Shrunken Heads, Anyone?
7 October 2005 (Friday) – Cuenca, Ecuador
I headed to the Museo Banco Central of Cuenca after coffee with Juan at Cafe Austria. The admission fee of US$3, at first, appeared to be a little too high for me as the archaeological section was small and non-too-impressive. But later, I realised it was, gosh… so worthwhile!
I really enjoyed the temporary exhibition of quirky ceramic figurines by a local Cuencaño artist and the 2nd floors’ ethnological section must be the most impressive museum of its kind I had ever seen. There were many information provided about the cultures along the coasts, in the mountains and in the jungle of Ecuador. There were traditional costumes, musical instruments, jewellery, traps, nets, pots, and a myriad of household wares, replicas of houses the people lived in displayed, together with detailed explanations. It was a thoroughly impressive exhibition.
The most interesting displays, for me, were the showcases of shrunken heads!! The Shuar people of the jungle used to shrink the heads of the enemies they killed. Unfortunately, there was not much information provided about HOW the heads were shrunk. Perhaps, with some kind of liquid or over the fire or something. But there they were… the small heads of the enemies, about the size of a… say… toy football, with the eyes closed, the mouths sewn up with some kind of fibre and stick and the mop of hair. I had never seen anything like this before. It was just incredible for me. There was a small note saying that Ecuadorean law now does not allow the shrinking of human heads anymore. OK, good to know.
The museum is actually on the grounds of an ex-Incan site, called Tomebamba. It was not as well-preserved as the nearby Ingapirca site, but apparently, Tomebamba was a more important site. So, once you have finished your museum visit, you could head out to the Archaeological Park to check out the ruins of Tomebamba. Further on, you could even visit a park down at the bottom of the hilly ruins where they recreated agricultural produces and other flora of the Incan and pre-Incan days. There was even a bird aviary with many parrots and some birds of prey. The most impressive bird there must be the King Vulture, with his purplish, pink face, the yellow ‘pony-tail’ running down the back of its neck and the orange rubbery stuff flopping around on top of its orange beak. What a combination of colours, just for the face alone!
I finally struggled out of the museum after 2pm, thoroughly famished, but thoroughly impressed.
On the way back to Juan’s apartment, I ran into Tamara and her boyfriend, Rene, and joined them at their apartment for a cup of tea. Oh gosh… they have cats! I have always been afraid of cats for as long as I can remember. I cannot really recall a particular incident that triggered this phobia, but I remembered once, when I was like 5 years old or something, I was in a dark alley behind some shops waiting for my mother, and there was a black cat right there staring at me with its ice-green eyes and I just squatted there and stared back and perhaps, the cat just spooked the hell out of me then. I might have started having fears since then, because I definitely remembered this incident. Then, the movie by Stephen King ‘Pet Sematary’ came along, it was something about a cat, wasn’t it? Gosh, perhaps it was a combination of all these things in my childhood that made me fear cats. I guess, I could tolerate them if we were in the same room, if it did not look at me, did not meow and did not come anywhere near me. But they always stare at me, they always meow, and they always try and slither near me.
The same happened for Tamara’s curious cats, Chunky and Suco, and I leapt up in fright each time they came near me. Chunky was so surprised that he kept staring at me, as this was the first time he had ever seen such a reaction from someone, Tamara explained. He kept coming near me to check out this strange screaming specimen. Tamara and Rene reassured me that the cat is harmless. Meanwhile, I used cushions or chairs to keep them away. Of course, Chunky then thought I was playing with him and was game for more interactions. Finally, I sat perched high up on the bar-seat and felt more secure. But at one point, Chunky jumped onto the bar-seat next to me, without me noticing, and he reached his paws towards me. I got such a fright and just let out the most blood-curling scream at the sight of him touching me!!!
Later, Tamara and Rene made dinner and brought it over to Juan’s apartment so that we could eat in peace without me screaming. We ate great roasted pork, before settling down for a… what else… movie.
Movie of today – ‘Madame Satã‘, a Brazilian movie about João Francisco dos Santos, a transvestite and convict from Rio de Janeiro. It was interesting to recognise parts of Lapa, a neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro, from the movie based on what I remembered of the streets when I was in Lapa a few months ago.
Tags: 07) Crossing Ecuador Line, Cuenca
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