<\/p>\n![\"The](\"\/blog\/export_genericmt.php_files\/silustani.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/p>\n
<\/a>
\n![\"An](\"\/blog\/export_genericmt.php_files\/aymaratomb.jpg\" "\\"An")
\nThis proved to be a fascinating visit, despite the fact that I was only
\ncapable of pigeon-toe progress with frequent rest-stops, and the fatigue
\nwas gradually turning into a dizziness of absolute exhaustion. But the
\nhistory of this area, as my guide described it, was fascinating. The
\nPucara people were the first known civilisation here, and I will see
\nmore of them on the Inka Express bus journey to Puno later this week.
\nAfter this culture had faded, the Tihuanaco came, and populated the
\narea. At the height of their civilisation here, the Aymara, a warlike
\npeople from the south and east, perhaps Argentina, conquered the area,
\nforcing the small remnant of surviving Tihuanaco to embark on a long
\nwandering in the mountains, until they settled north in the sacred
\nvalley, and became the Inca. The Inca, of course, later reconquered
\nthis area, along with the whole of the rest of the Andes, in the largest
\nempire of all pre-Columbian South America – of which more, of course,
\nin Cusco and Macchu Picchu. Up here in Juliaca and Puno, despite the
\narrival of the Spanish conquerors, who looted the ancient sites and
\nbrought Catholicism to the area, much of the original pre-Christian
\nreligious practice and the two ‘nations’, Aymara and Quechua
\n(Inca\/Tihuanaco people) survive to this day. My guide is Quechua, the
\ndriver Aymara.
\n
![\"Inca](\"\/blog\/export_genericmt.php_files\/incalizard.jpg\" "\\"Inca")
\nThe Silustani tombs are mostly Aymara, with some later Inca tombs as
\nwell. Alongside the tombs are three other sections of the site: the
\nritual area, the workshop, storage and living area, and the quarry where
\nthe rock was carved out of the mountainside. Like the Moche practice
\nin the far north, and Egyptian and other practices in other continents,
\nnot only the Lord but his wives, boys, servants, priests – between 30
\nand 50 bodies – were buried in each of the tombs. All the precious
\nmetal artefacts were looted by the Spanish, but archaeologists have
\nfound ample evidence of human bones, ceramics and other remants to gain
\nunderstanding of these monuments. <\/p>\n
The largest of them, an Inca one, with exquisite stone work, also had a
\nrelief carving of a lizard on it, pointing in the direction of the
\nTemple of the Sun, the island on the Bolivian side of the lake where the
\nInca absorbed the Tihuanaco origin myth and made it their own, with a
\nsplendid temple. <\/p>\n
![\"Stone](\"\/blog\/export_genericmt.php_files\/silustanistonecircle.jpg\" "\\"Stone")
<\/p>\n
\nIn the ritual area, I was introduced to a very familiar stone circle.
\nMy guide clearly had real respect for the place: he pointed out on the
\nhorizon to south and east among the mountains where the villages of his
\nmother and father were located, and spoke with genuine appreciation of
\nthe Quechua Mother Earth ‘Pacha Mama’ and Mother Waters ‘Cucha Mama’
\nwhose spirits were in everything, in every stone. The archaic religious
\nmind, as described by Mercia Eliade, was here almost in its raw aspect,
\nfor all that this son of tribal people now worked in the tourist
\nindustry, using his excellent English. Having asked permission, I
\nentered the stone circle, and paid my respects to the Earth Mother of
\nthe Mountain, here at the roof of the world, my body the tree through
\nwhich earth and sky communicate and become one, pillar of every house,
\ntower of every city, altar of every temple.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"\/blog\/export_genericmt.php_files\/guardianrock.jpg\" "\\"The")
\nOn the descent from the hill of the tombs, though the thin air was
\nreally starting to get to me by now, (hence the not very good photo) my
\nguide showed me the guardian stone at the foot of the ancient stairway.
\nHe asked me if I had a compass. A spiral carved on one side of the rock
\nzeroed in on a particular patch of the stone where the compass on my
\niPhone suddenly switched to point west, instead of north, directly at
\nthe centre of the spiral. Yes, indeed they believe there is some
\nlodestone or other in this rock, and yes, indeed, the Aymara clearly
\nknew about this. The other side of the rock sported the carved face of a
\nPuma, facing up to the stones.<\/p>\n
\nBut my reaction to the thin air was rapidly turning into full-on Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS)<\/a>,
\nor altitude sickness, and we headed on to Puno as the sun went down and
\nthe cold wind of the mountain winter began to bring the temperature
\ndown sharply. At the hotel I practically collapsed for an hour or two’s
\nnap, and then managed to pigeon-toe down to the nearest restaurant, a
\ncouple of doors down from the hotel, for a light supper, and pigeon-toe
\nit back up to my room, completely exhausted, to sleep again. It was
\n9pm. I awoke almost hourly, drinking water, feeling exhausted, my pulse
\nrapid and persistent, breathing short, dizzy and suffering awful
\nfatigue. Finally, at about 4am, the pulse and shortness of breath had
\nbegun to recede, to be replaced by a headache. I took some ibuprofen at
\n5am, and finally decided to cancel my tour to the Lake Titicaca
\nIslands, to stay put and get a day of complete rest. By 9am, worried
\nfor me, the travel agency had called in CondorAssist, the medical
\ninsurance with my fortnight’s tour, and a very nice young Quechua doctor
\narrived, with a translator. It was agreed by all that it was altitude
\nsickness, that the worst was over, that I had done the right thing
\ncancelling today’s tour, and he sat me with an oxygen mask plugged into
\nan oxygen bottle that they keep at the hotel, for 20 minutes, which
\ncleared my headache! <\/p>\n![\"An](\"\/blog\/export_genericmt.php_files\/punowomanmobile.jpg\" "\\"An")
\nBy lunchtime I was able to take a little walk, buy some alpaca socks and
\na straw sun hat, and get a bowl of Inca Soup – guinea pig and alpaca
\nmeat and soft cheese cubes in a nourishing soup, which I ate most of
\nwith a large glass of freshly juiced papaya. It is interesting how, up
\nhere in the mountains, many of the local people still maintain the
\ntraditional dress, at the same time as embracing the all-encompassing
\ninformation revolution. This excursion, however, was very tiring, and I
\nreturned, again very slowly to the hotel, to sleep for a couple of
\nhours in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
So – not only do I get air-sick on little Cessna’s doing wild
\nmanouevres, I am among those who suffer from altitude sickness, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both an eventful and uneventful few days. After a morning reading Mercia Eliade’s classic text, The Sacred and the Profane, soaking up the sunshine at Nazca, I took the long bus journey back to Lima – the bus arrived late and made a number of unscheduled stops (including for the driver to buy some oranges … Continue reading “Peru Trip #6 – Arrival at Lake Titicaca”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archaeology","category-journeyman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":912,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Pool](\"\/blog\/export_genericmt.php_files\/jazminpool.jpg\" "\\"Pool")