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Coca Leaves & Feasting on Llamas |
Counting Dead Bodies, Chewing Coca Leaves &
Feasting on Llamas
3 Feb
2002
Since I left Santiago, I have been
wandering through the deserts, highlands and the Altiplano of
northern Chile and southern Peru. This is a vast expense of land by
the shores of the Pacific Ocean. As a result of the cold currents
moving northwards and warm ones moving westwards, the northern coast
of Chile and the entire coastline of Peru is a dry, harsh desert
wasteland. Despite this, human civilisation has flourished here
since the earliest times, and the dry conditions have allowed the
mysterious tribes that once lived here to preserve the remains of
their dead in many ways.
Inland, the Andes rise sharply, aiming for the skies, initially
appearing as brown lifeless desert hills, and then soon taper off in
areas to become plateaus of above 4000 meters above sea level, known
as Altiplanos. On these harsh cold lands of light greenery,
creatures such as llamas, vikuñas, guanacos and alpacas (all four
belong to the camel family but are humpless), vizchacas (a kind of
rabbit-like creature with long tails and hops around) flourish with
scattered communities of Aymara and Quecha Indians.
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|
Volcanoes in the Lauca
National Park, Chile |
After leaving Santiago, I headed north to the Atacama
Desert town of San Pedro de Atacama where I spent a few
days visiting the local museum (say hi to the mummies of ancient
Atacameños – they all look like dried fish although the prettiest
one is nicknamed Miss Chile), geysers (so-so, no big deal),
amazingly beautiful lakes and saltflats (can't beat Uyuni in
Bolivia), all located between 2500 and 4800 meters above sea level.
I had my first taste of the Altitude dizziness for the first time
and was given some mate de coca, a kind of tea made from coca
leaves. In fact, a week later, in the Colca Valley in Peru
where many of us really feel the effects of the altitude, I had the
opportunity to chew some coca leaves. A slight numbing effect
initially, but they do seem to have some effects on the dizziness,
or maybe it was purely psychological. These are perfectly legal in
countries like Peru and Chile, as they have been used as medicine
for centuries by the Incas. It is the further pharmaceutical
processing of coca products that creates cocaine. (OK, do keep this
to yourself. I don't fancy explaining myself to some overzealous
anti-drug bureaucrats.)
San Pedro is a nice backpackers' town, but the zero humidity was
too much for me. My nose bled every day in the Atacama, the world's
driest desert. So I left San Pedro for Arica, Chile's
northernmost city.
Arica is the site of the Morro, a mountain which was where
Chile scored its great victory against Peruvian forces in the
Pacific War of 1879, after which Chile gained large stretches of
territory from Peru and Bolivia (thus making Bolivia a landlocked
nation). Known as the city of eternal springs, Arica is a nice beach
town where European and Mestizo Chile meet the Highland culture of
the Aymara. My first night in Arica coincided with the Arica
Festival where dance troupes of Region I of Chile (where Arica is
located), southern Peru and Bolivia gathered in a street party with
bright ethnic colours running wild. Pity that my camera wasn't with
me that evening...
More Dead Bodies
I
visited the Museum of San Miguel de Azapa – where the oldest mummies
of the world are on display. These belong to the little-known
Chinchorro culture which flourished in these desert coasts between
4000 and 8000 BC. Yes, the human shape exists, but I could hardly
distinguish between the mud splattered across the faces and any
remnant of human organic remains.
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| A
Village in the Colca Valley |
From Arica, I went on a two-day tour of
the Lacua National Park with a Frenchman and a New Zealander.
We had a great time, visiting ancient stone carvings of llama
caravans and mythological symbols carved out on the desert mountains
near Arica and the wonderful Altiplano lakes of the Lacua National
Park, where wild animals like the rhea, llamas, vikuñas, guanacos
and alpacas are as common as the household cat. Of course, as
Chinese as I could be, I inquired about the taste of these exotic
creatures. Hmm... well, thank goodness some of them are available in
restaurants, although I haven't seen any in Chile. Within days I was
to try the alpaca in Peru...
All was not well. I lost my main bank debit card and had to
request my bank to send it to its Lima branch – I am amazed that
they took so long to find the address of their Peruvian branches. I
was furious with the long distance call clocking away, and
eventually my Footprint Guide to Latin America saved the
honours of Citibank. The telebanking guys sheepishly admitted their
incompetence. That's the guide for Latin America!
Forget Bolivia
My
Bolivian endeavours have come to nothing. Wasted several phone calls
to the Bolivian Consulate in Santiago, with the same
nothing-heard-of-my-visa-application results. What a waste of time!
If the Bolivians don't want my money, I will take it elsewhere! If a
country is so inefficient with such paperwork, no wonder it remains
one of the world's poorest countries.
I crossed the border into Peru, which like Chile, gave me a
90-day no-visa entry. The border posts were symbolic of the gulf in
development between the two countries. The Chilean one is fully
computerised, a well-organised modern complex with proper checks on
agricultural produce (Chile is worried about diseases which might
affect its profitable agricultural exports). The Peruvian side is
confusing, with small worn-out buildings that looked as though they
might collapse in the next earthquake (so frequent in the region),
and confusing lines. Whilst Chile is a middle-income developing
country, Peru is firmly in the Third World, with mass poverty and
all sorts of social, economic and political problems.
I hopped onto an ancient local bus full of people (including me)
smelling from desert heat, and endured the bumpy six-hour ride
through the desert and harsh lifeless mountains. The bus stopped at
numerous little villages, with lots of vendors coming up and hopping
off to sell anything, from bread, candies and coca tea, to
calculators. Peru is definitely more Amerindian than any of the
countries I have been so far on this trip. Here the ladies wear huge
Andean hats and colourful skirts, and restaurants spot dishes like
alpaca (a tastier relative of the llama) and cuy (hey, that's the
guinea pig!).
Like Chile, Peru is a country of amazing geography. The narrow
coastal desert plains support 44% of the country's population of 26
million. The Andes cuts through the country from north to south, and
the harsh highlands and deep river valleys here support 50% of the
country's population. This is also the Quecha heartland of Peru –
Quecha is the language of the ancient Inca Empire, a powerful state
which stretched from Colombia in the north to Chile and Argentina in
the south. This was one of the world's largest empires, and yet it
was crushed by a small number of greedy and bloodthirsty Spanish
Conquistadors. Further to the east is the Amazon basin, covered by
tropical rain forest. This accounts for 62% of the nation's
territory, but only 6% of the population. Inshallah, I shall visit
all three regions of the country in the next five weeks.
Arequipa &
Onwards
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| Dancing locals at the Fiesta
de la Virgin de la Candelaria in Puno, Peru |
Arequipa, Peru's second-largest
city of about 1 million people, was my destination. (Located in a
green valley made fertile by the rich volcanic soil – the gift of
the volcanoes of nearby valleys: heaven's present or curse? Depends
on how you see it.) Arequipa, like many of Peru's cities, also lies
on a shaky volcanic fault that cuts across the country. Earthquakes
have caused enormous destruction over the centuries and the last, in
June 2001, caused 97 deaths and destroyed one of the two towers of
the Cathedral of this city, long declared a World Heritage site by
UNESCO.
This is a lively city with an amazingly beautiful city square. I
had a wonderful meal in a restaurant overlooking the main square.
White colonial buildings surround this beautiful square. What a nice
place to spend a few days.
However, I soon became aware of the country's greatest folkloric
fiesta, to be held in Puno during the weekend. I changed my plans
drastically, reducing my stay in Arequipa to a day in the city and
two days in the Colca Canyon. Spent one day visiting the city and
its many mummies. The first was the famous Inca "Ice Maiden",
Juanita, a teenage girl sacrificed to the gods 500 years ago, found
frozen and well-preserved on a volcano, and featured not only on
National Geographic but also on postcards, T-shirts and key
chains on sale in Arequipa, plus Peruvian postage stamps and tourism
promotion posters. Fancy wearing a dead body T-shirt or cap ? Or
sending a get-well card with a dead body on the stamp to an old
friend in hospital ? OK, I must say the Andean Sanctuary Museum,
which features nothing but Inca sacrificial mummies, has done a
fantastic job in displaying these remains and the amazing artifacts
found with the mummies in fairly good taste and with a great deal of
interesting captions. The normally stingy nomad tipped the mandatory
guide quite well as a result.
In contrast, La Recoleta to the west of the city looks
like a mixed-mesh ad hoc collection by local Franciscan monks. In it
you find not only Amazonian tribal artifacts, relic of saints,
bishops' robes, and dusty long-dead Peruvian wildlife displayed in
no proper order or with captions, but also a definitely macabre
mummy collection. Six unclothed or semi-clothed humans (the monks
have probably used the mummy linen as spare tablecloth) displayed
with no captions other than "Mummy" are placed in rusty shelves in a
disgusting manner. One of them had his arm raised to cover his
mouth, as though to scream at this treatment, and another "posed" in
a fashion one finds common in horror movies.
Enough of dead bodies! I went on an amazing two-day trip into the
Colca Valley. The Colca Canyon is the world's second-deepest (the
first is Cotahuasi nearby, but it is less accessible than the
Colca). Descending more than 1000 meters deep from more than 4000
meters above sea level, it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in
Colorado, USA. Unlike the Grand Canyon, this is also a densely
populated valley with Quecha tribes that live as they had for
hundreds of years. It's a scenic place, with picturesque locals
going to market and preparing for the approaching Carnival.
After Arequipa, I arrived in Puno at 1 am this morning. Attended
the opening ceremony of the annual Fiesta de la Virgen de la
Candelaria, a religious festival which is also the greatest
folkloric gathering of the Highland peoples of Peru and Lake
Titicaca. I shall write more about this later. Until then, take care
and wish me luck!
>> Continued
Tan Wee-Cheng
http://weecheng.com
Copyright
Tan Wee-Cheng. All rights reserved. Story reproduced with kind permission.
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