Christina and I set off for another busy day in Lima before meeting our tour group at 630 pm. Our morning started out with waffles and bacon - the breakfast of "I can't eat anything else in the buffet" or champions, depends on how you look at it.
Natural Museum of Archeology, Anthropology and History
We started at the Natural Museum of Archeology, Anthropology and History. It's located in this gorgeous historic colonial mansion. It contains 32 different rooms each with its own theme or portion of history. It starts back in the Chavín time period then moves through the Paracas, Pukara, Nazca, Moche, Lima, Tiwanaku, Wari, Lambayeque, Chincha, Chimú, Chancay and Inca cultures. The pieces mostly originates from archaeological excavations, donations and legal seizures. It was interesting to watch a short documentary on the process of finding all of the mummified Paracas people. They were buried in almond shaped sacks with various funeral offerings then all put into this hole in a mountain. Apparently what tools you were given for the afterlife is what you did during your life. I wonder sometimes how much is reality and how much is bullshit.
Venturing on in the museum we saw old artifacts from the first instruments elaborated since approximately 12,000 B.C., which show evidence of hunting and gathering activities, to the sumptuary and religious objects corresponding to later times. Actually it was predominately religious objects and sculptures worshiping felines. Christina and I had the same thought that some of the pottery was too fresh looking and that it might be retouched recently more than the regulations allow. I know I read about the differences in pottery between each era in Peru but none of it stuck out as being interesting.
The Historical Collection is composed of approximately 4,500 pieces including canvases, sculptures, decorative art and movable cultural heritage of life of the Republican Period. The Republican Period is basically the late 1800s until recently. It's funny how the Peruvians refuse to admit that they were a dictatorship and that they've been plagued by guerrilla warfare for decades. Oh and another fun fact is that the Great Wall of china construction coincides with the first Inka kings.
The coolest part of this museum was the human remains portion. The collection of human remains consists of approximately 15,500 items from around 10,00 BC to 1500 AD including funeral bundles, complete skeletons, skulls and parts of skeletons. Probably the most important objects belong to the Paracas collection. They used to physically manipulate children's heads to create different shapes to signify which clan the human belonged to. They did this with different ropes and crib tying methods when the humans were young. It's neat to see the different skill shapes that they have found.
Huaca Pucllana
This was a great pyramid in the middle of Lima. It's now a remnant of the pyramid that existed during the Lima People period. No clue on when that is to be honest. I'm sure they told us on the walking tour but I wasn't paying attention. I'm solidly museum and history'd out.
With the intended purpose of having the elite clergymen (who politically governed several valleys in the area) express their complete religious power and ability to control the use of all the natural water resources (saltwater and freshwater) of the zone, a Great Pyramid was constructed in the Huaca. No clue what a Huaca is either - I just have it written as a note.
As a whole, the structure is surrounded by a plaza, or central square, that borders the outer limits, and by a large structured wall dividing it into two separate sections. In one section there were benches and evidence of deep pits where offerings of fish and other marine life took place in order to attain the favor of the gods. The other section is an administrative area. This area contains various small clay structures and huts made of adobe–with some walls still standing–whose function seemed to be to act as the courtyards and patios of the enclosure which is over 500 meters in length, 100 in width and 22 in height.
It was made out of clay bricks and the only reason it survived this long is because Lima doesn't rain. Also the site was built using vertical blocks which can move during an earthquake and not breakdown much.
Sea Wall Walk Around Miraflores
Christina and I decided to skip out on the last few items on the top 20 list for Lima to walk for miles along the sea wall. We ended up at Larcomar again for a smidgeon of ice cream mid day. It was well deserved after the 28 km we had walked until then this day. It was neat to see all of the paraglidera and locals just chilling on the greenery on the top of the mountain rather than on the beach. To be fair, it is winter and bloody freezing at 10•C.
Group
We met our group and I'm shocked. It's 8 from Toronto, 3 from Colorado and 2 aussies. The 8 from Toronto asked if they can skip some of the physical activities if they are tired. Why in the heck would you sign up for the most active trip if you didn't want to do everything? Also none of the Toronto people have ever hiked. Christina and I are going to die when we have to wait for them all on the hike. Most of the group is between 18-26 and the folks from the States are mid 40s. I know the Americans are all going to whip past us on the hike. I hope I can keep up with them rather than having to wait for the Toronto folks. They all seem nice enough though.
AFN
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