July 23rd - Acari - the dig goes on

Hello again,

It's Saturday and I came to Nazca for the day so that I could run some errands and use the interent. E-mail is possible from Acari, but excruciatingly slow, and updating the blog is just not possible. So, I don't mind a little excursion - it's nice to get out to the 'big city' every now and then.

Last week it was just Francesca and I from the original textile group. We went out to the dig on Monday, and had a great time working with the other archaeology group there (wave to Annalisa and Patrick), then returned to the hotel to work on our textiles for the afternoon. On Tuesday we stayed back to focus on textiles because it was Francesca's last day in Acari. After working for a few hours, we did some exploring around town and found a little parade of sorts - about 4 cars all decorated with crepe paper and flowers, and filled with kids in costumes and a small dance group marching along behind. There was nobody watching the parade except us - it seemed the participants were the only folks involved. After they passed, we continued to the end of town and walked across a suspension bridge to the old part of Acari. There is a peach colored church facing a palm tree lined plaza with little houses with peeling paint lining the square. It was so peaceful there, I know I'll return with a good book some sunny afternoon. When we returned there wasn't much time and soon Francesca boarded the collectivo along with all the other folks from the group that we were staying with. I waved them all goodbye, and then headed in to sort out my new living situation.

I'm still at the same hostal, but now I'm the only guest. I have a cute, simple, single room that reminds me of Van Gogh's painting of his room - a crooked little single bed, a straightbacked chair, walls painted in peeling pale green and the floor in brick red, and a window with breezy curtains and a broken pane, facing out to the street. I also still have use of the 'dining room' which is a converted hotel room now hosting a large table and a cooler, which doubles as my breakfast room and my workshop for the textiles. It's a nice set up, and only three blocks or so from where the other archaeology group is staying, so it works out fine for me.

Since the departure of the others, my days have settled into a comfortable routine. I wake up and have breakfast at my hostal, then walk over to the other house by 7:45 or so to go to the dig with the group. We drive about 40 minutes over unpaved roads, then walk another 20 minutes across a river bed, up a sand dune, and into the desert to reach the site. Once there, we have assigned 'unit' areas to dig, layer by layer, trying to piece together the significance of the site and the lifestyles of the inhabitants. It's really interesting and we're all getting quite tan. At about 12:30 about half the group packs up to go back to Acari, the others stay until 3 or so. I go with the early group, to have lunch at the Archaeolgist house and then return to my workshop to process textiles for the afternoon. Then it's a shower, some time reading e-mails at the internet place ('World Computer') and then dinner and socializing at the Archaeologist place until it's time to go back to my hostal and hit the sack. I'm having a good time, and it's nice to have a routine.

My plan is to continue this way through the end of next week, then travel back to Arequipa with Alina, helping her to transport the collection from her site and getting a ride back to a place where I can stash some of my stuff. From there, I hope to travel down the rest of the Peruvian coast, making my way to Tacna, then busing it over to Puno to see the Lake Titicaca area. If time and logistics seem good, I'll also zip over to Bolivia for a few nights to see Tiahuanaco and the museums of La Paz. If the conditions don't seem good though, I'm sure I'll be plenty busy without that side trip. After all that, I'll be high tailing it back to Lima to catch my flight home. All this is subject to change, of course, but for now that's the plan.

Peru continues to be a place full of warmhearted people and amazing history. I'm so glad I'm here. It's not always the easiest place, logistically, but once you relax into it, it all works just fine.

That's probably about all you'll want to read in one sitting, so I'll sign off for now. The next posting may not be until early August, when I get to Arequipa.

Until then, hope you're all well. Take care,

Karen

July 16th - Acari and the world without internet

Hello faithful blog readers,

I'm so happy to be in a place where I can finally write. I've been in places with little or no internet since leaving Arequipa, and now I'm in Nazca again where computers make good communication devices again (as opposed to planters or paperweights). But, I'm getting ahead of myself....

In Arequipa our last day of class was Friday the 8th. We finished up mounting a few prized textiles from the Puerto Viejo site and then set out for a last quick lunch with Kate before bidding her a sad goodbye. She's off to dig in Italy instead, so we're not feeling bad for her - just for ourselves. She was great company. Saturday was a free day, and then on Saturday night we all packed up and climbed on a night bus to Puerto Inca. The bus left at 10pm or so, and we rode until just before 5am on a very comfy, cushy, swanky double decker bus. The seats reclined almost fully, and there were footrests and the bus was even heated. In fact, it was so heated that the temperature climbed to over 80 degrees at 2 in the morning. We had all dressed thinking we'd freeze, so it was an interesting striptease on the bus as everyone tried to shed as much as they could get away with. The temperature finally went back down a bit, and we slept and arrived bleary-eyed in Chala, with just a 15 minute ride in a collectivo to get us to Puerto Inca where we met up with another group of archaeology students who are working up in Acari.

Puerto Inca is a beach side resort in an area rich with archaeological sites. We had a blast. The waves crashed on the beach just below the hotel, and we spent Sunday hiking through some great sites. On Monday we set out for Tambo Viejo, a large site on the coast with extensive walls, storage facilities, and graveyard. After driving north for half an hour, then off road for 20 minutes or so, then hiking in another 20 minutes through sand dunes and wind carved canyons, we came to the site. It was really interesting, and best of all, we were with the archaeologists who work that site and helped to gather textiles of interest from the looted gravesite area. The textiles were interesting, but the bones are so much moreso. The huaqueros steal the things they consider valuable from the tombs and scatter the contents all over the sand, so we were climbing into the tombs and sifting through what remained to find representative or diagnostic examples of their work. After an hour or so of this, we had to head back for lunch, so we hiked back and climbed in for the ride home. However, our hopes of arriving soon were soon sunk in the sand, along with the rear axle of our van. We spent two hours digging and placing rocks for traction and pushing and getting 6 inches further and repeating the whole process until finally we were back on something that would hold. It was an interesting study in group dynamics as the peruvian driver, two seasoned archaeologists, an NASA engineer and assorted gringos all offered their strategies for moving the van. Eventually it all worked out and we made it back to Puerto Inca about 4pm, really dirty, really hungry, and really ready for lunch. Thankfully they had held it for us and we dived in with gusto.

The next morning we piled into the van again and headed up to Acari, which is a little more than 2 hours up the coast and then inland a bit on a road that is so bad the locals drive over the hardpacked dirt alongside it instead. Acari is a tiny mining town at the foot of a giant sand dune and at the tip of a moist river valley extending down from the mountains. There are two tiny hotels in town - we're occupying Hostal Pepe. It's basic to say the least, with simple rooms, an open air courtyard, shared bathrooms and electric showers. We arrived and the other group gave us a tour and instructions on how to shower without electrocuting yourself and we spent the rest of Tuesday settling in. In the evening we walked over to where the third archaeology group, the osteologists, are staying. They have a large international group - 16 students or so - and seem well organized and very interesting. The textile team is here to work on the textiles from their site, and on Wednesday we did just that, sorting, straightening, and noting the exceptional pieces.

On Thursday we went out to the site. The central portion dates to about 400ad, with a graveyard behind which is more like 1400ad or so (dates may be updated in a later blog). We had a site tour and then set to work, with Miriam in a pit with a mummy and Francesca and I scavenging through the looted graveyard area for textiles. The richness of this site was absolutely incredible. There were bones and textiles and bits of pottery litterally all over the place. We ended up working on hands and knees because every time I put my hand beneath the sand it touched something of interest. It was extraordinary. We collected the interesting pieces into a pile - since it's been looted there's no context anymore so pieces can be picked up and moved around. After a picnic lunch in the field we finished the day by prioritizing the pile and doing our best to fit the pieces we wanted into the few bags we had available. The pieces were all brought home and we spent Friday spreading them out and cataloging them. We have a fully intact shirt from a pre-Incan child, several other shirt fragments, several interesting examples of various weaving tecniques, three small coca leaf bags, and a very large blanket with interesting and elaborate mending on it, amongst other pieces. Next week Francesca and I will be working on cleaning it all up, flattening it, and documenting the really important pieces in the afternoons. In the morning, we'll be returning to the dig. It's going to be great.

This weekend, we're in Nazca. Which is why I finally have internet. I'm not sure when I'll be back on, but individual e-mails are working better than the blog on the satelite connection from Acari, so if you want to find me, write to my earthlink address.

I hope everyone is having a great summer. I'm having an amazing time down here and I'm learning a lot. I'll write again as soon as I can.

Karen

July 7th - Arequipa - Conservation Class

Hello faithful blog readers,

So sorry for the gap again. I've been tied up with classes and we've been trying to pack in every possible thing before we leave Arequipa on Saturday.

Class is going well. We are learning about textile conservation and mounting, and have covered methods of cleaning, flattening, preserving, storing, and presenting ancient textiles. There have been many interesting samples under our fingers, and I feel very lucky to be a part of it. Class runs from 9am until 5pm or so, which gives us just a bit of time before dinner, and not much free time at all for seeing Arequipa. However, our teacher took pity on us yesterday and gave us some time in the middle of the day to see two of the famous museums here. It was a big relief - I've been in town two weeks and hadn't had the chance yet.

The first was the Archaeology museum, run by the Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria (the same school that hosted the conference). They expanded their collection in anticipation of the conference, and therefore had much more on display than the brief blurb in Lonely Planet would lead you to believe. All the same, Peruvian museums are interesting. There was no sign of UV or humidity control for the artifacts, informative labels didn't really coordinate with the displayed objects, and then there is the chain smoking museum curator, who wanders through the collections puffing all the while. There were some very interesting things to see there though, and we got a tour of the back rooms and the storage area (currently a hot store room on the roof - I took a picture - you'd have to see the heaps of priceless artifacts in caved in cardboard boxes to believe it).

After that museum and a really yummy Mexican lunch (yes Mexican), we went to the other main archaeology museum here, who's main claim to fame is Juanita, the ice mummy. She was an Incan sacrifice, left at the peak of a nearby volcano 500 years ago or so, as an offering to the gods. Her tomb site was found intact, with some very interesting artifacts, and three other child sacrifices have also been found on the mountain now. The information gleened from these sites is invaluable, as very few Peruvian sites are found by archaeologists before the tomb robbers get to them. They've kept the mummies frozen since they were found (about 10 years ago), because to thaw them would risk decomposition. Juanita is on display here 8 months of the year, and the others are alternated in while she's in the lab the other months. The textiles, metalwork, and ceramics were very interesting. I bought a book of photos (none are permitted in the museum, so what was I to do?).

There's a fellow here at the hotel who has adopted me as his English tutor. He's the sweetest guy ever. He makes lists of words and phrases that he doesn't know, and often stops me in the evenings to ask me for translations. He even asked me for help in writing love notes to his girlfriend in English - so sweet. Last night, he asked me if I would read a list of verbs into a tape recorder, so that he could review pronounciation. It was an odd experience, reading for a good hour into a mike and trying to annunciate clearly but realistically. Also it's so interesting to view English from an outsider's perspective - it's such an odd language. For example: present tense 'read', past tense 'read'. What sense does that make? Afterwards, he showed me his english workbook and asked a few questions. He's so appreciative and I really enjoy it, so it's a good partnership. Oh, and my laundry that I dropped off this morning was not only done when I got back from class, but folded and set in my room - not a bad thing to have someone looking out for me around here.

And that is about all the news I have for now. Kate flies home tomorrow, and the rest of us will board a bus on Saturday night (probably) to head for Puerto Inca, a resort area on the coast, for a day or two of R & R before we head up to Acari for the dig. It will be nice to have a change of scenery. I really like Arequipa, but I'm ready for a new routine. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes from here.

Until then,

Karen

July 3rd - Colca Canyon

Since my last blog, I attended a second day of the Archaeology conference. It was so interesting, and included many presentations on bioarchaeology and osteology. I went to lunch with a small group of working archaeologists again, and really loved sitting in on the analysis, banter, and idea sharing. It seems surreal to be a part of all that, but somehow, there I am. The conference ended for the evening at 8:00 or so, and I returned to the hotel to pack for Colca. While I was assembling my things, Miriam came knocking on the door to tell me that she was just watching one of my lunch companions on the Discovery channel. Fun stuff.

Francesca and I were told that the tour agency's van would pick us up at our hotel between 5:30 and 6am for the Colca trip, so we were asleep by 10 and up bright and early. The only thing we hadn't anticipated was that our hotel is secured both for people coming in (there is a buzzer system that notifies someone inside to unlock the door), but the security also apparently works for people leaving. So, at 5:30am we found ourselves locked inside our hotel. It was rather odd. There are courtyards within the hotel grounds, but to get out required passing through padlocked doors, so eventually we had to wake someone up to let us out. At least we know that security is tight here!

The trip to Colca takes about 5 hours, over mostly unpaved roads. We stopped for coca tea and breakfast at 7 or so, to prepare us for the altitude. The road goes over a pass that is something like 4600 meters (I'll look up the precise number and update the blog soon). Coca tea helps with altitude, or so the local lore goes, so who are we to question it? It was tasty and we were off again for the small town of Chivay.

We arrived in Chivay at 11 or so, and took a walk down a country road to the local hot springs. They were much more elaborate than I expected, with a full, clean swimming pool full of hot mineralized water from the springs. They provided towels and lockers and showers, and everything was really very decadent. After the baths, we went to lunch and then to our hotels. The funny thing was that our hotel turned out to be in another town altogether. We had told the guide we'd like to take a little siesta and then go exploring, and so he gladly started driving down a country road into the booneys. When we finally asked where we were going, he said 'to your hotel'. After a bit more discussion, he agreed to give us a couple of hours and then return us to Chivay so that we could see the town, and the market and have dinner in a restaurant (instead of in the hotel ). We had two hours to explore our little town and then two and a half hours in Chivay before dinner. It was great - Francesca and I wandered all over the place and shopped in the market and explored the churches and I took a bunch of pictures. We waited for the guide in an Irish Pub - yes that's right, and actual Irish pub in the middle of a little Peruvian town. They had Guinness on tap and a pool table. It was a hoot.

Dinner was at a place with a Peruvian band and folk dancers, and was a lot of fun. The dancers performed several traditional routines, and a finale which was decidedly odd. The first dances were romantic or about planting the fields or that sort of thing. The final dance started with a couple - one has an apple, the other has a rope. The woman gives the apple to the man, and takes the rope from him. He 'tastes' the apple, and falls to the floor in mock convulsions. She then proceeds to whip him with the rope, and not gently either. Then she stradles him and fans his face with her skirts, then wraps the rope around his neck and hoists him to his feet. He then gives her the apple, and the whole scene is repeated with roles reversed. He even fans her with her own skirts, then hoists her over his shoulder, pickes her up and spins her around. Following this, they take to looking for audience participation. I mean really, who wouldn't want to lie on a restaurant floor and be whipped by someone in traditional Colca attire? It was honestly the weirdest folk dance I've ever seen, and no, I didn't volunteer to 'dance'.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel and went to sleep. Other than the fact that there was no running water (or water of any sort provided), it was a lovely place, with a great view of pre-Incan terraces out back. The water problem wasn't the hotel's fault I guess - the whole town was without water. I don't know why.

Anyway, we got up for a great buffet breakfast, and set off to find the condors. We drove a ways through amazing scenery in the canyon to the Cruz del Condor, and hiked for 40 minutes or so before arriving at the first lookout. The condors come really close, and surprisingly they're not territorial. As many as 7 were circling at once, riding the thermal winds in spirals across the canyon. They are huge birds and are both very ugly and amazingly graceful as they tilt their wing tips and tail feathers to navigate the breeze. We stayed for an hour and it was fabulous.

The drive back included a few stops in little towns to look at the colonial churches, and stops at overlooks to see more terraces and views of the valley. Lunch was in Chivay again, and then we headed back for Arequipa.

I've had so many experiences in the past four days, it's hard to belive. It was great to be a part of the conference, and then wonderful to be travelling again. My new class on Textile Conservation and Mounting starts tomorrow and continues for the next week. I'm looking forward to the information, but it's hard to have my time so tied up when I'm here in Peru with so many things to see. Thankfully there's time to return after the program if I don't fit in everything on my wish list.

It's almost 9pm, but feels later because I've been going non stop, so that's all the story telling for now. Hope everyone is well.

Karen

July 1st - Arequipa - The Conference

Hello faithful blog fans,

So sorry for the long absence. Things have been busy, and since I've been in only one place, it seemed like there wasn't so much to update you on. However, all that has changed. But, before I go there, here's a quick review since last Saturday.

On Sunday, Elli and I took a 'countryside' tour, and were driven up above the city to see some lovely overlooks, view some traditional farming - including terracing, llamas, a variety of Peruvian fruits, and a pen of guinea pigs, and then went to a mansion that was once the home of the founder of Arequipa, and from there we went to a mill which doubles as a lovely picnic area. It was interesting and beautiful and a nice break from the city.

There has been a taxi strike over the past week. While there were rumours that this might incite dangerous situations, the streets are actually much safer for pedestrians without all those crazed Tiko taxis zipping around. I haven't heard of any actual confrontations, but the roads outside the city were closed for a few days, and people had some trouble coming and going. As for us, we're in easy walking distance from everything we need, so it was actually a nice respite from traffic.

The Techniques of Ancient Peruvian Textiles class is officially over. Our last day was Wednesday. We completed our overview of pre-columbian Peruvian cultures, worked on our conservation techniques, and finished up the workbook on weaving techniques. The samplers were completed to various degrees. Kate's loom broke and she declared it a sign from God. We all empathized. My sampler has a long way to go, but I expect I'll still poke at it from time to time next week.

The Archaeology Conference (official title to follow in blog update) started yesterday, and it was really amazing. The group isn't huge, but includes most everyone doing work in Southern Peru, northern Bolivia and northern Chile. I sat through many papers yesterday, and introduced myself to just about everyone there, even scoring myself an invitation to lunch with the whole English speaking contingent. I'm getting some good tips on grad schools, making some great connections, and learning a lot. It's fabulous.

Today, I need to run over to the travel agency before breakfast to book a trip to Colca Canyon. Francesca and I are hoping to go on Saturday and Sunday. It's not quite the deepest canyon in the world - the neighboring canyon is actually 136 meters deeper, but it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and features extensive Inca agricultural terracing and the famed Andean Condors. After booking the trip, it's breakfast and then a totally full day at the conference. Most of the papers I'm specifically interested in are being presented today, and then tonight there's likely to be a gathering of the same North American contingent at a local club, so I think I'll go there too. I'm not sure when I'll sleep tonight, but I'm sure I'll catch a few hours before leaving for Colca. With all of that, it may be a few days before I check in again.

Hope everyone is well. I'll write again soon.

Karen