Thursday and we’re in
Peru. Our arrival into the harbour in Saleverry was early in the morning. There
was such a swell that we just about rolled right out of bed. We’re leaving as I
type this, and we’ve got a real swell going on again...must be normal for these
parts.
This place was not at
all what I had expected. It is desert, right down to the ocean. Agriculture
does flourish here, but only because of a canal that was built hundreds of
years ago that diverts water from the river several miles away.
The main claim to fame
here (from a tourist point of view) is it is the site of literally thousands of
archaeological digs. We visited a couple of them....the Temple of the Moon,
which was incredible. It was exactly as it had been excavated, with no touching
up of paints or restoration. The colors and designs on the walls of the Temple
were still vibrant. The sacrificial alter was still pretty grim....they chose
black rocks for it.
In the picture of
Steve and I in front of the north wall of the temple, you can see a line of men
with ropes around their necks. These were warriors who had lost a test of
strength with their compatriots. These ‘losers’ were led naked with a rope
around their neck. They were housed in a separate part of the temple for about
two weeks and fed a hallucenegenic drug to cleanse them. Once they were
properly cleansed, they were sacrificed, had their blood drained (which the
priest drank) and were skinned and dismembered. This was only done when they
were trying to appease their gods, which included the mountain at the back of
the temple. After about 600 years, they decided their god wasn’t great after
all, and they abandoned the temple. You might wonder how this is all
known....our guide kept referencing her remarks by saying “the experts hypothesize..”
.
We saw a city of ruins
called Chan Chan, and then went for lunch with traditional Peruvian fare. It
was pretty good, although no one told us what we were eating (which, in
hindsight, perhaps was a good thing.)
Tomorrow we arrive in
Lima for three days. However, I am taking a side trip to Machu Picchu with five
other people from the ship. Steve urged me to take it (he can’t do it because
of the high altitude). It took some fancy work on the part of the travel agent
in Atlanta Georgia, but she got me on the plane, the train, and even found me a
hotel room. I leave the ship at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow (Friday) and arrive back on
Sunday, hopefully well before the ship sails at 10:00 p.m. Steve assures me he
will do just fine on his own. It should be fun.
We also move
staterooms this weekend, so I am busy packing up all my stuff now so that Steve
doesn’t have to do it on his own. All in all, it’s a busy busy day. There goes
the myth that holidays are relaxing!
I will take lots of
pictures of my adventure in the lost civilization and will make another blog
posting next week.
Hasta luego.
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