Gen. San Martin, Peru 2-14-2003 Inca Settlement

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.
(Lima/Callao, Peru, Feb. 16, 2003) - Lima is the capital of Peru and by far the largest city. Callao, the port city, is now just a suburb of the metropolitan area with a population of 7.35 million people (1999). We arrived in the normal morning fog and took a guided tour of the city.
  Peru spreads across the Andes and our guide said 52% of the country is in the Amazon River jungle. Oil has been found in Peru and is now the number one export with fish meal, mostly going to China, second. This is not a rich country. We were told the minimum wage is $120 U.S. per month. Lima was founded by the Spanish in 1535 and was the seat of Spanish power in South America.
  Lima is a dry area with an average rainfall of only three millimeters per year. Winter temperatures only go as low as 56 degrees and summer days are normally not over the 80s. Peru has had bad inflation and has a new system of money. But residents are not too trustful and the U. S. dollar is accepted everywhere. We noticed advertising signs on the sides of buildings for appliances with prices given in U.S. dollars.
  Our guide said Peru had a 12 year period of terrorism, mainly by two organizations, Shining Path and Tupac Amaru. The terrorism seems to be under control now, but effects linger on. El Comercio, a newspaper, was a target of terrorists and when the newspaper built a new building it is like a prison with high walls surrounding the building and even guard towers. All through the city first floor windows are barred.
  There are a lot of walls around buildings and houses, some topped with electric wires and also with broken glass embedded in the tops of the walls. We received repeated warnings about pickpockets and personal safety to the point where we don't want to do any solo exploring.
  One of the stops we made on a tour was the Museum Rafael Larco Herra. It, and the next museum we visited, are privately owned. Herrera has pre-Columbian artifacts in the age range from 300 BC to 500 AD, predating the Incas, from civilizations such as Chimu and Nazca. They were masters at pottery and gold, silver and copper working. One wing of the museum was labeled "erotica" and consisted of pornography rendered in ceramics, leaving nothing to the imagination.
  Our next stop was named simply the Gold Museum. On the way we passed the U. S. embassy and there was an anti-war demonstration of 50-100 persons. Our guide said she had never seen such a demonstration before.

GOLD MUSEUM
  The Gold Museum was in two parts. In the basement entered through a vault door was an amazing display of pre-Columbian gold. The Spanish didn't get nearly all of it. The natives fashioned jewelry, clothing, crowns and many other artifacts of gold, silver and copper. For clothing, fabric was covered with thin, rectangular sheets of gold, perhaps an inch by two inches, sort of like large gold sequins.
  The first floor was a museum of firearms, the most comprehensive I have ever seen, from matchlock rifles to a Gatling gun and AK-47s. Wheellock pistols and rifles are rarities seldom seen, but here there was a case of them.
  The Incas came rather late on the scene here. The Inca nation appeared in Peru nearly 800 years ago, beginning as a small regional culture in the central highlands. Suddenly in the early 1400s, the Incas began one of the fastest and greatest expansions ever recorded, In just over 50 years the Inca domination extended as far north as Columbia and as far south as Chile.
  Resistance was severely punished, but those who cooperated were left in peace. Incas learned from each country they dominated and advanced their own culture. By the time the Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived in 1532, the Incas had irrigated deserts, produced bountiful crops and eliminated hunger.
  However, when the Spanish arrived the empire was in a crisis, weakened by a civil war and disease. Pizarro and his crew of only 168 men took advantage of the Incas' weakness to divide and conquer the empire. After a day and a half at Lima we left Peru and the South American continent and sailed southwest to Easter Island, 2341 miles and three days away.