Originating in the Colca Canyon, Wititi dancing is important and unique enough to be included in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Most visitors to the Colca Canyon see touristic Wititi dancing in town squares or at folkloric evenings but at Arequipa’s Yanahuara Plaza I was lucky enough to watch an informal performance.
A woman in Collagua dress dances with a Wititi Continue reading
In October 2016 Rocío and I undertook two amazing day tours in the southern Peruvian Andes Mountains as part of our 2016 Interoceanic Highway Trip. We saw stunning scenery, prehistoric history and witnessed something extremely rare: a condor hunting and dive-bombing. From Macusani, guide Ulices and our Hilux driver took us one day to Ayapata District and the next to Corani District.
Video of the condor hunting and dive-bombing near Lake Qañuqota, Ayapata District
Located in Puno Region’s north, Carabaya Province is rarely visited by foreigners. In fact, in ten days, we did not see a single foreign tourist. This is despite being situated between touristic cities Puno, Cusco and Puerto Maldonado. One reason for limited tourism is elevation. Carabaya Province’s capital and largest city, Macusani, lies an inhibiting 4,315 metres high.
While hiking to Pitumarka we met a fun couple relaxing against a stone wall seemingly in the middle of nowhere, Ayapata District Continue reading
The scenery and views around Pitumarka in Ayapata District blew me away. Travelling from Macusani, Rocío and I accompanied guide Ulices and our Hilux 4WD driver for the first of two amazing day trips.
Seeing the glaciers, mountains, waterfalls, lakes, Andean geese, flamingos and other birds on the way to Taype was a great start. At Taype we turned off the main Ayapata unsealed road and drove past Lake Taype surrounded by mountains and potato fields.
Lake Taype with potato fields in the foreground and mountains behind
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Rocío and I visited multiple prehistoric rock art locations on our second Macusani day trip. Amazingly, no site had signs or barriers around them. Without our guide Ulices we wouldn’t have known they were there.
Between Macusani and Tantamaco Ulices showed us prehistoric rock paintings with white, red and orange pigments. Either the artists only used these colours or the other pigments had faded with time. Ulices didn’t know the painting ages, responding in Spanish that they were possibly as old as 3,000 BC.
Geometric rock paintings of different patterns Continue reading
Gold has been found in southern Peru’s Carabaya Province for centuries, if not, thousands of years. On our second day trip from Macusani, guide Ulices showed Rocío and I two historic gold processing sites in Corani District – one Spanish colonial, the other pre-Inca. Each site in the high Andes used different methods to apply similar processing principles.
Not far from Corani town are the ruins of a gold mill set up by the Spanish rulers during colonial times. Gold ore was crushed between two millstones on a channel. The milled ore then washed into a pond with the heavier gold falling to the bottom and the lighter waste rock travelling downstream.
The colonial gold mill’s runner stone remains partially on top of the larger bed stone Continue reading
Near Tantamaco on the Corani and Macusani district border in southern Peru lies Marca Marca. Settled during pre-Inca times and situated on a hill, the village overlooked the surrounding high Andes valley.
Low level cloud soon replaced beautiful late afternoon light on our October 2016 visit. That didn’t stop guide Ulices, Rocío and I exploring the ruins and searching for ceramic fragments.
Viewed from Marca Marca, the surrounding valley and mountains are covered in dry stone walls and terraces Continue reading
WARNING: this blog post contains images of mummified remains
Rocío’s and my September 2016 visit to Ayapata District coincided with an exciting local story. One week earlier authorities had seized mummies from a family in the Pitumarka archaeological site. The one baby and four adult mummies, found when the family removed earth to build a home, were kept secret from authorities for four years. Upon seizure, the ancient mummies were placed in the new, almost empty, Taype Ccochahuma Municipality Civic Centre.
The Taype Ccochahuma Municipality Civic Centre (Municipalidad Centro Poblado) temporarily hosted the mummies Continue reading
The Sacred Valley’s unique Moray archaeological site and Maras salt mines (Salinas de Maras) make a popular day trip from Cusco. I visited in August 2016.
At the tour’s first stop ladies demonstrated how llama and alpaca wool was traditionally dyed using naturally sourced ingredients and spun for weaving.
Ladies in traditional clothing demonstrate how alpaca and llama wool was dyed and spun Continue reading