Halloween Peru Style

The journey to find pumkpins to carve took about 3 hours.....and we could only find 2. Ane Kine, her boyfriend Anders, and our Peruvian friend Carlos had NEVER CARVED A PUMPKIN BEFORE!!! So naturally I had to show them a proper American Halloween:

My pumpkin is on the right -- it is a cannibal pumpkin so it is eating another pumpkin's guts. Ane Kine's pumpkin is more traditional.

We had to get creative with the lighting....Ane Kine had a candle and a blue light. We had a few technical difficulties getting the candle in at first because it was too hot to put in the top:

we were struggling with trying to put the candle in....

my pumpkin is blinding everyone

But eventually we had two nice pumpkins:

the happy pumpkins all lit up

pumpkins

And my pumpkin was feeling super cool:

my pumpkin is super cool

Yellow Fever Vaccine Adventure

I went to get my Yellow Fever (Fiebre Amarillo in Spanish) vaccine today. I decided to avoid the public hospital near me that appears to be fairly chaotic and overcrowded and opted to go to the International Vaccination Center in San Isidro. Since Ane Kine and I were already in Miraflores today to buy bus tickets, we decided to go to the clinic before we had to be back at the university for our next class. It was good that it was a split second decision because I did not have as much time to get scared and nervous, and I had someone with me (thanks Ane Kine!). The clinic was definitely not crowded or chaotic.... but the facilities left something to be desired. It was two cramped rooms and a waiting room that doubled as a storage/trash area. From the outside it looked pretty bad. However, the actual examination room was clean if sparse and the women on the staff were very nice. The nurse could see I was very scared and so she called all the women working in the clinic in to the room to try and distract me. They tried to ask me questions like "Where are you going on your trip?", "Are you and her (talking about Ane Kine) cousins?"and "Do you have a boyfriend?" "Why not?". I think I was the highlight of their day. Anyway it was over pretty fast and we left, me apologizing and thanking them the whole way out.

Now I officially have my International Vaccine Booklet and it has a stamp saying I got the Yellow Fever Vaccine. Look how official it is...they even managed to spell my name correctly!!:

Pachacamac

Sorry this post has been so long in coming....I have been busy with studying and midterms.

About 2 or 3 weeks ago I went to Pachacamac, an archaeological site about 40 km outside of Lima. It was used by many cultures, as early as 200 CE, as a site for worship to the coastal god Pachacamac and later, after the Inca empire invaded the area, to worship Into (the Sun).

Pachacamac, whose name means "Earth Maker", was considered by many coastal groups to be the creator god. After the Incas took over, they allowed Pachacamac to continue to be worshipped, but put him in a lesser position under their own gods, most importantly Inti (the Sun).

The site underwent many phases of construction, dating back to about 200 CE. This is when many of the early pyramids were constructed. Later by 600 CE, the powerful Wari empire controlled the site and used it as an administrative center, constructing a city on the site, as well as using it as a religious and ceremonial center. There are still textiles and ceramics dating from this period found in the cemetery on the site that survive today! After the collapse of the Wari empire the site was used by many groups as a religious center. The next large group to conquer the area was the Ica Empire. They used Pachacamac as an important administrative center, and allowed the religious shrines to Pachacamac to continue functioning independent of the Inca religion and priests on the site. The Inca built additional buildings, most importantly the Temple of the Sun to worship their god, Inti.

Here are some of the pictures I took of the site!

the combi ride to Pachacamac...very crowded

"Museo de Sitio Pachacamac" 

Llamas and alpacas at Pachacamac

Max Uhle and Julio C. Tello

As you can see, the site is VERY big

Acllawasi, or the house of the chosen women. They served the temple of the sun under the Inca.

"Temple With Ramp 1"

Avenida Norte-Sur (North-South Avenue)

pretty rocks!!

palace of the curaca (chief) of the local ethnic group

As you can see, there is a town right outside the site in the desert.

I liked the small door on this ruin

Max Uhle Cemetery - he found many mummies and funerary offerings. They style of the textiles and ceramic share stylistic elements with the powerful Wari culture that used the site during their period of rule.

the cemetery 

the "Painted Temple" - some paintings on the walls still survive today! the images include marine animals, corn, and anthropomorphic beings.

Temple of the Sun from afar -- you can see how huge it is! 

Temple of the Sun

Temple of the Sun - this temple was constructed by the Inca when they conquered the area and was dedicated to the worship of the Inti (the sun)

the skilled stonework is still obvious today

you can see how tall the temple is - a symbol of power and domination over the landscape

there were several excavations going on at the temple!

The Myth of Cavillaca ad Cuniraya that explains the 2 islands off the coast just in front of the temple

The two islands from the myth - Cavillaca and her son she transformed into stone

the islands from the myth

some of the walls of the temple had been reconstructed

walls of the temple of the sun

the temple of the sun - you still can see the impressive architecture

there was a group of nuns touring the temple of the sun...

the view from the top of the temple

the path down the side of the temple

Me in front of the Temple of the Sun

Chile Part 3

On our last full day in Arica, we slept late and then set out to find something to do....we had already seen the highlights and the all the museums were closed because it was a Monday except a shell museum which we had zero interest in...I was disappointed other museums weren't open because Arica has a mummy museum which would have been very cool to see.

We headed down to the beach because it was a nice day...I even got to take my sweater off!

There were tons of concrete breakers along the coast to help break the waves which were pretty strong and big!

breakers along the coast

breakers along the coast

breakers along the coast

Pacific Ocean!

We went down and touched the water....very cold!

it was very cold


We found this really cool church in the center of Arica...it looks almost German to me...

church in Arica

inside the church

saints inside the church

really gross Jesus statue

After that we went back to the center of town to look for something to do. During our stay in Arica I swear we walked up and down the main street with all the shops probably 1000 times...I think the shopkeepers recognized us and were just like....oh it's the foreigners again. 

Anyway, we found a coffee place and got delicious ice cream and espresso. I had been severely coffee deprived the past few days so the espresso was like heaven:

espresso and chocolate ice cream....heaven

cute dog on the street in Arica

 On the main walkway we found the most TERRIFYING children's ride ever. Just look at the crazed expression on its face:

scariest children's ride EVER

After wandering a little more, we went to a fancy outdoor restaurant for dinner. We were there at liek 5:30 pm for dinner which was apparently TOO EARLY for dinner because everyone else there was having drinks. We ordered spinach ravioli and it was DELICIOUS:

spinach ravioli

For dessert we got a Pinta Mono, a popsicle which turns your mouth EXTREMELY blue and provides endless entertainment:

Pinta Mono -- worryingly full of dyes and colorings but delicious

 The next day we made the return journey across the border...it was just as sketchy as before. Here is the parking lot at the international terminal in Chile. All these cars take you across the border to Peru or Bolivia:

sketchy parking lot in Arica full of collectivos to take you back to Peru

 Here is my new Andean Immigration card...apparently I am both male and female and my occupation is "casa" (house)???

Andean Immigration Card

Oh...and I almost forgot. Somehow, Ane Kine and I managed to arrive at the Tacna airport 8 hours before our flight....FAIL. Chile is 2 hours behind Peru but we were thinking (for some reason) that it was 2 hours ahead in our planning for when to get to the airport. Even with that though, we would have been 6 hours early so I don't know what we were thinking. Anyway, when we got to Peru, the local time was 6:45 am and our flight didn't leave till 3pm. The Tacna airport is basically just one big room with 2 gates. There is one coffee shop, which we hung out in for about 5 hours (luckily we met a nice Australian girl who had just dropped off her mom at the airport so we talked to her for a while). I am pretty sure that the barista thought we were crazy.

Oh and the weirdest thing happened at the gate. I gave my passport to the officer and he looked at it and brought it over to the police officer sitting at the desk beside him. I got really worried...what could be wrong with my passport? Then the police officer smiled and told me "We have the same last name! I have never met anyone with that last name before"! His last name was Peiffer (the original spelling of my last name, Peifer). What are the odds that the first person I met with my (German) last name was an airport police officer in Peru??