By Bob Van Leer

  (GENERAL SAN MARTIN, PERU Feb. 14, 2003) - This morning we were driven to Tambo Colorado, an Inca settlement that pre-dates the Spanish conquest of Peru. We were told that Tambo is the best preserved Inca settlement. Most walls are still intact.

  We arrived in Peru this morning after a two-day trip from Arica, Chile. Our arrival was timed so that we could see the enormous geoglyph called the "Candelabra" on a cliff wall near the entrance to the harbor. The light was not good at 6:30 a.m. but we were able to see the 593 ft tall glyph. It's name comes from its shape but what it supposed to represent and why it was made is not known. The morning was foggy and overcast, as apparently is every morning, but it hardly ever rains here. Our guide said there is two inches of rain every 25 years. This is the area where "el Nino" originates.

  We went by bus to Tambo Colorado which our guide said was constructed in the 15th century. It is one of a series of posts built along the 15,000 miles of road in the Inca empire. Our guide said smaller posts were built every 12 miles and every 24 miles one such as Tambo suited for Inca royalty to stay in was built.

  Incas had no horses or any other animal to ride, so runners on foot carried goods and information. A runner traveled 12 miles and then handed off his package to the next runner. Sort of like a Pony Express without horses.

  Our guide said there were 10 million Incas when the Spanish arrived and 100 years later there were only 600,000 left. Most died of introduced European diseases.

  On the way to the Inca village, we stopped at a small museum of pre-Inca inhabitants, the Museum of Paracas. We are still in dry country and this museum also had mummies, some dating as far back as 7,000 B.C.

SKULLS RESHAPED

  A peculiarity shown by some skulls is that infants' heads were bound to reshape their skulls, in this case elongated, reminiscent of the Flathead Indians of the upper Columbia in the Pacific Northwest. Virtually no wood is used in construction here as there are no nearby forests. We went though the town of Pisco which is served water from a reservoir. The reservoir is concrete and it is raised on concrete stilts. (And around the reservoir a Coca-Cola ad is painted.)

  The river valley is lush and green from irrigation but the surrounding hills are the now-familiar bare mineral soil. In the Pisco River valley are produce crops, with large plantings of asparagus shipped to the U. S. and Europe. Cotton is a major crop here. The ocean teems with life, making Peru the second largest fishing country, according to our guide. A major export product is fish meal made from anchovies.

  Peru is a large country, our guide says 1260 miles from the Chilean border to the Ecuador border. It is three times larger than California. The 1999 population was estimated at 25.2 million, of which 7.35 million lived in Lima/Callao, the capital. The population is split with indigenous Indians 45%, Mestizo (white, Indian mix) 37%, white 15% and the balance miscellaneous.

  Literacy is about 92%. Life expectancy (1997) was 67 years, male; and 71 years, female. Tomorrow we move north to the Lima/Callao area for our final stop in Peru.