few spots so to create harvestable farmlands they needed to start with finding fertile ground and then find a water source. The aqueducts created thousands of years ago are still in use today. the next stop on our sand dune tour was Cahuachi (Ka-wa-chi) which is an ancient city built hundreds maybe thousands of years before Christ. it is huge (apparenty about 24km in diameter and mainly covered in sand) and archaeologists are reconstructing a part of it that is believed to be the kings palace and main worship area. You're not allowed in so the pictures we took of this were taken from an ancient house that has been relatively destroyed by recent people and we could see several simple brick like building products and support beams here to suggest its presence. Our next part of our tour took us to one of their grave site where the sands and weather had not been so kind and a lot of the bodies and graves had now been uncovered by the weather so we saw mummy's lots of bones and a few bits of pottery that these people had been buried with. After visiting the graves we continued up to the sandy part of the dunes and Jane squelled with fear and delight as we went over each steep ridge (about 70 degrees). Julio, the driver got the buggy stuck on one ridge so this turned out to be a good place to do sandboarding. It feels nothing like snowboarding as there is far more friction, and you have to re-apply wax every time you go down, Karl only tried this once while Jane preferred to use it as a sled and Karl did after his first time sandboarding too. After the driver and the wind had removed much of the sand at the bottom of the buggy he met us at the bottom and we went over a few more sand dunes and then went sandboarding again. We did this until sunset where we could see a beautiful sight of the sun changing colours as it set over the ridges of the sand dunes across from us. We had dinner with a Dutch couple that we did the sand tour with then we caught the over-night bus from Nazca to Arequipa. It was pretty good we travelled luxury class costing us S./ 109 each (about $40) for a 10 hour bus ride but for this essentially got a lazy-boy armchair each - much much more comfortable than the other buses we've been on.
Awaking on the bus around 7:30 we were already at the outskirts of Arequipa. Once we stopped collected our bags we found a "safe" taxis to take us to a hostel area to try and find somewhere to stay. After visiting 4 hostels we settled on one called Hostel Santa Catalina - its a bit of a dud! It has a kitchen (all the others didn't) but hot water just means its not icy cold just really cold! he he he. There is no toilet paper in the toilets :( but there is toilet seats so thats a plus... anyway were have decided to stay only 2 nights. and for S./ 35 (~$15) for both of us who can really complain. So we had a nice breakfast in the town plaza (town square) where there is a massive cathedral and cloisters all around we were eating on the second level, so our view was spectacular. After our spot of breaky we did some shopping and headed home for a rest its 2325m above sea level here and it was taking an effect on Karl who was short of breath.
In the afternoon we went to a museum run by the Catholic University here. It houses "Juanita" a 12 year old girl who was sacrificed to the mountain gods by the Incas approximately 500 years ago. She was found on Ampato Volano which is approximately 6380m above sea level by an anthropological team who had been working on the graves in the area for 15 years. So the Incas believed that the mountains and volcanos around here were gods who had to be appeased and therefore they groomed 'special children' from elite families to be sacrificed at the appropriate times. They've found about 5 children on the two volcanoes around this town and 2 in what is now Argentina, but Juanita is special because she was the first and the only one to be near perfectly preserved.
The Incas took the children from their families at birth and groomed them to be sacrifices. They would have taken Juanita to meet the Inca (king) and then with the priests she climbed up the 6380m in sandles to be sacrificed. From what they can gather they made the children fast for about 8-10hours before the ceremony, then gave them a drink of fermented purple corn (that was alcoholic) and that knocked them out and eventually during the ceremony they hit them over the left eye with a ceremonial staff to kill them. The museum staff were stressing that this was the child's choice and they went willingly and they didn't feel anything...
So Juanita was buried in the local way - in a pit about a meter deep, curled up into the fetal position and with a bunch of pottery with food and drink for her to take to the afterlife. They originally found her burial pit with all the pottery but during the 500years her body had fallen from the pit into the crater of the volcano which was filled with ice. The important (archaeological/biological) thing about these kids is that they're not mummies, they were frozen almost immediately after death with all their internal organs so the scientists can get information about their DNA, diseases, food they ate etc from the remains.
The museum was quite well done - there was a video (in various languages) explaining it all and then guides who took us around and showed us all the pottery and artifacts and explained what they were used for. Then the last part was a viewing of Juanita. She was TINY, approximately 145cms and weighed 40kgs, but curled up in the fetal position she was surprisingly small. She still has fat on her limbs and all her teeth (she had no cavities!) and all her hair. It was very respectfully done and a good amount of information.
In the evening we went through the mall to find Karl a sweater as he didn't bring one and it's cold here, but not cold enough for the down jackets! Came back and cooked dinner and had an early night. Today we are off to the Monastery of Santa Catalina and tomorrow we're out of Arequipa, going to the Colca Canyon for go for a hike and try and see the Andean Condors.
- comments
Uellan wow, you are finding some interesting things to see and do! not so sure about the mohawk Karl!! lol! good to do things you have always wanted but!