indigenous tagged posts

In America, Peru 2001 On  13/06/2001  No comments

In Lima I visited the “Museo Nacional de Antropologia y Arqueologia”, located in Plaza Bolívar, a typical square of small city surrounded by colored colonial building. The museum shows the different phases of the indigenous cultures in Peru. Each culture is represented with the map of its region, time they had lived, its ceramics, clothing, mummies, skeletons… One of the attractions of the museum is the maquette of Machu Pichu where it shows how civilization worked. It has bulbs that light up showing what was each place in the construction.

The same day I visited the “Museo del Oro del Peru y Armas del Mundo”. The first floor you get in is a room full of rifles, knives, swords, digging, uniforms, armors, all possible warlike material, all in great amounts. I think I had never seen so many weapons together in my life. I did not like it at all, I felt suffocated and I left. I went to a handcraft store.

After some time, I came back and went to the basement to see the golden obje...

In America, Peru 2001 On  04/06/2001  One comment

Flying over Nazca Lines is a good excuse to come to Peru. These famous drawings, believed to be made by Nazca and Paracas cultures centuries ago, can only be see from the of air. The figures were only discovered in the beginning of the 20th century when airplanes flew over the area and pilots saw something on the ground. Up to today we don’t known who did the drawings, neither why they were done. There are some theories, one of the most accepted one is that they have been drawn to be as a calendar showing when to plant and the season of the year… Another theory is that the drawings were done by astronauts, or that the indigenous could make air balloons and would fly over to see the figures.

I arrived in town late in the evening; I came by bus from Lima and I had already reserved a flight to the next morning. I woke up a little anxious; therefore I can get motion sickness in bus, boat, car. I imagined in a small airplane for three people who turn 90 degrees sidewise...

In America, Ecuador 2001, Hiking/Trekking On  27/05/2001  One comment

In America, Ecuador 2001, Hiking/Trekking On  18/05/2001  One comment

We (an Australian couple, an English girl, a guide and I) left Baños early to spend a few days in indigenous huts in the jungle. The trip to Puyo was great. We rode on the roof of the bus van, it was the best place to see the scenery. We passed through some beautiful waterfalls. Before going to the camp site we stopped in a place called Reserva Fátima, a natural reserve for animal and environment. The infrastructure was really simple, it looked like a house with a patio full of animals. They take care of turtles, alligators and snails. There are also parrots, macaws and monkeys that the police apprehends and brings there for rehabilitation to the environment.

In the afternoon we got to our campsite to leave our stuff and left for a 4 hours walk in the jungle. We stopped to see some medicine plants. As it was rain season, we walked (with rubber boots) the whole time on the mud. The end of our trail there was a waterfall where we took a shower...

In America, Ecuador 2001 On  29/04/2001  No comments

The Mitad del Mundo city is about 15km away from Quito. It is the landmark of latitude zero. Very small, it looks like a hole surrounded by mountains. On Sundays it is crowded with tourists, the great majority is local tourists who go to visit the monument, the museum and walk around the place. Sometimes there are music and dance performances. Unfortunately I couldn’t see it because the performance was cancelled due to the rain.

Some people say that the monument is not on latitude zero. They say the calculus of the location is wrong, but once there, people say that the equator line marked in the ground is correct. Inside of the tower there is an ethnographic museum. People go up by elevator and go down by stairs seeing an exhibition about the indigenous culture of Ecuador. The museum is small but well organized. There are maps of each region and models showing the clothing of each tribe...

In America, Ecuador 2001 On  28/04/2001  One comment

About 95 km away from Quito, Otavalo is one of the main open markets in Ecuador. It has been there for hundreds of years, even before the Spanish arrived. It is from the pre-Colombian period, when the indigenous people from the coast came to exchange merchandises with the Andean people. The best day to visit the market is on Saturday, when the biggest merchandises exchange happens. The streets get crowded with people and tents.

Nowadays the market is very popular among the tourists. There is a area of handcraft envisioned towards them. It is really big, I had never seen anything like this. Blocks and blocks full of tents selling bags, sweaters, bracelets, objects in wood, carpets, hats and anything else you could imagine. Everything is very colored and really well done. I wish I could take everything, the problem would be to carry it in the backpack for the next 4 months…
Something that caught my attention in the market was the beauty of the Ecuadorian indigenous women...