Where to start?

Hello friends,

Thanks for being patient with me while I got back to civilization. It's great to be clean and in a place with indoor plumbing and restaurants and beds and walls and communication with the outside world again! So much has happened over the past two weeks, it's hard to know where to start. But, I suppose, I'll start at the beginning...

We chartered a 'combi' (a van) to take us up to the town of San Carlos, which is a tiny little hamlet just southeast of Pedro Ruiz, and about two hours from Chachapoyas. There we were dropped off at the only hospedaje in town, run by a man who calls himself 'El Tigre' due to his professed talent for hunting deer barehanded and wrestling them to the ground. We got there about two-o'clock, plenty ready for lunch, but apparently they hadn't expected us to want food until six or so. A quick flurry in the background and the sound of a screeching chicken let us know that lunch was underway. Luckily, someone ran back to let them know that there was at least one vegetarian in the crowd, so the life of another chicken was saved. While we were waiting for lunch (starting chicken from scratch takes time), we walked up to the little plaza in town, took in the spectacular view of the Andes and surrounding cloud forest, and toured the little adobe church. Following this, we were taken to the municipal building to view their collection of mummies which had been recovered from people's homes. They were both fascinating and horrible, as their care was absolutely inappropriate and many were growing mold. All the same, it was very interesting to see them and to get a sense of what might be in our futures up at the Atumpampa cave. (A note out of sequence - at the end of the trip, we met with the local government folks who are working on developing better facilities and care for the mummies in the immediate future).

Eventually, we headed back down to Tigre's place and lunch was served. Each plate had white rice, thick-stewed split peas, and aji chili sauce. Most folks had a chunk of chicken on top, but mine came with a fried egg instead - the best I've ever tasted!

After lunch, the locals discovered that most of us had arrived without knee high rubber boots (who knew?). They were mortified at the idea of our traveling on without them (I should have read more into this at the time!), and eventually a plan was raised to get someone with a moto-taxi to run two folks down to Pedro Ruiz to buy them. A moto, by the way, is a small motorcycle with a small cab attached to it, in which two small people can fit. We chose two folks (not me) to go, and all was happy until they came walking back an hour later, having run out of gas just a ways out of town. Another plan was hatched, and a local guy (Jorge Botas!) made a run in the very early morning, and we were all outfitted with our fabulous rubber boots. We came to appreciate them very much.

The horses were loaded with us and all our gear and we headed up the mountain. Four and a half hours later, we arrived at the campsite. Along the way, we gained at least two thousand feet of elevation (I'll check for a real number), and learned all kinds of things about horses, mud, slippery stone paths, and thorn bushes. As far as my horse was concerned, there are not enough thorns in the world for me. Three of us fell off along the way, slipping either with or without our horses, but everyone arrived relatively unscathed (except of course for those thorns - I still have about seven that haven't worked their way out).

The campsite was incredible. The cave is made of limestone, and has a large overhang, under which the kitchen was set up. There was no flat ground to be found anywhere, so we each chose a site for our tents as best we could. After one night of sleeping as though I was on a steep couch (on a slant and pressed up against a wall of my bags), I moved across the bog to a pretty darn flat area away from camp. It was a lovely spot and I stayed there for the remaining two weeks. In the morning, the clouds rise from the surrounding green mountains and the landscape is just glorious. The land is used by the local community for grazing, and often horses or cows would come wandering through - a strange thing to deal with in the middle of the night in a tent!

Next post, I'll tell you about the archaeology and the cave, but this is probably plenty of reading for now. Tomorrow we're heading for Leymebamba and the Centro Mallqui museum there.

More soon!

Karen