Down the coastal road

My first impressions of the Northern Peruvian dessert are mixed. The coast from Chiclayo south with it's beach towns and awesome weather is a dry sandy string of pre-Inca ruins with good to great museums, ugly trash dumps, industrial drip irrigated mega-farms, and colonial towns with pleasant city centers.

The very awesome El Museo Tumbas Reales del Señor de Sipán in Lambayeque, Peru. [No photos allowed inside the museum.]


Reed boats, fútbol, and fishing pier at Huanchaco Beach, just north of Trujillo.


Trash dump somewhere on the Pan-American Highway between Chiclayo and Trujillo. The truck is on a side road, not the Pan-American.


Irrigated fields.


Heading South on the Pan-American Highway with some irrigated fields in the distance.


The pre-Inca ruins at Tucume, Peru. All those rain-furrowed hills are pyramids.


Ruins of Chan Chan. Near Trujillo. Art Deco?


Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon) outside Trujillo.


Cathedral - Plaza de Armas - Chiclayo


Cathedral - Plaza de Armas - Trujillo

Musings on quality of life and development

Being Chinese, food is of particular importance to me. Being around all the scrumptious food in Cajamarca really made me think and rethink. I used to feel sorry for people in developing countries because of their lack of "cargo" (see Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel). Now I feel sorry for myself because of my lack of access to abundance of "real" food. Furthermore, I envy climates where temperature control is irrelevant and plants flourish.

What makes a good life? Maybe Starbucks is only a consolation for the poor souls that do not have coffee trees, pastured cows, and sugar cane plants in their neighborhood. Maybe all "cargoes" are really consolations. What does development mean besides clean water, good roads, education, health care...? If China can be used as a cautionary tale for development, what are the trade-offs regarding autonomy, environment, family ties...? On the other hand I am grateful on behalf of the developing world for Chinese manufactured compact florescent bulbs, clothing for the masses, and affordable vehicles. It's so complicated..

Cajamarca is scrumptious

Very few places are comparable in historical significance as Cajamarca, Peru where the Spanish Conquistadors effectively ended Incan rule. It has tons of historic architecture, big-hatted indigenous people, and bustling vendors. What really got my attention is the amazing quantity of cheese, chocolate, pastries, and other treats, in addition to usual mountains of fruits and vegetables. It is totally my kind of place!

Some photos from Cajamarca, starting with architecture.

Hot Springs in Banos del Incas, just outside Cajamarca. It was here that the last Inca King Atahualpa rested before he was captured by Francisco Pizarro.


Centro Cajamarca has narrow streets lined with old colonial buildings.


Plaza de Armas with 17th century fountain.


Iglesias San Francisco.


Big-hatted lady spinning thread while walking in Plaza de Armas. At left is a gelatin vendor with wares in bucket. In back you can see part of a military ceremony.


On the van to Otuzco.


Typical street scene with big-hatted ladies and moto-taxi.


We bought some sweet chocolate balls from this street vendor. She's digging them out of the basket. She also sells disks of unsweetened cooking chocolate (in basket) and cheese (basket at right).


Cheese shop.


Cakeman and VW van.


Mangoes are in season and 4 (or 5) can be bought for 1 New Peruvian Sol - about 35 cents US.


Random colorful market shot. Not sure what those "sauces" are.

Revelation on cemeteries

It seems to me that we are always visiting cemeteries on this trip. John and I both come from families big on cemetery visits and during our previous travels we had toured various cemeteries. It had never bother me. In fact I find cemeteries tranquil and spiritual. That is until this trip. Why? The cemeteries on this trip all have above-ground vaults occupying the same air as I do. Way too much spiritualness for me.

Today we went to the archeological site of "Ventanillas de Otuzco" (300-800 AD), a prehistoric burial site, just outside Cajamarca. I was looking in the face of the source of all my heebie-jeebies.

John commented that the modern cemeteries in South America look a lot like this prehistoric one. What do you think?

Cementerio - Tulcan, Ecuador


Cementerio - Mompox, Colombia


Cementerio San Gabriel - Quito, Ecuador


Cementerio - Tulcan, Ecuador


Necropolis - Ventanillas de Otuzco - Cajamarca, Peru


Necropolis - Ventanillas de Otuzco - Cajamarca, Peru


Necropolis - Ventanillas de Otuzco - Cajamarca, Peru

Chachapoyas is about epic journeys

1. It took an epic journey to come to Chacha (see previous entry).
   
2. From Chachapoyas, we took a day tour to Kuelap, a major pre-Incan ruin. The site is 1200m above the main road, but our van had to take a 360 degree counterclockwise 60km ramp along the side of the mountain. It took over an hour of driving while we could see the site the whole time!
3. One day we took a shared taxi to see the Sonche Canyon at Huancas; then walked back to Chacha. At the canyon mirador Sun-Ling was befriended by the very polite and sweet local children.
   
4. Another day we took a shared taxi to a village, Levanto, which is probably 10km as the crow flies. Again it took us almost an hour going up and down ramps on dirt roads. We walked back on the Inca Road. Because of poor directions, we went up and down the network of Inca Roads in a futile search for Yalape, a minor pre-Incan ruin. We walked for six hours non-stop and barely made it back before dark.
   
5. Leaving Chacha was yet another epic journey. We got up at 4am in order to catch the 5am bus for an 11-hour journey. For the first seven hours we zippered back and forth on long mountain ramps and switch backs, from high Andes mountains to low Amazonian oasis and back up again.
   

The walls of Kuelap tower above the valley.


The approach to Kuelap.

John and Sun-Ling pose at the narrow main entrance.


Inside the walls there are ruins of 500 circular dwellings. You can see some ruins in front and a reconstructed house in back.


View from Kuelap.


Sun-Ling and friends at Sonche Canyon.


Sonche Canyon.


Sun-Ling on the Inca Road between Levanto and Chachapoyas.


In the Andes between Chachapoyas and Celendin, Peru as seen from the bus window.


Another shot from the bus window. The deep green in the valley is a mango oasis.