Riding in Bosco de Pumac near Batan Grande, North Peru

After a day's tour discovering all about the Lord of Sipan, we return to the agency and find , as agreed, Andrea ... a small blonde Swiss woman and her monosyllabic Peruvian husband (very swarthy but with blue eyes!) and their little daughter, josephine. They don't have a vehicle and the ranch is an hour away. They came into town to visit relatives and to pick me up. We get in a taxi and go to where the combis set off - these are small buses which stop and start along a route depending on who wants to get on or off. We then pile into one going in our direction and I am put in the front while they all squeeze somewhere in the back. I get cross questioned by a young woman beside me who is training to be a primary school teacher ... and via her I get loads more questions from the driver. It is quite hard work as I don’t understand everything she asks me.

We eventually arrive in Pacura at about 8pm and I am taken to a large house apparently built by someone whose daughter married a Belgian and it has lots of rooms and I think acts as the only place she can put me up ... she has not room on her ranch and she says the only hotel only rents out rooms by the hour for sex!

I am clearly the only person staying there and am put in a very sparce room with two large beds with very dubious mattresses. I have to have the shower explained to me an alarmingly dangerous contraption. Anyhow she says she will call for me at 8.15 next morning. Despite the strange surroundings I sleep quite well and am ready for her on time. While waiting I havea long conversation with the old lady brushing the area around the empty swimming pool. She explains all about her ailments, the plans for the fiesta area ... etc etc. She seems content that I just smile and make the right noises ... not understanding half of what she has said. Anyhow Andrea arrives in due course with her bike. We decide to leave my backpack so that I can come back and have a shower before going back to Chiclayo.... great idea. So off we go down the back streets to her ranch... just a few blocks away. There she and Manuel and the girl live in just one large room/hut, another hut acts as the shower and for the loo there is a long drop about 50 yards away. Then another hut is the kitchen. There are about half a dozen cows (a mixture of Jerseys and Holsteins) all looking very thin. There is no grass at the moment so they are living on mashed sugar cane. While Andrea gives me breakfast Manuel is saddling up two horses. So a little while later Manuel and I set off. It is not a very chatty day as he has virtually no conversation and this is all in Spanish but after an hour he asks me a few questions and I ask a few questions back.... but that is enough. I am content to just trail behind on my stead.


The navigation of my horse is quite simple but the reins are bound together at the whithers and then you have a single rope that hangs down one side with a loose knot. This is suppose to hang neatly behind your right foot until you need it as a whip ... but I found it difficult to keep it in position and it kept falling forward. We keep to a walking pace which is very comfortable... the saddle is very nice and the horses skinny but bouncy. They are what they call pacing horses which I think means they do a very fast walk. I notice Manuels horse does the flicking of the hooves as it walks forward.

We set off around the back of local fields of sugar cane, beans, mango tree etc. There was an unbelievable amount of plastic rubbish littering the path. Andrea tells me this is because the local people are not prepared to pay 2 soles a month for it to be collected. She has been complaining to the mayor and hopes she will have more luck after the elections.

I see various interesting looking birds: a middle sized orange one, another brown and white one with quite a long tail, and a little bright red one. Manuel told me the names but I have completely forgotten them. Then out of the blue a fox just strolls by and then an owl appears standing by the path....both bold and fearless in the midday sun. After about an hour, we pass a few houses and enter the forest. It is one of the largest dry forests in the world - meaning it gets no water at all from rain only from waterever grond water makes its way down from the hills. The trees all look virtually dead but there is a tinge of green cover - they are very spaced out.

In the distance we could hear a car going around with the a loudhailer going on about the elections that were due in early October. As it got nearer it turned out not to be a car but a tuktuk with a guy lounging in theback shouting his head off!!! It looked ridiculous but I suppose a good way to do campaigning to those who are working in the fields.

So we pick our way along the main track in the forest and a few pickups pass by ... and then we pass some cows grazing... some more foxes and owls too. We arrive at the base of one pyramid, dismount and walk up it.... it is intriguing but quite basic but what is more impressive is looking down over the forest and seeing the expanse of it and where the other tombs stick out.

We have little drink and I eat the cheese buns that Andrea has given me. We then set off for a few more and then the final one is where there are several archaeologists working ... lonely painstaking work in the heat of the sun. We make our way back more or less the same way ... coming across a man collecting honey from wild bees.

The whole day was a real slow look at local life as well as a great way to see some archeological sites. Back at base, Andrea had just had a shower and then dished up some lunch for the two of us. She then walked me back to the hostal and we said goodbye. I had a quick shower and then walked down to the high street to catch a combi.

I was the first person in the combi and they offered to put the pack inside as well.... only to find that they charged me for two seats... still it was very cheap 2.40 soles all the way to Chiclayo. All the way along the conductor was touting for customers... people on the side of the road who didn’t look the slightest bit interested would somehow suddenly decide to hop on board. It was end of shift time as we got nearer town and there are lots of agricultural related business there .... sugar and rice mills etc. So we get to the terminal as it was dark and I got a taxi directly to the bus station for my overnight bus to Chachapoyas.

So what does the Amazon look like?

1st October back in Lima

Well, I can’t say what other parts of the Amazon look like but I have spent two weeks in a part of the Peruvian Amazon called the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve – an area the size of Wales. The name reflects the names of the two rivers that run through it ... both of which are tributaries/loops coming from and flowing back into the Rio Maranon . The Maranon joins the Amazon real about 100 km further east. The reserve is an area that experiences enormous changes of water level through the year and so is known as flooded forest.
Clearly the level of flooding relates to the amount of water coming off the Andes. Right now it is experiencing the lowest water levels since records began (about 100 years ago) and last year during the rainy season it experienced the highest recorded levels. As you are probably aware there was a very high level of rain last year ... hence the closing of Machu Picchu earlier this year for a few months as landslides had swept away part of the railtrack into the valley. There are always fluctuations that relate to the occurrence of the El Nino current (supposedly about every 7 years) but these recent high and low levels indicate that there are things are afoot with the climate in general, too.

Most of our time here has been spent doing surveys in boats: dolphins, fish, wading birds, macaws and caiman but we also did jungle transects which involve walking along a 2.5 km path that has been previous established and noting down any terrestrial mammals you see. So this has been a real opportunity to see the jungle close up.

Well, my initial observation was that it is not as noisey, colourful or luxuriantly verdant as you would imagine. As Kevin, another British volunteer said on coming back from the first transect: “It is not that different from walking through dense woodland at home” . But, it clearly is different ... in a British wood you are unlikely to come across anything that would harm you. Here, however, benign as it might seem, it is dangerous. We wear wellies ... not just against the occasional soggy area .. but to protect against ants and snakes that may be lurking. Then you need to take care not to touch the trees as you trog along .... quite a number have some scary looking thorns .. just at arm level. When we stop and wait for an hour at the end of a transect you need to look carefully where you park your bum, so you don’t get ants in your pants ..... and check you backpack before you pick it up again .... big bugs may be attached.

So, you start off walking looking hard for any movement ..... keen as mustard and tense with expectation ... 40 minutes later your mind begins to wander and then the guide, local chap with a machete, stops and points up in the trees .... about 4 minutes later after a lot of pointing you just about make out a monkey miles up in the canopy. How the hell did he know it was there? He then tells you that there are 15 of them up there .... my god I only saw one! Well, you quite soon realise that he often hears them rather than sees them initially. So, you need to know the difference between primate, bird and squirrel sounds (yes they have squirrels in the jungle). And this is not easy ... there are birds that sound to me like primates and monkeys that sound like chattering squirrels. And howler monkeys ‘howling’ sound more like a large cat roaring. It is a confusing place. So in the end you allow your mind to wander whilst casting your eyes around just to enjoy what you see rather than have any expectation that you will spot anything other than a ‘lower storey’ bird. However, we are not recording the birds ...only terrestrial mammals. So in any one transect of about 2 hours walking you many see a few monkeys, a squirrel and a wood rat – possibly a sloth but they don’t move much so less likely to spot him. The wood rat (also know as the window rat) sits in a hole about 20ft up a tree trunk unmoving (having a kip?)... like a bored shopkeeper waiting for some trade). They are nocturnal so they are usually spotted every time on transects where their holes are near the path.

So what does the jungle itself look like? The ground is covered with rotted leaves and it is consistently soft underfoot. You are walking on layers and layers of leaves and wood that has been underwater for several months of the year. There are no stones here... the whole area is created from soft alluvial sediment washed down from the Andes. So the only obstacles in your path are tree roots, new saplings growing up, and various types of vines, thick and thin, that wind their way around trees and logs. Some of these vines form intriguing sculptures on their own. Oh and there are quite a lot of holes you can fall into!

Also there are long thin threads hanging down which are terrestrial roots finding their way down to the jungle floor level – I presume usually formed when the forest is flooded.

The trees are mostly tall with large branches only forming quite high up but as you look up you see different levels. For scientific purposes they divide it into three levels: the upper canopy with only the occasional tree standing proud of the others .. these are often where the monkeys are and also some of the large birds like Macaws, the next level down is more dense and often the trees have great swaths of vines covering them .. and then there is the under storey with rather small thin trees with not a lot of leaf on them but this is where you find the wood creepers, woodpeckers, ant birds and hummingbirds ... as there are lots of insects and bugs at this level. The humming birds sounding like very loud wasps or flying beetles... and you whisk around because you think it is going to hit you and you see this small body just hanging in space with apparently no wings ... they are going so fast you can barely seem them.

The trees are not close packed but if a path had not been cut you would spend quite a lot of time negotiating your way past vines etc. So you can see to a depth of about 12-20 metres. When you look up ... you often see bromeliads growing on branches of trees particularly where two branches met.

Some of the trees have these enormous buttresses so they look like tripods ... apparently this is because the soil is so soft and the roots don’t go down very deep and so this supports them. As there is major flooding of the forest floor every year. Well I could go on but here are some pictures.

Hats, moustaches and knitting

Sunday 12th September – Leymebamba
As I sat outside the market square cafe where I had just had breakfast ... waiting for my 8am bus to Cajarmarca (9 hours ... more anon), I get to thinking about what distinguishes Peru – at least visually –from the other countries I have visited this year. And one very noticeable thing is the hats. There seem to be different styles in different areas – the most noticeable are those worn with the different local costumes by the really local people. However, even in the cities men and women are into hats. Susan, my sister in law, succumbed to buying (and wearing) a very fetching black hat with red embroidery all over it. I wonder what wedding that will be worn to?

Here in the northern highlands they wear the most remarkable straw sombreros ... worthy of the most outrageous cowboy film - very high and often with enormous brims. You see them on both men and women .. though they seem to have slightly different styles. I suspect that the older and more respectable you get, the bigger you buy your next hat ... at least that is what I deduce.

I look across the square and as usual there are bunch of men chatting and they sport a variety .. a baseball hat, a homburg and then the magnificent sombrero – only young men and women go without.
This hat thing is most noticeable here because I am in the countryside and it is obvious that this straw sombrero is ‘country’ headwear – not something you wear in town unless you have come into town to sell your wares in the market or on the street. It will mark you out as coming from farming stock no doubt.

So, as I sat on the bus . winding its way through the mountains this hat appeared walking beside a couple of cows, sitting by the doorway of a hut, walking along a pathway.... and when finally we stopped for lunch an elderly couple with lots of produce for market got on ... with their hats! They were bound for Celendin ... what seemed to be the epicentre of straw hat wearing.

As we drew in to town at about 2.30pm and the bus driver said we had a half hour break, I decided to try and find a shop where they were being sold. I was directed to a shop just off the market and had a sweet, if hurried 5 minutes, trying them all on. I didn’t dare buy one of the most outrageous ones (when would I wear it and how would I get it back?) but I returned to the bus a happy bunny and the other passengers inspected it carefully to determined if it was of good quality.... it appeared to pass muster. They are made to the same fine mesh as a panama but bigger.

So what about the other hats .... well there are ones like upside down soup plates with tassles hanging from them. There are others that look like wedding cakes ... they are a delight and I have only managed to ‘capture’ a few without being to intrusive on the wearers.

So to moustaches.... well there were a lot of them in Argentina and Chile ...it seemed to be the norm for anyone over 30 and very smart they were too. It is funny how unusual they are in UK (Dave Munson sports the only one I see around Brill). Here in Peru they still feature but not nearly so much. And one possible reason may be that with a higher number of people with indigenous genes in them... they may not have as much facial hair. When I went on a tour of the tomb of Sipan, the young guide there was at pains to help us imagine what life was like then and one of the things he mentioned is that there was little evidence of much facial hair in the images on ceramics and also on the skin of those bodies of the mummies found. And he then said that this was the same now: that those people who come from more indigenous origins usually have less body hair. I presume he knew what he was talking about ...intriguing.

And ....knitting. Well, I haven’t seen a lot of this going on but in my travels I have always noted that as you go around less wealthy or remoter communities ... you will sooner or later find ladies knitting. I say ladies because it is nearly always women who do this ... but we found on the Island of Tequile Island on Lake Titicaca it was the men’s job! Groups of them stood in the shade and clicked away making quite fine hats and scarves). In several countries in Africa I have been to you often see people standing by the road knitting ... chatting, waiting for a bus ...or whatever. And in parts of South East Asia too. I suspect if it weren’t so cold and wet you might see this on the Scottish Islands too!
Here in Peru I have more often seen ladies walking along with a roll of carded wool under one arm and a spindle hanging from the other .... spinning yarn as she walks along. My belief is that this is all destined for weaving .... I wonder whether all of it is for the tourist industry ... I suspect so. I have also noticed quite a number of shops and stalls in marketplaces with loads of brightly coloured wools ... but on closer inspection these are all synthetic... so clearly there is quite a bit of knitting going on but I think most of it is being done in the dimly lit shops in town ... while they wait patiently for customers or by grannies sitting on the doorsteps of houses in the countryside.
So, why does one never see any evidence of knitting among the textiles one sees in museums? When was knitting invented? Is it a modern thing? Or does it come unravelled and disintegrate and therefore is not found in tombs and other archaeological sites? I suppose fishing nets are the nearest one gets to knitting? Why did this not transfer to clothing – when it is now seen as such a useful way of creating warm clothing? Having visited the precolombian and Inka museums in Cusco and the museum in Ica which had some beautiful woven cloth dating from the Nascan period (Dates 100-750 AD) .. and then in the North of Peru seeing the magnificent artifacts of gold, shells, ceramic that came out of the Moche, Chimu and Lamayeque tombs... one wonders whether they also did have knitted products but that they just didn’t survive.
Well we are pretty sure that the precolumbians and Incas didn’t have moustaches, they definitely would have had hats. They didn’t have the wheel, any animal that they could ride on (the horse arrived with the Spanish) or any form of sophisticated writing (only systems of strings and knots which possibly served as calendars or accounting system) .... so what about knitting? Did they or didn’t they have that before those Spanish ladies arrived? This brings me back to hats .... the classic hat that every tourist buys to take home is the knitted hats with earflaps with tassles hanging from them. When did that become the classic hat associated with the Andes ... and in particular in Peru?

Nearing the end

Here I am at the end of October with just over 24 hours to go before I start my journey home. I have still not blogged much. I am back in Quito after spending a week in Galapagos (more about that latger). I arrived in Quito at the beginning of the month and spent two weeks in and around the area - Ecuador is a really wonderful place ...full of variety from volcanos to jungle to cloud forest. You can be any one of them all in one day!

This journey has been wonderful.... different from the last that I have done quite a bit less solo travelling with three weeks with my brother John and his familiy, two weeks on the Amazon with Earthwatch, and now a week on a boat around the Galapagos. I have nevertheless had my adventures: scary bus rides in the Northern Highlands of Peru, mountain biking down Cotopaxi volcano and whizzing over the cloud forest canopy on a high wire. I am now trying to prepare myself mentally for the sedate life of winter in Brill. Will have to plan some Christmas parties immediately.

So I have now posted a couple of bits of writing that I have had on my computer for a while waiting for an opportunity to get loaded onto the blog with pictures. Yes, I have been clicking away though I had to buy a new lense as various things went wrong with my normal lense. It has been rather frustrating but I still think I have managed to capture some goodies. What I fail to do is to take pictures of myself .... people offer but I am usually holding my SLR and they find that daunting. So here are a few that have been taken of me - all hideous but it proves that I was there!