yesterday was another of those full on days.
Taxi picked me up at 5.55am to get me to the intercity bus before 6.30am.
Double decker bus with seats like that in airplanes. Snacks were handed out as we got started and the first of two movies started.
Have you ever watched the Tourist in Spanish? now I can say I have.
The 3.5 hour trip was interesting – we again passed thru desert and small towns and to my surprise – Sugar cane. I was told that upto 1974 Peru was the number one exporter of sugar. It is now Brazil.
I also saw lots of Rice paddies. In that area – the government had piped water from a natural water well. We saw lots of storage areas with the black sacks of rice stacked twenty high and covering acres – all out in the open.
You could tell we were also getting close to the sugar mill – once the biggest in SA – because of the trucks piled high with cut cane. They still burn the crop before harvesting (like they did in Fiji while I was living there) – this is mainly to kill the snakes etc before the manual cutting of the cane. Speaking of manual – you see hundreds of trucks loaded with bricks, rice, cement, you name it – but you do not see pallets – it is all loaded and unloaded by hand.
Finally we, and by we I mean two Russian sisters one of whom spoke english and the other spanish – and three others who spoke spanish but the husband spoke english but he lived in australia but was from Chile – did I loose you there? His wife was from Trujillo.
Anyway we were all put in the same tourist van with an english and spanish guides. So the sisters and I listened to English while the others got the spanish version. Because the second sister had limited english – her sister translated every thing into russian for her. What a fun day – our guides most common saying was ” your attention please”.
The whole culture in this area – predates the Inkas by a long way. Two of the tombs discovered here are believed to be The Lord of Sipan and has been dated around 600 ad – you could tell of his high standing because of the things in his tomb. He was buried together with – his wife and two other females one as young as 15 – these were not his daughters but could have been lovers – two warriors – his dog and a llama and lots of pots fulled with food for him in the afterlife. He was wearing about 28 kgs of gold, silver and copper thingies. Must of these were in the museums we visited. The second main tomb they are calling The old Lord of Sipan because DNA shows they were related but his death seems to be around 300 ad. He also had much gold silver and copper .
Many tombs have been uncovered in this one pyramid like building. Once buried – the grave was covered over and the building continued to be built with thousands of adobe bricks – so when the tombs were uncovered – the bones were crushed. In the museums we saw three or four of them.
Thru out the three museums we went into – the pottery was amassing. These were the ones from the tombs. So much history and all this before the Inkas. I got to thinking – what has our native people left us in their culture? Nothing like to huge structures that I am seeing in Northern Peru. The people paid their taxes by supplying Adobe bricks – with the family mark – to prove they had paid.
Another 1 hour trip with a shortcut thru a small city to get to the third museum and lunch.
Part of this shortcut was in an express like way about a metre below the road of both sides – and what surprised us – we passed tonnes of rubbish in this expressway – even saw a man throw a bag of rubbish from the road above. Some places it fulled half the road – other places someone has set a pile on fire and the smoke was so thick. Rubbish is a huge problem all over Peru. Councils (or what ever they call them) do not have enough money to arrange for rubbish collection and it is clear to see – the people do not take pride in their cities or even their our streets. Even plastic bottles – everywhere. I don’t know how they will ever overcome this problem.
After the lunch and visit – it was time to get us back to the bus station in time for our 6.30pm bus. This time not a double decker and no service. Almost 4 hours but thankfully – when I got off the bus – there was a taxi driver calling out Robert – and my ride back to the hotel was quick. Bed by 11.00pm. Long day and I sleep well – did not wake until 8.00am.
Having another easy day – My Tear fund host is coming and we are going to have lunch together – without all the children and families. I do miss them already.
Trust all is well and John Key is still PM – unlike his mate across the Tasman.
Chau