by Troy Herrick
As we passed along a dirt road that would put a 4-wheel drive to shame, I conjured up an image of Egypt and the Nile in my mind’s eye to contrast with my Peruvian surroundings. This picture abruptly evaporated when the taxi hit a large bump. Outside the window, the nearby Supe River, straddled by lush fields of corn and onions, meandered over a dry desert terrace like a giant ribbon adorning surprise package. For over four millennia, this “surprise package” contained a hidden secret – the lost city of Caral. First discovered in 1948, the site, hidden under a sea of sand dunes, was not excavated until 1994 because it appeared to lack many of the typical artifacts usually found in this part of the world.
Caral, an abandoned city eroded by time and windswept sand, holds twenty-five structures including six pyramids that are as old as the Step Pyramid in Egypt. More remarkably, this early civilization developed in complete isolation without the use of pottery, metalwork or writing, unlike its contemporaries in the ancient Near East.
The dust of the ages quickly coats your shoes between the parking lot and the ticket booth where you meet your archeologist-guide. Julio Sandoval, an archeologist who had been digging at Caral for the last seven years, indicated that this is still an active dig site and that only about 40% (66 hectares) has been excavated to date. This city, with a population of approximately 3000 at its zenith, was divided into an upper section where all of the pyramids and residences surround a central plaza and a lower section which is organized along one street.
Julio informed us that we are not permitted to climb any of the pyramids and directed Diane and me along sandy pathways defined by small rocks to the Gallery Pyramid. The nine-tiered Gallery Pyramid, the third tallest at 18.59 meters, is named for the gallery decorated with niches at its summit. Parts of this pyramid date back to the earlier period of Caral when the retaining walls forming each layer of the pyramid were constructed from large tree trunks plastered with wattle and daub.
Among the artifacts discovered in the Gallery Pyramid was “quipu”. Quipu is knotted cotton string that served as a record keeping system. Caral’s knot system was relatively simplistic but the Incas would develop a more complex one over three millennia later. Perhaps the Caral system was a precursor to that of the Incas?
Just across the plaza, the Huanca Pyramid, named for the nearby 2.15 meter high huanca stone whose edges are oriented to the cardinal directions, holds three rooms atop its 12.8 meter summit. These rooms may have been used for astronomical and ceremonial purposes.
The six platforms of the Huanca Pyramid consist of stone retaining walls with rock filler set inside. Stone walls are characteristic of the later period of Caral. The filler was packaged in “shicra” bags (sacks made from woven weeds). These rock-filled sacks served to stabilize the stone walls during an earthquake. Workers would fill the sacks with stones and carry them on their shoulders to the construction site from quarries over a kilometer away. The arid climate has preserved the shicra fibers down to the present day, making then a ready source for radiocarbon dating studies. The reeds and therefore the city date to 2627 BCE.
En route to our next destination, the Greater Pyramid, I fought back a sneeze as a sudden gust of wind raised a cloud of dust. Seen through the haze, the Greater Pyramid is the largest structure on site covering approximately four football fields. From a height of 19.27 meters (seven platforms), city officials oversaw all of the activities within the city.
Those who climbed the pyramid first had to pass through a sunken circular plaza at the base. This circular plaza resembles a wading pool even though there is nothing to suggest that water was ever present inside.
Not everyone who climbed the pyramid descended after. Julio indicated that the mummy of a young man approximately 25 years of age was discovered amongst the construction fill in the ceremonial room at the summit. Most notable was that no fingers were attached to the desiccated corpse. These were found in nearby niches where they had been individually buried. According to Julio, all of the pyramids at Caral were used for religious and ceremonial purposes rather than tombs so this mummy was likely a sacrifice. Given the city’s isolation and that no weapons of war have ever been on site, this victim does not appear to be a prisoner-of-war.
After making quick stops at the Lesser Pyramid, Quarry Pyramid and Central pyramid, we returned to the lower section of the city to visit the Temple of the Amphitheater. Julio directed us to a bank of twelve cubicles lining the entry platform that once held the remains of burnt food offerings.
The Temple of the Amphitheater features a sunken circular plaza with tiered seating. Constructed of cut stone, this plaza was a place of animal sacrifice to Pachamama, the Andean goddess of mother earth. My imagination stretched across the sands of time to a group of dancing musicians as Julio mentioned that 32 condor and pelican bone flutes and 37 deer and llama bone horns were uncovered here.
Deeper inside the temple complex is the Altar of the Sacred Fire. This cramped round space houses an altar with a two-level fireplace; an air duct runs beneath. This room was likely used for mysterious ceremonies that the general public was not privy.
Caral was continuously upgraded for almost 600 years. Unlike our modern civilization, residents did not destroy their older buildings. Instead these were remodeled using additional earth and stone. Reconstruction was already well underway even as the Great Pyramid at Giza was being built.
Eventually the end came for the city, possibly because of drought. Around 2100 BCE, Caral was abandoned to history and the inhabitants departed for more fertile areas of country and perhaps founded other civilizations as they went.
If You Go:
Caral is approximately 200 kilometers north of Lima.
Diane and I visited Caral with Pivian Tours.
Alternatively you can travel by bus from Lima to Huacho and then hire a taxi to bring you to Caral. The site is isolated so you will have to ask the taxi to wait until you are finished your tour.
Bring suntan lotion, a wide brimmed hat, comfortable shoes and a bottle of water.
Visit my Peru webpage at www.plan-a-dream-trip.com/peru.html
About the author:
Troy Herrick, a freelance travel writer, has traveled extensively in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and parts of South America. His articles have appeared in Live Life Travel, International Living, Offbeat Travel and Travel Thru History Magazines. Plan your vacation at his website www.plan-a-dream-trip.com
Photographs:
All photos are by Diane Gagnon. A freelance photographer, Diane has traveled extensively in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and parts of South America. Her photographs have accompanied Troy Herrick’s articles in Live Life Travel, Offbeat Travel and Travel Thru History Magazines.
1. Gallery Pyramid
2. Archeologists at Work
3. The La Huanca Stone
4. Pyramid Of La Huanca
5. Alcoves at the Temple of the Amphitheater
6. Amphitheater at the Temple of the Amphitheater
It wasn’t difficult to find the poet’s house, La Chascona, on a little back street set on a hillside overlooking the city. “La Chascona” means “wild hair” and the house is named after Matilde, his third wife, who had a tumble of unruly tresses.
On the coast at Valparaiso, the second of Neruda’s houses, La Sebastiana, is set high on one of Valparaiso’s many steep hills commanding a view of the harbor. I took an ascendor from Espirito Santo up Cerro Bellavista where the house is located. I wended my way through the maze of narrow lanes, past a colorful hodge-podge of houses and eventually found the poet’s house.
Neruda’s living quarters were on the second floor, ascending several floors up to the top room which was his study and lookout, with a broad spectacular view of Valparaiso’s harbor and the ocean. Each room in the house is full of the usual trinkets and beautiful knick-knacks he loved to collect. There are some lovely stained glass windows. You are allowed to wander around at will. Visitors are given booklets to read describing the history of each room and the furnishing and objects although no photographs are allowed other than the many breathtaking vistas from the windows.
I took a bus down the coast to Neruda’s house at Isla Negra, which isn’t really an island. The house is built on a rocky headland overlooking the Pacific close enough to the shore to give that effect. The original stone buildings were erected in the late ‘30’s and were completed in the 1950’s. Neruda added to it bit by bit including various rooms to hold all his eccentric collections.
During the junta, when Neruda was dying of cancer, the military stormed the house, but it has been mainly preserved just as it was, intact with his marvelous collections (even more fantastical than those at La Chascona). It is exactly as it was when Neruda and Matilde lived there, even to the place settings at the dining room table: place mats of sailing ships and one (the captain’s) of nautical instruments.
As in the other houses, there’s a well-stocked bar where Neruda played the role of bartender. I can almost imagine him standing there, pouring drinks as he engaged in jolly banter with his guests. And outside, beached on the shore, is a small boat where he would also entertain. (The boat never went into the water!)
Spanish Uruguay has two locations– one in Montevideo and one in Atlantida. Since I was no longer interested in the nonstop action that characterizes the city life, I chose the enchanting coastal town of Atlantida. Pablo, the son of the lead professor, sent me photos of two living locations. One was a high rise near the beach, the other was a small, enchanting apartment complex called Isla Negra.
Isla Negra was one of the many one of the many houses belonging to Pablo Neruda, a romantic poet who writer Gabriel García Márquez referred to as “the greatest 20th century poet in any language.” His passion for politics equaled his capacity for love.
In her book titled 
, Matilde describes how she and Pablo developed a thirst to be together all the time. They decided to take a vacation in Atlantida, where their Uruguayan friend, Alberto Mántaras, lent them his vacation home. The house, which still sits across from the beach in a fragrant forest of pines, became their secret romantic hideaway.
The gardener was a good friend of Neruda’s driver, Manuel Araya, who was the only person who knew about Pablo’s dalliances. In her book, Matilde states her suspicion that the driver gave the gardener some ammunition by telling him about Pablo’s mistress, which if course, got back to Delia. Pablo and Delia divorced, and Matilde and Pablo eventually became husband and wife.
La Esmeralda, a stately four-masted barquentine, pride of the Chilean Navy, was built in Cadiz, Spain in 1946 and was to become Spain’s national training ship. Due to several explosions at the shipyards, work was halted and eventually she was sold to Chile to help pay off debts incurred as a result of the Spanish Civil War. She was officially launched in 1953. Esmeralda is now a training ship for the Chilean Navy, visiting ports worldwide as a floating embassy for Chile.
Unfortunately La Esmeralda’s reputation was sullied during the infamous Augusto Pinochet regime from 1973 to 1980 when she was used as a floating jail and torture chamber for political prisoners. The Chilean Navy was the advance guard of Augusto Pinochet’s coup and after the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s democratically elected socialist government, naval patrols scoured the streets of Valparaiso broadcasting the names of people demanding them to hand themselves in. Among them was an Anglo-Chilean priest, Father Michael Woodward. He was arrested at his home by a naval patrol and taken to the headquarters of the local Carabineros where he was brutally assaulted, then transferred to La Esmeralda where he was reputedly tortured and died. Doctors claimed he had died of a heart attack and the navy refused to give him a proper burial but dumped his body in a mass grave. Michael Woodward was one of the most prominent of those tortured on the ship. Several hundred other detainees, sympathizers of the ousted socialist president Allende, were taken there and suffered various fates including beatings, sexual assaults, electrocution and water torture. Consequently these days when she sails into port, crowds of protestors – political groups and Chilean exiles –gather demanding retribution in the form of a formal apology from the Chilean government and request that a plaque in the shape of a dove be put on the ship bearing the names of the victims. To date, these requests have been refused.
The ship itself truly is a beauty, a four-masted tall ship, one of the tallest and longest ships in the world. She has a crew of 300 sailors and 90 midshipmen, 46 of them women. Marcia, one of the lovely young female officers, took my friend and I around on a tour of the deck area, and explained the functions of the various pieces of equipment on board. The ship is spotless, the wooden decks polished and unmarred, the brass fittings shining in the afternoon sun. She pointed out the 21 sails and explained how every morning at 6 a.m. the trainees must climb to the top of the centre mast. If they falter or make a mistake they must do it again at noon. And if they make a bad error they must climb it again and again to get it right. She showed us the tasks she is responsible for every day as well as climbing up to secure the sails, although being a tall girl she only has to go part way up to do that. The shorter crew members are the ones who climb to the very top, a daunting job that not many people would have the courage to participate in.
The town of Pisac (elevation about 9,500 ft) has a central market that is frequently visited by tour buses on their way to the ruins on the hills above Pisac. Most tours stop at the craft market and then head up to the ruins for the morning, and then move on down the Sacred Valley to other archaeological sites. From the town of Pisac, you can view the ancient Inca terraces far up on the steep hillsides. Looking up the steep slopes from Pisac, it is hard to imagine walking up the steep slopes of the mountains to labor making stone terraces and farm these remote and high fields, but evidently the Inca did it. In the ancient construction of the agricultural terraces included both normal stairs and stones inserted into the walls to allow them to move up through the terraces as they tended their crops on the high slopes.
The next morning after arriving in town, finding a place to stay and getting some food for the hike, we set out up the stairs leading from town to the first set of terraces. We headed through the market stalls selling colorful alpaca wool shawls, blankets and hats, stopping to barter and eventually buy some woolen hats to ward off the chill of the thin mountain air. Leaving the market by a small back street passing between mud wall compounds and heading towards the steep slopes at the edge of town, we walked over the cobblestones of a path which led up towards the first ascent into the terraces above the village.
Fortunately, we had been at high elevations for over a week to allow our bodies enough time to adjust to the elevation and thin mountain air, so the climb did not cause any altitude sickness. As we steadily climbed the hill, breathing heavily as we strained to extract oxygen from the cool and crisp morning air, we climbed a long series of stairs up between two small guard towers. We continued through the high farm terraces and into the ruins of small settlement on the steep slopes where the buildings had been laid out to form the shape of a bird when viewed from above. Then we climbed up to the ceremonial center of Intihuatana within the ruins.
From the ceremonial center, we moved up through an Inca tunnel carved into the rocky mountain top, along a defensive wall beneath military barracks (where they guarded the main entrance) and into a saddle that had sacred baths and views of cliff sides with burial caves in them. Since the caves have been hit by grave robbers, tourists are not allowed into that area. We finished by going to the tour bus drop off area to get a some fresh squeezed orange juice before heading back down into town. In addition to the sense of accomplishment from having climbed all the way up (11,200 feet above see level) from town (over 1,700 feet of elevation gain) we got to visit the site in the opposite direction as the flow of the tour groups, and we could not help but feel a little smug as tourists huffed and puffed their way back to the bus parking area after their short tour, loudly complaining about the short hike.
