Postcards from Perú

SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/14
  We are on our way to Perú!
  After two nights in Lima we will fly to Trujillo to see two pre-Incan antiquities, both of which are still under active study. Then we fly to Cuzco, where we will try to adjust to the 11,000 ft. altitude. We then travel through the Sacred Valley of the Incas for two days towards Aguas Calientes, at the bottom of the hill below Machu Picchu. It's a quick trip, but it should be fun. We will send cards as time permits.

  
  
  
SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/15
  We're in Lima and we spent the day in museums looking at a lot of pre-Incan pottery. A lot. It's beautiful and strange. One very strange thing is that many, many vessels are two connected jars, one with elaborate decoration and the other with a spout. Connecting them makes a nice handle. Smart. Another strange thing: What is this guy doing in our wine? A gentlemen might enjoy a glass of red at his club, but others drink so much they appear to be getting tipsy.

  
  
  
SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/16
  It's time for Andean String Theory. The left image is not a necklace, but an Andean accounting record called a Quipu. They tied knots on strings in a decimal positional numbering system like we use. Digits could be either multiple simple knots or different kinds of knots.. This Quipu shows how the place-knots align. Strings were grouped by type, so e.g. census, taxes, crops were different colors. There was a zero. [Ask those burning math questions to L later or check Wikipedia.]

  
  
  
SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/17
  Unexpectedly, a saline spring flows out of the Andeas (above 8000') with twice the salinity of the sea. Incans cleverly built shallow pools (pans) to impound the water for the sun to evaporate. They've been used continually. Today the 5740 Maras salt pans are owned by villagers and only transfered by inheritance. A canal system delivers water to the pans, which yield 150 kilos/month salt per pan. And it's one of only four places in the world that produces pink salt.

  
  
  
SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/18
  The Moche civilization (1-800 AD) was big on Peru's dry coast (today, Trujillo). They revered the Sun God ♂ and the Moon God ♀, building temples to both from mud bricks. An enormous El Niño wiped them out. Since 800 the temples eroded and were buried by sand; plus grave robbers took the good stuff ages ago. In 1991 archeologists started studying the Moon Temple revealing the Moche had covered the ugly mud walls with colored icons, pictographic stories and murals. Robbers got the gold, not the Moche's story.

  
  
  
SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/19
  Pizarro was told: respect civilizations you find. To justify killing & stealing, he sent a letter home (it still exists): "No civilized people here, just animals." To preserve the lie he obliterated Incan culture, but the Moray Ag. Experimental Sta. survived. Incans were primo plant breeders, hybridizing scores of new spuds and corn. Rings are microclim- ates; frigid night air fills the bottom, so it's coldest; higher rings, warmer. They developed freeze-dried taters. Soil from across the Incan Empire was studied. Pizarro left Moray as is. We wonder why.

  
  
  
SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/20
  We spent two ½ days at Machu Picchu. It's large, but compact like a college campus. Which may not be accidental. Our guide, a Cusco faculty member in Peruvian history, has written a book (English ed. Nov. 14) on his new theory that Machu Picchu was a school for the kids of the Incan elite. Astronomy may have been taught with these previously silver lined mirrors. School or not, we were awed. We loved the Inca Calendar (important dates only) and the master- ful stone work. We hiked part of the Inca Trail. It was a blast!

  
  
  
SERPOST El Correos del Perú, 2016
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  9/21
  Peru is a diverse country of native Andean people, Quechua [KETCH-wa], and immigrants from Spain, Japan and beyond. The Quechua captivated us: hardy, self-confident, self-reliant, clever. We say adios to Peru with a gallery of these gentle people.
  Two women, one llama, Quechua market ladies, Market lunch (today's special: trout), Packaging popcorn, Omar and his goddaughter, Boy feed- ing cuy (guinea pigs), Woman passing church, Perú's happiest gourd carver.

  
  
  

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