Don was pleased the senior rate starts at age 60. He eagerly accepted his discount. We learned 60 is the assumed age for senior discounts, unlike in the United States where everyone seems to make up their own age (Rider University's age is 55 for theater discounts, one I gleefully accept).
We covered a lot of the basics during the first part of our walking tour, so I won't repeat that here.
Miladres was our tour guide. We were given the usual nos: don't touch the walls, don't videotape the tour. We paused frequently to take pictures. There was an older woman on the tour struggling with the steps. She just needed an anchor to hold onto. We all took turns being her anchor so her husband didn't have to do it all. Later she said she managed the altitude at Manchu Picchu just fine because she plays tennis at that altitude. A young woman, a digital nomad who works for the international travel agency Fora, who traveled to Peru for a wedding said she was overcome by the altitude when she went to Manchu Picchu earlier in the week. She recommended getting Sarocho pills, which we did not do, and suffered.
Over the centuries there have been 24 cultures in Peru, with the last one being the Incans. Huaca Pucllano was a temple, with families living around it. What happened? Due to el nino weather the temple was abandoned. After the Limas the Wari and Ychsma Cultures used the site for rituals and burials. The Wari seemed to use it for natural burials, and the Ychsma for sacrificial burials of young women and babies still attached to their umbilical cords. It is amazing what good archaeologists can discern even in cultures that did not leave behind written documents.
The Ychsma were the last to inhabit the space before the Spaniards took over Peru. As late as the 1970s the space, looking like nothing more than sand dunes, was used for motocross. After it was discovered to be something more in the 1980s, Dr. Isabel Flores Espinoza led the conservation efforts for forty years. The project is self-funded with our ticket price (roughly $4.50 for me, and $2.25 for Don) going to fund the research. I was feeling guilty our ticket price wasn't higher.
We walked through the different sections, including the banquet room and where sacrifices have been detected. Miladres reminded me the clay bricks were laid out in "library" style -- as if they were books on shelves. This gave it its strength. She told us on sunny days the bricks would harden in two to three days; on rainy days it could take two to three weeks. Time was not as pressing back then. The bricks are a combination of water, sand, seashells, and limestone. They were each handmade. No molds. It took three hundred years to build the temple, and will take at least another 40 years to uncover it all. It goes down about 200 meters (650 feet) below the ground, we are only seeing the tip of it.
There are 406 archaeological sites in Lima, and over 4,000 in Peru. I should look into these, or finding one in another South American or African nation.
Pictures:
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| It is literally in the middle of Lima |
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| As an amateur archaeologist, I marveled at the cleanliness and exactness of the lines |
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| A replica pot where a young woman would have been sacrificed |
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| The banquet room |
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| Our path -- no handrails, no paving |
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| Statues to represent the past |
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| The line between what has been uncovered (left) and what still needs to be done (right) |
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| A llama |
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| Guinea Pigs are dinner not pets |
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