Exploring Peru By Dr. Roger McCoach, Mathematics Department It has been said that Peru has a way of turning every visitor into an amateur archaeologist, historian, or outdoor adventurer. Its fascinating ruins, the cultures of the Inca and Moche people, plus the Andes Mountains and Amazon River can provide interest to anyone who sets foot in the country. Having toured the country back in 2003, I decided that it was time to pay it another visit. Peru is the third largest country in South America (behind Brazil and Argentina), and is about 2.5 times the size of France. It has 2,000 miles of coastline on the Pacific Ocean where 55% of its people live, and has 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Although the number of people living in poverty in Peru is over 30% and unemployment exceeds 20%, the illiteracy rate is only 2.4%. The tour began in Lima, the capital of Peru. A visit was made to the shanty town of Santa Rosa which is actually just south of Lima. Several hundred families are living there in a communal atmosphere. It was discouraging to see the poverty ... latrines, the shacks, water stored outside in large plastic containers, and unsanitary conditions. The hope of the residents of Santa Rosa is to grow and prosper as did Villa El Salvador, which also started out as a shanty town. Through extraordinarily hard work, the residents of Villa El Salvador grew to become a self sufficient district of Lima, with its own schools, water, electricity, parks, and paved roads. The district was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for its excellence in social work and community growth. Having been to Lima on a prior trip, I passed on visiting the museums in the city that I had already been to and made a very special day trip to the Nasca Lines. Between 300 B.C. and 700 A.D. the Nasca (“pain and suffering”) people created large enigmatic etchings in the sand. There are over 10,000 lines and 300 different figures carved into the sand which have been preserved over the years due to the dry desert conditions. The 300 figures consist of plant, animal, and geometric patterns. The best known figures include the images of a monkey, spider, whale, condor, hummingbird, dog, parrot, and an “astronaut” - a human being with a hand raised to the sky. Other patterns include numerous giant spirals, circles, trapezoids, and what appears to be a long landing strip. These figures are only observable from the air, so up I went in a 4 seat Cessna airplane. Fortunately, with the day beginning with a 4 AM start out of Lima, I did not have time to eat any breakfast, which might have otherwise ended up in the aircraft, with its bobbing, weaving, and nose-diving during the half hour flight. It was exciting to see the outlines of these figures, some of which can have a length of 1,000 feet. It is unknown why the lines and figures were created. One theory dictates that the images represented an astronomical calendar which would be helpful in determining planting and harvesting times ... valuable knowledge in this dry area. Another theory suggests that the lines led to water supplies, and another believes that the images were created so aliens from space would notice them. After the short stay in Lima, the tour headed north to see some of the archaeological sites in the area. Just five miles from Trujillo, the third largest city in Peru, a visit was made to Huacas de Moche, a complex of Moche ruins built around 500 AD. The Moche inhabited the area from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D. The adobe Temple of the Sun at this site has become largely a lumped mass due to El Nino rains. Built by 250,000 men, this unexcavated pyramid was approximately 100 feet tall at one time and contained 140 million adobe bricks. Close to the Temple of the Sun is the Temple of the Moon, which is presently being excavated. Each of the five layers of the temple was constructed when a new ruler came into power. There are murals on the walls depicting various scenes; a row of victorious warriors carrying their weapons, dignitaries holding hands, supernatural beings with spider attributes, and lines of prisoners tied together with a rope going from prisoner to prisoner, with the rope wrapped around each prisoner’s neck. A visit was made to a museum that featured the treasures of the Moche leader, Lord Sipan, whose never looted burial chamber has been compared to the tomb of King Tut. Buried along with the king were concubines, a priest, a warrior, a child, dogs, llamas, hundreds of elaborate food and beverage vessels, and a guard. The guard’s feet were amputated, symbolizing his perpetual guarding of the tomb. The museum shows off the grandeur of this pre-Inca culture, with elaborate headdresses and clothes, as well as items featuring gold, silver and precious stones such as the beautiful “necklace of 20 peanuts,” which is half gold and half silver. Visits were made to several other archaeological sites. At Chan-Chan, nine palaces once existed (when taking power, a new ruler would build his own, new palace). We saw walls there with friezes of aquatic scenes involving fish, seabirds, and nets. The site at El Brujo had intimidating figures in high relief wielding a knife in one hand and a decapitated head in the other hand. At Tucume, a complex of 26 adobe pyramids (some climbable) was constructed from 1000 to 1500 A.D. One reason why I selected this particular tour was that it included an Amazon River Rainforest cruise. The facts concerning the Amazon River and its Rainforest are staggering. The Amazon River is the second longest river on the planet (the Nile River is the longest). In the rainy season, the width of the river can reach distances of 120 miles. It is the largest river by water flow, with an average discharge into the Atlantic Ocean greater than that of the next 7 largest rivers combined. Amazingly, the Amazon River is responsible for 20% of the earth’s fresh water entering the ocean. In fact, the river was discovered by a European explorer when he sighted fresh water 200 miles out to sea. More than 1/3 of all species in the world live in the Amazon Rainforest. It is home to thousands of species of fish, over 50,000 different plants, and 1,700 species of birds, as well. A region in the rainforest has the highest concentration of mammals anywhere in the world. The Amazon Rainforest occupies approximately 2/3 of the area of Peru, but it contains only 5% of its population. Virtually all of the Amazon River cruises begin in Iquitos, a jungle port city of 500,000 people reachable only by water and air. A visit was made to the Barrio of Belen, an intriguing shanty town in Iquitos with its homes built either on balsa wood logs floating on water, or on stilts. The children of Belen go to school in the morning and work in the afternoons. One can see women doing the laundry in the river, and narrow dugout canoes grossly overloaded with fruits and vegetables. The river is everything to this community, providing drinking water, rest room facilities, and a place to bathe. This Venice of Peru provides a true eye-opening testimony to the resilience, tenacity, and the survival of its residents, who continually battle poverty, poor sanitation, and unemployment. The animal life in the Rainforest is quite interesting. The group saw numerous three-toed sloths high up in the trees. These slow moving animals (the Spanish word for the animal translates to “lazy”) spend most of the day sleeping or munching on tree leaves. A Peruvian superstition says that if a mother eats a sloth, her children will either die or be lazy. We also saw monkeys swinging from tree to tree, and yes … the guide said that they do sometimes miss a branch and fall. The group also saw capybaras, the largest rodent in the world. Dozens of birds were seen, to include various hawks and eagles, macaws, horned screamers, kingfishers, vultures, herons, and bats. One day at dusk, a guide loudly clanged cans together, which resulted in hundreds of wild parakeets flying out of the trees. A very unique feature on the cruise was a visit to a Peruvian shaman. Shamans are spiritual healers, masters of mythology and ritual, and interpreters of dreams. Shamanism is alive and well in Peru – not too surprising considering the poverty in the country, the fact that about half of its population is still pure Amerindian, and that shamanism has existed for literally thousands of years in the land. The shaman was short in height, barefoot, and had several of his potions in bottles out on a table for us to see. After blessing each of us in a short ceremony, through a translator we learned about his life and training. He trained for 8 years for his profession, including spending three months alone in the jungle. He is up at 2 AM every day and treats patients from 7-10 PM. He makes his own potions from the plants in the jungle. He took several of the bottled potions and blew cigarette smoke into them. He then passed the bottles around for anyone who wanted to sample them. I tasted three of the liquids (a snake potion, a dragon blood potion, and a mother of all spirits potion) which were rather vile in taste.