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