Inca Wall

The Incas also arrived in the Nazca plains, albeit about 1000 years after the Nazca culture faded from existence. The people of these desert valleys still lived as they once did, maintaining the irrigation canals of their ancestors and producing textiles of similar quality with similar patterns. After being dominated by the Wari they were accustomed to the idea of foreign rule and submited to the Incas easily.

To administer the region the Incas built Paredones. Named in Spanish for its expertly fitted Inca walls, Paredones consisted of a number of adobe buildings, a stone-built palace and a corridor leading to stone steps that take you up to what would once have been a temple to the sun.

The surrounding hills are covered with the remains of lower quality homes, tombs, and tonnes of broken pottery. The entire site covers about 2km².

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Written by Álvaro Rocha Revilla

Caravelí feels disconnected to the rest of the world. And in a certain sense this is true. In the almost two hours it took to get up here from the coast, from the turn off at Atico, we haven’t crossed paths with a single house, tree, river… nothing. Stopping on a curve on this abandoned road to nowhere, there below we saw a small green smear floating on a vast barren desert. Not just any desert - its dunes of sand and its rocky expanses have tones of red and salmon. However in this very dry land, apparently completely infertile, is produced one of the best piscos of Peru.

If were turn our heads, just a little, away from the spectacular desert scenery, to the left we see the Sara Sara mountain. Here in 1996, thanks to global warming and the melting of its ice caps, the mountain revealed, in perfect condition, a preserved mummy from pre-Columbian times. Called Sarita, the mummy is now exhibited in the Museo de la Universidad de Santa María in Arequipa. We also see the peak of Solimana and the Coropuna, the later being the highest volcano in Peru at 6425m.a.s.l.

It’s surroundings, the barren desert, volcanic peaks and the flamenco-filled Parinacochas lagoon below Sara Sara give the forgotten town of Caravelí a special atmosphere.

Vineyards

Caravelí was the first part of Peru to be divided up and given out to Spanish conquerors. On the 3rd of July in 1532, Francisco Pizarro authorised the issuing of Caravelí to Cristóbal de Burgos. The introduction of the first grape plants didn’t take long. Evidence shows the first was planted in 1548 in the grounds of Álvarez de Carmona for the Jesuit monks. From then until the time of Peruvian independence - when the town was used by patriot Mariscal Miller as a base to hunt down royalist Ameller - the town survived commercially as an exporter of grape produce. When the town was levelled in republican times by an earthquake in 1868, the town’s industry provided it with the ability to slowly recover.

Bullet holes

“Abundant tinajas (clay pots for fermentation), with bullet holes, are a testimony to the barbarisms lived during the war with Chile. Among the geopolitical objectives of Chile was to end the wine and pisco industry in Peru to aid the start their own, and to this end their armies destroyed machinery and shot at fermentation jars”, explains historian Luciano Revoredo, adding, “the pisco, as we have mentioned, is a denomination of Peruvian origin. No one else can use this name, only those territories around the Pisco area”.

Fortunately, Caravelí did not suffer heavy damage in the war. Its industry survived and the Chileans did not pillage and burn the town down, nor massacre its population, as happened elsewhere.

El Cholo Berrocal

The day we arrived, the caravelians were beaming with pride for the official presentation of The Comendador pisco, winner in the competition held days before in Lima. The men wore the finest hats and the women also dressed elegantly. The Peruvian flag was being raised high into the ever-blue sky of Caravelí and a band played the national anthem.

The band also played the work of the great Cholo Barrocal, the famous composer of musica criolla born in Caravelí in 1937 and dying prematurely in Lima in 1983. They did a great job of playing Payaso, as well as No Me Beses and Adiós a la Patria, all hits of Isidoro Barrocal Coronado - his real name.

We made a point to look all over town for a photo of the great musician, who was blind from the age of eleven and for that reason formed a intimate relationship with his guitar. But we never did find any evidence of his being born and raise here, this idol of idols in the north of Peru as well as Ecuador and Colombia.

Bodegas

Before going to lunch at the bodega Chirisco, we were told by locals to cover our heads. Everyone wears hats around here due to the fierce burning sun that shines day after day. “It’s been years since it last rained, God has punished us”, said local woman Liliana Montoya, believing more in divine design than climate change. “And when it does rain, the sun comes out twice as strong”.

In all the bodegas we see huge tinajas, large clay jars used for hundreds of years to produce pisco. The jars are distributed in dark caves, some half-buried with dates like 1612 carved into them, with stylised crosses and a cap of volcanic rock to seal them. Their value is immeasurable, they don’t make these any more.

The owner of Chirisco is Marco Antonio Franco, who has 22 of these jars, where the grapes ferment from between 14 and 20 days. It is he who produces the black creole grape from which the champion pisco El Comendador is made.

Pisco route

The next day we visited other bodegas of Caravelí, those belonging to the Pisco and Wines Producers Association, otherwise known as the ruta del pisco - the pisco route. It posses incredible scenery and great historic and natural value, in addition to the incredible pisco. The further you travel, towards the edge of the department of Ayacucho and the peak of Sara Sara that sits in our way, we find the Parinacochas lagoon with its flamencos and the Galeras pampa and its vicuñas.

Mario Casas Berdejo, a local intent on showing Peru and the world the riches of Caravelí tells us; “Sometimes some European tourists pass through here. They camp in the higher parts, close to the guanacos and the condors… an incredible area, with forests of queñuales. But above all, the important herds of guanacos, perhaps one of the most important in the country. The problem is that there are hunters, that’s why we are asking that Alto Caravelí is declared a national reserve.

We visited the bodegas of Colca, Buen Paso, La Ollería and finally La Huarca, which has the oldest plants and is very pleasantly located. You really feel like you are out in the country.

We do see a strange structure in the distance though. Mario explains that this is a gold mine, but one Caravelí sees no benefit from due to poor distribution of the revenue. Worse still is that the company that runs it feels little in the way of social responsibility.

We stop for a moment to see the ancient petroglyphs of Ananta, while below us we see the valley of Caravelí, a vibrant fertile green colour, looking as if it is teasing the bleak desert that surrounds it. Mario says the volcanic soil found in his land, like the land of Italy, allows for the cultivation of the perfect grape. He stood there for a while, admiring this view as if it was his first time seeing it.

Now that the sun’s heat was waning, it was time to go home. In Caravelí, life is not measured in hours but in centigrades.

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Inca Garcilaso de la Vega

Born in Cuzco in 1539, Garcilaso de la Vega was the son of Spanish conqueror Sebastián Garcilaso de la Vega y Vargas and Inca princess Palla Chimpu Ocllo. He grew up in the earliest years of the Spanish empire, just when the conquered Incas were becoming used to Spanish rule. He lived among and was related to indigenous Peruvians who were alive in the days of Huascar’s rule in Cuzco and his subsequent battle with half-brother Atahualpa, as well as those who were alive during the rule of Huayna Capac.

He grew up learning both Quechua and Spanish while living with his mother - until he turned 10. It was then, with the death of his father who had long since abandoned the family, he decided to go to study in Spain with the 4,000 pesos he had received as an inheritance.

He was taken in by his father’s brother and received his education in Madrid. But Spanish life was not so easy. As marriages between the Spanish and indigenous peoples of the Americas were not recognised by the Spanish crown, he was considered and illegitimate child and had to spend years protesting for the rights of his father - which included a payment for services to the crown.

His greatest achievement was the detailed documentation of Inca history, from its founding of Cuzco by the sun-child Manco Capac to the death of Atahualpa at the hands of the Spanish. His early years in the Andean city and his firm grasp of Quechua gave him ample time to learn the customs and stories of his indigenous family members.

The Inca

His troubles in Madrid and his upbringing by royal Quechua natives in the conquered city of Cuzco during a time of great levels of Spanish cruelty made the chronicler fiercely proud of his Incan heritage. He was often refered to as Inca Garcilaso or just El Inca - literally meaning The Royal - intended to let Spaniards know he was royalty.

His writing made it clear who was in the right and who was in the wrong during the Spanish conquest and no amount of Spanish education and influence could change this. While Spanish propaganda prefered to vilify the Incas “barbaric” practices and belittle their achievements, Garcilaso de la Vega praised their fair, honest and advanced society.

When, in the 1700s, Tupac Amaru II attempted a rebellion, the Spanish authorities under orders from the king banned Garcilaso’s now famous book Comentarios Reales, declaring it “dangerous”.

As the son of Inca royalty, historians argue that he had a somewhat biased opinion of life in the Andeans under Quechua Inca rule. Suggestions that the Incas were altruistic in their wish to expand their empire, and the positive light he place on the Inca conquering of free peoples create this doubt.

The Spaniard

As the son of a Spaniard who ended up spending most of his life in Spain and having been educated in Europe, more doubts over the accuracy of his work surface. He seems to demonstrate a seemingly simplistic European style of royal inheritance for example.

Like a good Spaniard and good Christian, in a previous work about the conquest of Florida, he seems to promote the benefits of Christian rule. In Comentarios Reales he ridicules the “simple” and “gullible” indigenous for believing the Incas were children of the sun.

He also fails to mention unfavourable (to him) Inca practices, such as human sacrifice, that wouldn’t go down too well with those in the new society in which he lived and religion he practised.

Comentarios Reales

His masterpiece, Comentarios Reales, is considered the be the best and most detailed account of Inca history and early colonial rule. Although santitsed and not entirely accurate, it is thanks to this book, and the first mestizo writer of colonial South America, that we even have a record Inca history and timeline to contrast with all other research now undertaken.

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Our patrimonial Machu Picchu is, without a doubt, a wonder. But part of its current problem is that each day it suffers more and more from congestion by tourists, to the point where at times it looks more like some kind of fair. Today there are some interesting solutions that have been put forward to tackle the overload of this site, and one of them consists of putting more value in other nearby archaeological attractions and fostering a desire in tourists to visit those, thus de-congesting the main complex of Machu Picchu.

Inca road, Photo: Sam Judson

This is what they have achieved by cleaning up the access to Huayna Picchu, a very good idea from the chief of the historic sanctuary, archaeologist Fernando Astete. With this simple measure, there are 400 less people each day en Machu Picchu at peak hours. This idea can also be applied to a site called Kantupata, which Tiempo de Viaje [Rafo León's programme] was privileged to be able to visit.

If you’ve hiked the Inca Trail you’ll quickly understand the location of Kantupata. It is higher than Intipata, the citadel full of terraced farms that you visit just before arriving at Intipunku, from where you see the impressive panoramic view of Machu Picchu from above. As Manuel Alejo Silva, the archaeologist working on the site explains, Kantupata is found on the “other side of Machu Picchu”.

To get there we do something a little bizarre; we take the Inca trail backwards, going in the opposite way as tourists going to Machu Picchu, arriving as far as Wiñay Huayna. Here we spend a night, in the hostal, and before dawn the next day, we begin to climb. We first pass through tropical cloud forest, then through mountainous ferns and finally arriving at the Andean puna [dry high-altitude grassland]. The hike is very short in distance, but very tiring. We pass through an incredible diversity of habitats.

One of the steepest slopes delays us enough to observe the immensity of the view, and while the wind almost blows us off the mountain, we discover that before our eyes Machu Picchu is in view… but from an angle we have never seen before, not even in photos. The view is, how can I say, from behind. It is really stunning to behold.

Kantupata announces itself with a grand stairway of stone, which once cleaned-up by the archaeologists is truly impressive. Despite the way to the ruins being cleared, it doesn’t much lower our chances of coming face to face with the feared jergón, a venomous snake abundant in this area. Thankfully this didn’t happen and we could descend the stairs and arrive at some enclosures and a number of terraces, who’s design indicated they were for some very specific and fine use, perhaps to feed the Inca elite.

We continued on to a place that has particular impact. A large plaza with a shrine in the centre, surrounded by buildings and walls. Below, with a view of the peaks in the distance, more stone farming terraces unfold, parallel with water fountains similar to those at Wiñay Huayna. This place, framed by forest that is crossed by clouds of fog, sometimes illuminated by a sun that it rarely receives, is contrasted by the nearby giant ferns.

The stairs to Kantupata are mentioned in a report by the archaeologist Leoncio Vera in 1985, the only reference we have until, in 1990, Manuel Silva and a team received information of its existence during the time they were working on restoring Intipata. The informant was Silva’s personal assistant, Honorato Huillca, who in a low voice let him know of this wonder. Manuel Silva climbed up to it, analysed it and made a report to the corresponding authorities. But organised exploration never happened due to lack of financing.

15 years later, in 2005, an anthropologist from Cusco, Theo Paredes, became interested in Kantupata and he decided to visit. Paredes, a very well connected man and director of the Poqen Kanchay group, received financial assistance from the US association AMB. So, Silva and his team after all this time have now embarked on this restoration project.

The team has been working for the past year, prospecting and cleaning - processes that are revealing more and more artificial construction on the landscape, but constructions that are integrated into the natural environment - ecological architecture of the Incas with an as yet unsurpassed perfection.

Let’s hope that with the work of these archaeologists, all the world will be able to visit the lost ruins of Kantupata.

Photos of the site can be found here.

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Sweet potato-based bread

Just when you thought Peru couldn’t possibly fuse any more traditional foods of its immigrant communities with indigenous ingredients to create something new, original and mouth-wateringly tasty… along comes the Papanetón.

Born out of a recent push to convert Peruvians from the wheat eaters they are now to the potato eaters they used to be, mostly for economic reasons (reducing imports, increasing domestic potato consumption, aiding Andean farmers and reducing costs for everyone), Peru has taken the Italian desert Panetón (Panettone) it consumes tonnes of every Christmas and Peruvianized it.

Papapan, or Pan de Papa, Potato Bread in English (bread made from potato flour rather than wheat), is growing in popularity due to its superior softness, taste and nutritional value. It is found in all major supermarkets, from Wong to Plaza Vea, and costs either the same or less than normal bread. And perhaps most importantly, Andean potato growers benefit greatly from the extra income. Papapan is now feeding and nutritioning the rich and poor of Peru alike,

Panetón de Papa

while as usual the outside world ignores these events despite talk of a food crisis.

Panetón, as described here, is widely enjoyed in Peru around Christmas. But I doubt I’ll be buying as much now that I’ve tried the version made from potato flour. Softer, spongier and tastier. It’s even cheaper!

Launched with the support of the Government via Andean export promotor Sierra Exportador, the Papanetón is being carried by Plaza Vea nationwide. If you live outside Peru, you might want to order some from here.

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It is December in Lima; therefore, Christmas is coming; therefore, the city is being overrun by armies of panettone boxes.

You may wonder what this Milanese sweet bread is doing in Peru, which does not have a large Italian population.

Don’t ask. It’s Peru. Many decades ago, the dessert bread became coupled in the Peruvian imagination with Christmas festivities, and eating gobs of panettone became what one did at Navidad.

(Actually, the custom was introduced by Antonio D’Onofrio, the son of immigrants from Caserta, Italy, who licensed the Milanese recipe and packaging and proceeded to build a baking and ice cream empire in Peru, according to Wikipedia.)

Peru isn’t the only South American country where people eat panettone at Christmast time. Brazil and Bolivia, for instance, are big panettone consumers.

But I don’t think there you’ll find supermarket shelves stacked to the ceiling with panettone boxes, or young saleswomen (impulsadoras) dressed up in the colors of panettone boxes, or business owners standing on the checkout line with two carts full of panettone for their employees, as I’ve seen in Peru this year and last Xmas.

Peru is Panettone Central, S.A.

Read the rest and see the photos here »

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Main Pyramid

Let’s go back centuries before the Incas, yet more centuries before the Wari, and more than a full 2000 years before the Lima. In this period of time the valley of Lurín was inhabited by the Manchay culture, who’s development would have followed a similar pattern to that of the people of Caral. These pre-Chavin people are to whom we owe the legacy of dozens of U-shaped temples across the modern region of Lima from the valley of Chancay to that of Lurín.

Like many cultures of that period, their religious centres were formed around a large square or rectangle. On the top side was the largest and grandest pyramid topped by a temple, while on two other sides were smaller pyramid structures. For this reason they are called “U-Shaped” temples.

The collective culture of the Manchay was at its strength between 1800BC - 800BC, and just as with the people of Caral, we are unsure as to why they faded from existence, leaving a period of a few hundred years where huge monuments ceased to be built.

It is also the Manchay we have to thank for the wide green areas found in valleys such as Lurin, Rimac, Chillón and Chancay. It was they who first farmed the lower areas of these valley, creating fertile land with newly developed irrigation techniques.

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On returning to Lima I found out. It was because of the US company Doe Run and their immoral lead-smelting operation. As I followed the news, saw how Doe Run avoided meeting their obligations to clean up its act and stop poisoning the townspeople, saw them claim great improvements, saw environmental groups run tests to prove the situation is worsening, and saw more promises go unfilled time and time again - I couldn’t find the right moment to write about the case, or the words to express just how bad the situation is.

International attention comes and goes, but now La Oroya is in the spotlight once more as CNN begins its coverage of the town where 99% of the population is heavily lead-poisoned by up to three times the highest WHO limit, have strange rashes, stomach pains, are intellectually stunted, covered in layers of toxic dust of which 1,000 tonnes is omited per day, and where children are dying regularly. Living in this town means you are 2000 times more likely to die of cancer… that’s if you are even born. Should you not be miscarried, you are born pre-lead-poisoned and already risk not growing up at all.

Ira Rennert, billionaire owner of Doe Run doesn’t care though. Not one bit. Exploiting the vulnerable of third world nations is great business.

I present to you the mini-documentary;

House of Lead: A Story of Greed

Want to see more?

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Just a few days ago a horrible accident occured in San Diego, United States, when a US F-18 fighter jet plummeted into a residential zone, destroying homes and killing four people including two children. The pilot had ejected seconds before.

A similar tragedy almost occured in Peru 71 years ago. A plane completely in flames was heading was falling rapidly over the skies of Lima, heading towards Miraflores - then only a sea-side town found at the end of Av. Arequipa.

The pilot decided to remain with the aircraft, managing to crash just outside town in an unpopulated area, sacrificing his life to do so.

Potez 12 as flown by Salazar

This happened in pre-war years, when development of military aircraft was in full swing. It was this year, 1937, that Lima was hosting the Inter-American Technical Conference of Aviation, which as part of the event included a public display of aircraft from various attending countries.

On the 14th of September, as part of the training taking place in preparation for the show, a group of aeroplanes from the Cuerpo de Aviación del Perú - what was then the air force of Peru - had launched from Las Palmas Air Base for some practice flights over the skies of the capital.

Monument to Salazar

One pilot, Alfredo Salazar Southwell, soon began having problems with his two seater monoplane. A plume of black smoke appeared, then the entire fuselage burst into flames. With great skill, Salazar managed to keep the disintegrating plane under control. His co-pilot, Carlos Fajardo, who parachuted from the plane under his commander’s orders, told that Salazar remained completely calm and collected.

The Peruvian pilot attempted to move away from populated areas while gravity pulled him towards the earth. He never lost control, eventually ploughing into an area of Miraflores near the cuartel San Martín.

The people of Miraflores witnessed the crash, and Salazar’s heroic efforts to prevent loss of life, and paid homage to the man by erecting a monument at the end of Avenida Larco in his honour. Designed by Hungarian artist Lajos d’Ebneth, it consists of the head of a condor, alert and ready.

The location, on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean was turned into a park named Parque Salazar, today better known as the location of the LarcoMar shopping centre. The monument still stands.

Salazar isn’t the only Peruvian who heroically crashed his plane, read about Quiñones here.

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Ruins of Cerro Pátapo - Andina/Silvia Depaz

The bleak story of this site just 22km outside Chiclayo began to change on the 27th of November, when work lead by the Unidad Ejecutora Naylamp began with the aim of rescuing and restoring it. With the help of 45 local workers the project began to bear fruit immediately.

On removing the rubble, the remains of an impressive fort, houses, schools, solar observatories and even a monastery and courtroom were discovered.

The crowning moment for the workers, led by archaeologist César Soriano Ríos, occured some two kilometres from the centre of the citadel, when a huge ceramic pot was discovered containing the trousseau of a young woman with an age of between 17 and 21 years.

This is hugely important because from the items found inside we can learn how noble women dressed. Found inside were clothes made from local cotton including blouses and short dresses, as well as a large number of other personal items. The ceramic pot was found in a stone building that was 2 metres in height and some distance from the centre of the ancient city - this area is yet to be completely studied.

Court House

As workers moved tonnes of rubble that covered the citadel there were a number of other surprises to be had, such as two geoglyphs. One of them of a pelican-like mythical bird and the other of an ocean wave.

However, what most caught the attention of the archaeologist from Trujillo was the emergence of residential areas of the lords who ruled from 750AD until the year 1470, as well as areas where their court judged the prisoners.

The team was able to excavate the entire court area, including prison cells and the main court room where throwns were used for the judges to sit on. Those sentenced to death were lead to an area with a steep drop off the top of the hill the complex is located on. Bones have been found at the bottom.

Missing Link

According to the hypothesis of archaeologist César Soriano, the site is unique because of the period of time it was built and occupied - during the period immediately after the decline of the Moche and during the arrival of the Wari (Huari) in the 700s AD.

“We are faced with the evidence of the Wari culture, which would be a cultural continuity, after the Moche. We found some evidence that allows us to concluded that it is a fairly long period. It is an empire that existed 250 years before the emergence of the Incas, who spread across Peru bringing with them their culture and religion, giving people a new cultural direction in which to develop”, said the researcher.

Ruins of Cerro Pátapo - Andina/Silvia Depaz

“After the decline of the Moche followed the old Wari empire that flourished in this part of northern Peru building a series of constructions and road networks with which they dominated what is now the valley of Chancay-Lambayeque. They came with different technology, they taught locals to build with stone and to make stone rather than their typical pyramids of adobe, which are still preserved in different areas of the region”, he revealed.

With his 25 years of experience, Soriano knew he was facing a great discovery when his team began to reveal remnants of Wari pottery - then to uncover buildings of classic Wari design, previously wrongly identified as Inca.

Without a licence
The director of the corrupt, but mostly incompetent and bureaucratic National Institute of Culture (INC) César Medoza Canto stated that the Unidad Ejecutora Naylamp is operating without authorisation.

“They have not been issued with any document by us, and I think this is a case of an excess of volunteerism that would be contrary to existing laws”, he explained.

The site is registered with the INC as a protected zone of national heritage, but the under-funded and often uninterested governmental institution often does nothing to actually conserve their listed sites. Most deteriorate day after day, and organisations and individuals find it difficult to apply for licenses to carry out studies because those who work for the INC dislike having to do their jobs and may not even read the application before rejecting it.

The director of the Unidad Ejecutora Naylamp, Celso Sial Távara explained that they were forced to intervene following a series of complaints from residents, who reported that several sectors of the complex were being destroyed. The INC had done nothing to protect the site from tomb robbers nor conserve any part of it.

“In reality we have not done any kind of ‘excavation’, just cleaning and protection work, carried out by a professional archaeologist with extensive experience”, he said.

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While the first world is shrinking, the developing world is expanding and that includes Peru. Consumerism is on the rise and this holiday shopping season is sure to be a clear indication of those increased percentages.

Shopping centers and retail stores are popping up all over the country both big and small. Lima’s infamous Mesa Redonda gallery is expected to pull in $600 Million US Dollars this Christmas season alone, a hundred million more than last season’s sales.

So what is driving all this consumerism in Peru?

The Peruvian economy is increasing, foreign investment is on the rise, GDP and exports are growing, however the average Peruvian wage is bucking the growth spurt and remaining stagnant.

The common Peruvian is depending more and more on plastic and retailers are encouraging its use by making the acquisition of retail credit  as easy as pie.

The biggest malls and supermarkets aren’t found in exclusive districts such San Isidro, Miraflores, or La Molina, but rather in low income a.k.a. “C-Class” districts such as Los Olivos and the Cono Norte of Lima. Retailers in Peru specifically target the C-Class market, a socio-economic group that averages $200 USD or less per month.

Imagine your local supermarket offering you store credit (for us Americans this only exists with Wal-Mart.) Sounds odd, why buy groceries with a grocery store credit card?  In Peru this is common practice with Metro Supermarkets, a part of the Wong (now Chilean Cencosud) family.

EZ-CREDIT is the name of the game and for Peruvians that cannot prove formal income, they can always provide proof of receipt of 6 foreign money transmittances to get their Metro Supermarket Card or Tarjeta Metro.

Read the rest here »

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Dunes outside Huacachina

Huacachina is an oasis town formed for and overrun by tourism. Hotels and bars surround the little central lake, all in the shadow of the surrounding dunes. From here buggies ferry visitors around, up and down the dunes at breakneck speed before arriving in various locations where the sands are steep enough to slide down on boards.

Stopping off for an afternoon can give you a taste, but if you have time you really should hang around for a couple of days. It really is great fun.

A Taste

Dune buggy

Oasis

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The United States takes the cake on being the most obese society in the globe, but what is the secret to Americans slimming down abroad?

FRESH VARIETY
I once went into a Metro supermarket with my Kodak and recorded a few short clips to show to the folks back home. The produce manager wasn’t too thrilled with me recording in the store, but I explained to him that we didn’t have this much variety back in the States and that an American has to see it to believe it.

My very own eyes popped out of their sockets and my jaw dropped the first time I visited a Peruvian supermarket, I couldn’t believe the number, colors and variety of starches, grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, dairies, etc. that were in a commercial store. I saw foods I had never witnessed or tasted before in my life!

The produce section in Metro alone makes any American supermarket’s produce department look minuscule in size and variety.

While produce and meats are often fresh in commercial supermarkets in Peru, you can still find fresher ingredients by visiting any of the numerous municipal or district markets that dot the country.

With the Christmas holiday just weeks away markets will soon be filled with crates and truck beds loaded with Turkeys, YES - LIVE TURKEYS! Choose the bird you want to roast and they’ll slaughter it right in front of your eyes at the market - forget preservatives, genetically altered slaughter house poultry and a “Lord only knows how long it’s been sitting on the shelf” worries. You can check the quality and health of your food for yourself in the Peruvian markets.

If Poultry, Pork or Beef aren’t on the day’s menu for you, then you can hop on down to the Fish Markets of the Costa Verde.

Read the rest and see the videos here »

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Biggest Ceviche in the World

Mexico, one of many countries that have adopted and changed the ancient Peruvian dish of fresh fish cooked by acidic Peruvian Lemon juices with chopped chilli and onion, had in 2005 beaten the previous Peruvian record with a huge 4.5 tonnes of ceviche, also spelled as seviche and cebiche.

Peruvian chefs got together in the port city of Callao, home of fishing fleets and countless cevicherías, to bring the record home. With with almost seven tonnes of filleted fish, chopped onions, chilli and squeezed lemons, they succeeded - creating the biggest ceviche in the world.

A total of 450 students and chefs participated in the event organised by the Regional Government of Callao and an association of fish and seafood restaurateurs. They were able to prepare 6.8 tonnes - a little over two tonnes more than the Mexican record of 4.5 tonnes which in turn had beaten the previous Peruvian held record of 4.1 tonnes. It is hoped that the record holds out longer this time.

The representative sent by Guinness World Records, Carlos Martínez, verified each step of the process from fish filleting to juice squeezing to the final weigh in.

Weighed in portions, the delicious ceviche was handed out free to the more than five thousand people attending the Miguel Grau Colosseum in Callao. I, of course, was first in line.

Regional President of Callao Alex Kouri Boumachar, proudly announced to the world;

“We want to say to all the cities of the world not to bother trying to beat Callao, we will always beat the records. We will protect the prestige of our country in the preparation of our national dish, the ceviche”.

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by José Álvarez Alonso

Photo: Euclides Hidalgo

Amadeo García, the last of the Taushiros, escaped death because was living in the town of Intuto, capital of El Tigre, a day and a half away by canoe from his homeland. He was lucky, he was receiving treatment for a terrible new illness. The last time he went back to his ancestral town was to bring his brother Juan, dying from the same illness, to Intuto for the same treatment.

Juan, the penultimate of survivor his people, was latter buried, just a short time after his father and aunt had also passed away. At their graves remain dozens of dogs, companions of the last Taushiros during their final years. Here they stay, watching over the graves of their masters for weeks until they die of hunger, loyal to the end. Perhaps the Taushiro kept so many dogs to fill the vacuum left by the deaths of all their children, so that their ghost towns weren’t quite so quiet.

José Hualinga, a Kichwa-Alama hunter that travelled along the Tigre river, by chance saw, between the bushes, a canoe that appeared abandoned. When he approached he found Juan inside, weak and suffering an agonising death from malaria. He took him to Intuto, where he was slow to recover.

Malaria did not exist in the Amazon. It was a disease brought here by outside invaders, illegal loggers, barbaric slavers and the first missionaries. With no resistance to the disease, countless native tribes were wiped out, while others were weakened so much that outsiders - our oil companies, illegal loggers and other criminals from our civilisation - could come in and wipe out the rest so that we can benefit from the destruction of their land.

Juan spoke at the most just a few words of Spanish and he wasn’t much of a talker, but, shivering from the fever of his malaria, he explained that he had had to bury, just days ago, his father and his aunt. He later left in his canoe, letting the current of the Quebrada Aguaruna tributary take him to the Tigre river. He couldn’t make it to Intuto and would have died there and then if it wasn’t for that passer-by.

Juan couldn’t get used to life in the tiny village of Intuto. As soon as he had his strength back, he left Intuto and returned to the forest and his uninhabited village. Months later, the vicious malaria returned and took with it Juan and the very last of the Taushiros. Today, Amandeo is the last Taushiro of full blood and the last speaker of the Taushiro language.

Proud Hunter

Photo: Euclides Hidalgo, Intuto, 2008.

The first time I saw Amadeo, in January 1984, I was very impressed. He came walking along a street in Intuto with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He gave me an impression of someone with a pride and dignity that is not very common among the Amazonian indigenous. I knew of this man much before, from the Spanish missionary Tomás Villalobos, who had worked in Intuto since the early 1970s. He spoke to me of Amadeo and the sad history of his people, on the border of extinction.

Amadeo was famous as a great hunter. “In those times we hunted the big animals with spears and arrows for the smaller ones. Now I cant hunt like that because there are so few animals, I can only hunt with a rifle, and very deep in the jungle, walking for one day“, he explains. He remembers with nostalgia the old days, when he learnt the arts of hunting and fishing with his father and his uncles. He also remembers with joy the moment when the hunters arrived back to the village loaded down with meat. That day was a celebration, and all would eat until they were stuffed full.

Nostalgia

Photo: José Álvarez

Amadeo remembers well the abundance of animals and trees in the rainforest when he was young, and the beautifully made canoes that lasted decades. “The Taushiros cared for the forest because the forest gave us our food. We didn’t cut down the trees like they [the outsiders] do now, just to get at its fruit. The Taushiros were very good climbers, they could even climb the biggest trees like the leche caspi“, he says. With sadness he explains that these giant trees that once fed his people are now gone, cut down by another tribe who had forgotten the old ways and become part of our modern destructive world. Other trees, great numbers of them, were removed by outside loggers from far away. The animals too, the vast majority, were systematically exterminated by professional hunters from the outside world who would skin them and leave they carcases to rot, before moving on a ravaging other virgin areas of forest.

Today, the territory of the Taushiros is, like many of parts of the Peruvian rainforest, permanently devoid of animals and of fine trees. To find wildlife you have to travel days into the forest, to parts not yet destroyed but that soon will be.

Generational Change

Amadeo had five children with a woman named Margarita Machoa, an indigenous Kichwa-Alama. She later left him, because he was an “auka”, an indian, someone who had only recently had contact with civilisation and “learnt to wear clothes”. An evangelic missionary, in what was a difficult time for Amadeo and his children, offered to adopt them and take them back to his home country of Puerto Rico, an offer Amadeo had no choice to except. He couldn’t support his family. There was no longer anything to eat.

Photo: José Alvarez

With his children left the last hope that new blood would learn and speak the Taushiro language. His children have grown up in an environment far removed from the rainforest and their Taushiro heritage. They had little contact with their father other than sporadic letters.

One day I went to visit Amadeo. They had told me he was very sick, but not only was he sick, he was very depressed. In a daze he spoke to me, crying, about his children who did not want to go to see him, didn’t want to help him, didn’t want to know anything about him and his primitive ways, didn’t want to learn about their Taushiro origins, nor the language, nor the culture.

When Amadeo dies, so will the Taushiro.

For those who read Spanish, you may enjoy the story of Amadeo and his precious bible;

Amadeo y la Biblia

Una de las últimas conexiones con su pueblo y con su idioma estuvo, curiosamente, en la Biblia. Amadeo, que no tiene ya con quien conversar en su propio idioma, se refugiaba en la lectura del Nuevo Testamento en Taushiro que tradujeron hace años los lingüistas del ILV, los que también le enseñaron los rudimentos de la lectura. Todos los días, como si de un ritual sagrado se tratase, se calzaba con cuidado sus lentes de aumento y leía algún fragmento de su destartalado pero precioso libro, rememorando quizás otros tiempos de largas conversaciones en Taushiro con su gente.

En 1997 un amigo común en Intuto, Jorge Coral, me comunicó por radio desde Intuto que se había producido una desgracia: Amadeo había perdido sus preciados lentes de leer, no podía leer su Biblia y estaba muy triste. Me pedía que le enviase desde Iquitos unos nuevos. Obviamente esto no era posible, necesitábamos saber las medidas de su vista, así que no quedaba otra que Amadeo bajase a Iquitos a medirse la vista. Conseguimos convencerlo de que viajase en la siguiente lancha, acompañado con nuestro común amigo Jorge Coral.

Amadeo se alojó en mi casa. Al día siguiente le pregunté que tal había descansado, y me confesó que no pudo dormir en la cama (que tenía un colchón de resortes) y había tenido que dormir en el suelo, ya que estaba acostumbrado a dormir sobre un simple emponado (piso de tronco de palmera). El calzado fue otro problema: Amadeo siempre había caminado descalzo y, para ir al monte de caza, con botas de jebe. Para ir oculista le presté unas zapatillas deportivas, pero sus anchos y encallecidos pies no se acostumbraban, y luego de caminar unos metros se las tuvo que sacar y caminar descalzo: prefería quemarse las plantas con el cemento calcinado por el sol que torturar sus pies con las zapatillas.

Le conseguí unos nuevos lentes el mismo día, pero se sentía tan incómodo en la ciudad, que a cada rato preguntaba por la lancha para Intuto, que se demoró varios días en zarpar. Cuando por fin se embarcó para Intuto, juró no volver a la ciudad jamás.

Hoy Amadeo ya no cuenta más con ese su último vínculo con el idioma Taushiro. La humedad y el comején, que devoraron las últimas casas y las cruces de las tumbas de sus parientes en Aguaruna, acabaron destruyendo su preciado Nuevo Testamento en Taushiro.

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End of Andean winter, April 2008

Life on the barren Peruvian coast and dry ocean-facing Andean slopes is predicted to become just that much drier in the coming years. As the world heats up and the tropical glaciers of Peru’s Andes mountains disappear, the narrow green fertile valleys that are fed by their melt waters will also disappear. The rivers that run down to the Pacific ocean provide fresh water to the vast majority of the Peruvian population, those in the cities and those in the fields alike.

The Nevado Chachani, a volcano found in Arequipa, this November finally ran out of snow according to local authorities. Engineer Zacarías Madariaga of the region’s Environmental Health Agency, explains that the final decline in the amount of ice at the volcano’s peak started in September, picked up pace by October and the ice was completely gone by November. And just like that, in such a short period of time, the peak was without snow for the first time in its history.

Water crisis

Arequipa is this year facing a water crisis, with two of its four reservoirs empty. The other two hold a combined 73 million cubic metres, while the White City uses one million per day.

Sebastián Zúñiga Medina, regional director of SENAMHI, Peru’s meteorological and hydrological authority, explains that the period encompassing the last few months of 2007 were the hottest and driest recorded. This led to more water evaporation - an incredible 7 litres per any square metre of exposed water [per time period was not given by the source].

He goes on to explain that the Chilina river, on which the city of Arequipa sits, is likely to be affected as Chachani fuels the Chili river that is the Chilina’s source.

Both Madariaga and Zúñiga blame global warming for the loss of ice and impending droughts, but also blame local authorities who ignored several years of warnings. City authorities did nothing to reduce air pollution and ignored recommendations to re-forest surrounding hills to increase the humidity of the air.

For those who have been to Arequipa, Chachani is located to the left of the famous El Misti, and was always covered in snow even why El Misti wasn’t.

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Cerro de Pasco city, 1993, Photo: Cyberjuan

After intense and at times colourful debate, the population of Cerro del Pasco and its authorities have approved the immediate relocation of their city. Although not all entirely happy, residents have accepted the decision.

The new location, in accordance with the proposition made by authorities, will be 35 kilometres to the south of its actual position, between the towns of Shelby and Tambo del Sol.

Regional president of Pasco, Félix Rivera Serrano, described the agreement as historic, and from today work will begin to move the entire city.

Pollution

The decision, according to Rivera Serrano, was taken because of the high levels of pollution that have seriously affected the health of the 80,000 strong population.

Cerro de Pasco mine, 1993, Photo: Cyberjuan

“The problem of pollution around the city of Cerro de Pasco has a long history and is linked to mining, which affects not only the city’s territory and urban infrastructure, but also the environment, economy, social and cultural structures”, he said.

In the agreement reached by the public assembly, it was emphasised that the relocation was a vital necessity. The assembly was convened by Peru’s Peoples Committee of Andean, Amazon and Afro, Environment and Ecology of Congress, a group created to protect the rights of Peru’s rural citizens.

Among those present were a number of congresspeople including Roger Nájar, Gloria Ramos, Carlos Cánepa, Oswaldo de la Cruz, Tomas Cenzano, Hilaria Supa and María Sumire. They were joined by the chairman of the regional government, Felix Rivera, the provincial mayor, William Tito Valle, and public relations officer for the company Volcan, Luis Pariona Arana. Also, by representatives of social organizations, unions, human settlements, towns, traders and the general public.

Peru has long had serious problems with pollution. Mining and oil operations were at one time poorly controlled and regulated, poisoning the local environment and making local populations ill. Despite new laws, many of these foriegn owned operations still have little in the way of an environmental or social conscience.

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Descended from the older Paracas civilisation, the Nazca are of course most famous for their countless mysterious lines drawn in the rocky desert plains in which they lived. They were also great water engineers, creating a series of complex aqueducts.

When you think of the Nazca, you think of their mysterious geometric shapes and lines in the desert, which were seemingly important enough to dedicate such huge amounts of time and resources to create.

From their capital city of Cahuachi, archaeologists have gleamed far more information about this pre-Incan people. This city was of immense, memorising proportions. Most estimates put the terrain it covered at as much as 24km2, that’s, dare I mention it, bigger than Chan Chan, built centuries later. It stretches along the sandy slopes overlooking the fertile valley, in a line that is, by my estimate, about 12km. Here you’ll find dozens of pyramids, broken pottery scattered across the desert and textiles just beneath the surface.

What was found here told us that the Nazca were descendants of the older Paracas culture, continuing their production of some of the most complex and creative textile patterns in the Andean world, and continuing and improving upon their ceramic production techniques, creating new methods to produce colourful and more realistic decoration.

From their ancient burial ground of Chauchilla, we learn that far from being small, the average Nazcan was 1.7m or 5.57ft tall. They also sported long thing dreadlocks that reach the floor.

Other than the fascinating lines, or the huge ceremonial city of Cahuachi, the Nazca are also famous for their complex underground aqueducts, bringing water to the more arid parts of their world. Wells leading down into them are found at Cantalloc, near the much later Inca ruins of Paredones, eventual rulers of this land.

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A recent finding by the El Comercio newspaper has shown that 90% of the 38 planes operating at the aerodrome are between 35 and 40 years old. One aircraft, with registration OB-1202, is a staggering 52 years old! Thankfully the operator, Nasca Air Lines, formally Aero Ica, has recently been shut down.

In a similar situation is the company Nasca Connection, who operate three light aircraft manufactured in the 60’s and two in 1976. They have however bought three new planes of the Caravan brand made in 1998, 1999 and 2004 - this meaning that on average they have Nazca’s most modern fleet.

Carlos Palacín Fernández EIRL, another of the operators that recently changed its name to Travel Air, offers its services with six light aircraft built between 1961 and 1980, while Aero Paracas owns five aircraft built between 1960 and 1963. These are joined by Alas Peruanas who operate four planes with ages between 28 and 45 years, Expreso Moche has one plane from 1983, Aero Santos with one from 1966, Alas de América with one from 1973, Taxi Aereo Ejecutivo with two from 1963 and 1972, and finally Aero Palcazú with planes between 26 and 32 years old.

Without Peru’s Ministry of Transport (MTC) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) pushing for and legislating for renovation, little if anything is likely to be done.

A source at the aerodrome explains that on these old planes, navigation is carried out visually and by radio, whereas in other countries it is done by satellite. “In other countries this assistance from air traffic is through satellite equipment to minimize risks”.

The source goes on the explain that the 38 light aircraft that operate from the aerodrome have the exact same control panels, instruments, equipment, cabs, seats, doors, fuselage and wings from the year they were built. Nothing has been renewed.

Another issue is the limited passenger capacity. Of the 38 aircraft, 17 have space for three passengers, 12 for six passengers and only 4 for twelve passengers. This means, due to saturated skies over the lines, their is little capacity for further grown in tourism.

Accidents

In March of this year, five French citizens were killed after mechanical failures caused their plane to crash. The aeroplane was operated by Aeroica (Aero Ica) which has now had its operations shut down.

Last December a light aircraft belonging to Aerocondor carrying four French tourists had to make an emergency landing on the Panamerican highway due to a mechanical fault. Just days before, also due to a mechanical fault in their ageing fleet, 12 Japanese tourists and one North American were also involved in an emergency landing. The company’s licence to operate was revoked.

In March of 2007, another five French tourists almost lost their lives when their plane ran out of fuel mid-air. The operating company Aero-Palcazú had not given the group enough fuel to complete the trip. Luckily the pilot was able to land on the Panamerican highway without hitting cars.

Ten years ago, one of the worst accidents occurred. Two aircraft hit each other over Nazca killing ten Italian and German tourists.

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Maria Reiche

Born in Dresden, Germany, the young mathematics and geography student left her country with no real wish to come back - in 1932 a man named Adolf was rising to power but was not her kind of future leader. Looking for a way out, she applied for a job as a nanny for the children of a German consul in Cusco, Peru. She was hired, sailed to Peru and never returned.

She fell in love with the country, and the Inca capital. She also took an interest in Peru’s ancient cultures, as everyone who spends time in their country does, and enjoyed visiting the sites around Cusco such as the famed Machu Picchu.

She later moved to Lima where she took a teaching job, and worked as a translator for scientific papers. Hearing from an American scientist in Lima about some newly discovered lines and figures in the Nazcan desert, she was fascinated, and as soon as the opportunity arose she headed south. On seeing the figures from the air, she was so struck by them that she decided to dedicate herself to understanding them, what they meant and where they came from.

For the next 40 years of her life, Maria Reiche lived alone in a small house in the Ingenio valley, just to the side of the vast desert plains. She studied and published, studied and published, just able to fund what was long and tiring work. With the little money she made, this foreigner was able organise aerial photographs and campaign to the Peruvian Government to persuade them to protect their heritage. Eventually, the government agreed to restrict access to the plains so that people couldn’t walk and drive over the lines.

The tower Maria Reiche had built

She was able to hire couple of guards to protect the area, and spent time herself staring out over the plains from the visitor’s tower she had built looking for intruders.

Tirelessly, she spent day after day of her life under the hot sun cleaning rocks from lines, and working on her theories as to what they were for. She for one came to the conclusion that the lines were some kind of calendar, marking solstices and the passage of stars and constellations.

When her health deteriorated, and she was confined to a wheelchair, this remarkable woman still continued giving lectures on her beloved lines. She lived in a room in Nazca’s fancy Hotel Nazca Lines, which thanks to the military dictatorship of Velasco, was granted to her for the rest of her life without cost. She was given a host of honours including being declared an honorary citizen of Peru.

She grew very ill and died in 1998 at the age of 95, her work having given the town of Nazca the prosperity it has today from a booming tourist industry, as well as recognition and protection of the ancient mysterious lines that during her lifetime were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Despite not being able to definitively prove her theory, anyone and everyone who studies these lines and does prove something will owe her their success.

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She had, when leaving her native Germany for Peru in the early 1930s, sensed she might not return. A feeling compounded by the fact that on arriving on the Peruvian coast something strange happened.

Count the fingers

“It was a kind of destiny. When I first came to Peru by sea the ship went passing through the centre of four consecutive rainbows - four arcs, one inside the other! It was a marvellous spectacle. It must have been some kind of prediction or something. Imagine a boat, a boat driving through the open sea, passing through arching rainbows that touched the waves”, she once commented.

It was not long after she had arrived that an accident occurred. While enjoying the Andean scenery she pricked her finger quite badly on the needle of a cactus. After a few days, and heavily swelling of her hand, the doctor attending her had no choice but to amputate the finger due to gangrene.

She had now only 9 fingers.

Skipping forward in time, Maria Reiche had been made aware of a new and amazing archaeological discovery in the desert outside Nazca. She said several times she felt drawn to the site, compelled to study it. And she did until they day she died.

What’s fascinating though, something she noticed immediately when studying the huge drawing of the monkey, is that it only had 9 fingers. Five on one hand and 4 on the other. Just like Maria Reiche.

Count the fingers

It’s an amazing coincidence, made all the more so by the feeling Maria had when walking around the lines. She felt at home, she seemed to know where others were located, like she had been there before. Other figures, both on pottery and also in the desert, also so animals with one finger less on one hand.

Was Maria Reiche destined to be here? Was she a reincarnated Nazcan? Did the Nazcans know that a thousand years down the line a devoted woman with nine fingers would bring their creations to the attention of the world and lovingly restore them?

Impossible to prove, but a wonderful story nonetheless.

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Site of discovery

The Bosque de Pomac