Amazonian dancers and communication tangos

Hello all,

Today has been a comedy of communications. This morning we tried to phone Rosio, the lead archaeologist on the Peru team, to find out the status of the project from her point of view. We still don't have confirmation that our permits from the government have come through, or any idea of exactly how many folks are coming from their team, when they are available, what gear they lack, and how long they're planning to work at the cave. I've been e-mailing Rosio, but haven't had a response, and so, having discovered a phone number at the bottom of the one e-mail she sent me two weeks ago, we thought we'd try giving her a call. So, Andreas and I headed down to the phone office near the main plaza. As it turns out, the number is in Lima. The woman who answered the phone said Rosio wasn't there. She was down in Ilo (way down at the south end of the Peruvian coast) with Sonia Guillen, who is truly the head of our project. They wouldn't be back to Lima until Monday, but we were welcome to call them then. Or, if we wanted to speak with them sooner, we could call the Museum in Leymebamba and they would have a contact number in Ilo. Well, if you've been following my travel schedule, you know that Lima isn't exactly near Chachapoyas, and Leymebamba is another 4 hours down the road. Also, Ilo is easily 10 hours from Lima. So, it doesn't seem too likely that anyone from their group will be ready to leave on our planned departure date of Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Sigh.

So, Andreas and I returned to the hotel to try to figure out how to call the Museum. I had previously searched the website, and there's no phone number to be found. The very helpful gentleman who runs our hostal said he had a friend who runs a hostal in Leymebamba, and he could call him for the number. Fabulous. So he called, and was assured that his friend would find the number and have it in five minutes when we called back. However, when we called back we were told that the museum has no phone number. None. They do however have an e-mail address, so we were encouraged to use that. So, I e-mailed the museum to ask for contact information for Sonia and Rosio in Ilo. I'm still waiting on a response.

Meanwhile, the caving team is still planning to head up to San Carlos (our point of departure for the caves) on Monday to reserve the horses and mules, so that we can leave first thing Tuesday morning. At this point, we figure that we can set up camp, map the cave, and get things ready for the archaeologists whenever they are available. However, until I actually talk to Rosio, the Chico team (P, Andreas, and I) will hang back. This is not optimal. But, it's what we have to work with, so we're trying our best to make the best of the situation.

Then, just an hour ago or so, Luisa arrived. Luisa is a biologist from Oregon who is here to document the critters living in the cave at Atumpampa. She has been corresponding with Sonia and says that just yesterday she received an e-mail from her saying that Rosio would be arriving here on Sunday. Well, this is markedly different than everything else we've heard. Having checked my e-mail again, I have no correspondence from either Sonia or Rosio, so we're just going to hang out and see which story is correct.

In the mean time, there's a fiesta in town. Chachapoyas is the capìtal of the Amazonas department (state) of Peru, and people from all over Amazonas have arrived to dance in the streets. It's a huge crowd, and really amazing to see folks dressed in grass skirts and feathers and headdresses. I saw one group with full "condor wings". We haven't had nearly the the time that I'd wish for to watch all the festivities, but since we're pretty much hanging out waiting now, tonight should be a good chance to get in on the fun.

Oh, and I have a hostal room for tonight, sharing with Luisa. I took a shower today. Such luxury!!! It's been since Lima, including the bus ride, the dusty road out here, camping out last night, and all the other assorted sources of muck that cross one's path when travelling. It's so very very lovely to be clean!

I'm off to see what the latest happenings downtown look like, which I'll happily describe to you in the next entry. Until then, think happy thoughts for me about permits and archaeologists!

Karen