Absorbing Peru
The desire to see as much of Peru as possible is pushing me along. I think this would have happened in Mexico, Panama and Colombia, but I had places to get to per a schedule and therefore I could not take the luxury of just making it up as I go. Peru is different because after Jillian left, I no longer have a schedule. And this is one hell of a great country to find that luxury. I was suppose to take a week off and in that time I was going to work on photos and video. I’m very happy with my decision to skip Patagonia thus bringing on a don’t-have-to-be-anywhere mode. I did some photo work, but the mountain is too high and I found other things to do. In fact, I did not take a week off other than from the standpoint that I stayed at one place for the whole week in Cajamarca. It was relaxing, but I did something each day that I was there. Carnaval was all-consuming for a couple of days and there is interesting colonial and inca places to visit in the city and surrounding areas. I’m not sure if I will burnout on this leg of the adventure. I see now that Peru and Bolivia will eat up my schedule into early April. The next 5-6 weeks will probably not be sedentary ones. Maybe I will take a fall break in Chile on the coast or in the mountains in early April. So, I don’t have photos to show yet, but I am making some progress and will chip away at it as I can and as my internet connections are available.
I saw all of Trujillo’s Moche and Chimu (pre-Inca civilizations) ruins including Huaca del Sol and Huaca del Lunes pyramids and the 20 square kilometer site of the city of Chan Chan where 30,000 people lived. The two pyramids looked like the mountain that sits next to them making the pyramidal shape of the structures no surprise. I bet I find the same thing in Egypt except with sand dunes. I wonder if humans have ever created anything beyond what already exists in nature. I had a guide that pointed out that all of the geometric shapes at Chan Chan are even based on natural shapes like waves and mountains. She called some of the abstract images “Picasso” and it did seem that even his work had already been done before by humans and prior still by God. Picasso is not an original… he’s rolling in his grave every time she points “his” work out in the 500+ year old city of mud. A few years ago you could claim that modern art can sometimes be original, but after the Hubble photos started coming in, it has all been done before by “someone”.
Chan Chan gets all the attention here. I liked it, but nothing like Huaca del Lunes. They are totally different places and hard to compare, but Chan Chan has been over-restored and Huaca del Lunes has never been restored. The idea at Chan Chan is to bring back some of the city and temple sites by recreating walls and art that has been heavily damaged when it rains (rarely, but we’re talking about over 500 years worth). It is a cool place and it is immense. It is also very ugly in that it is made of the same dirt that surrounds you for as far as you can see. Monotonous! Huaca del Lunes is a temple which has been excavated after being buried under meters of sand. The Moche built a new temple on top of the previous one every hundred years for at least five. The scientists have excavated and preserved, but are doing no restoration. They don’t need to. The temple contains brightly painted walls of geometric and human-life designs. It is fantastic to see thousand year old art inside an amazingly designed pyramidal temple.
All week I have been disappointed that I will miss the Lord of Sipan tomb and collection (http://www.delange.org/LordSipanGold/LordSipanGold.htm) as well as other archaeology sites just north of here in Chiclayo. Today I found a tour that will take me to them in one day – my only day – tomorrow. A 6:30 AM start to return at 9:00 PM. It will be a long day with three hours of bus rides between here and Chiclayo and especially long since I already have two long bus rides coming Monday and Tuesday to get me to Nazca, but I know this is a highlight in Peru and I would regret not seeing it. I am playing the Human Peru Sponge and enjoying it…
Tags: peru, south america, Travel
vagabondrick
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