Peru Upper Amazon Region: More pre-Inca Chachapoya Ruins

My last post showed a few pictures of Chachapoya stone ruins which, in 2007, when I photographed them, had just been discovered by settlers. Buried under the moss of the cloud forest, they were difficult to distinguish from the surrounding vegetation.

     However, Chachapoya ruins, like the Kuelap citadel, have been known to exist for more than a century. Over the years many have been cleared from the surrounding vegetation to give travelers easier access to them. And though what pushed me to return to Chachapoya country was the news of the  new discovery, I also photographed several of the more accessible ones, as shown hereafter.

 

Pre-Inca Chachapoya sarcophagi (mummy casings) looking towards the rising sun on a cliff ledge of the Andes Mountains’ eastern face at the Karija site.  There is no way to photograph them from the front.

Chachapoya cliff mausolea at site known as Revash.

Chachapoya cliff mausolea at site known as Revash.

Chachapoya cliff necropolis known as Diablo Huasi, a day trek from Leimebamba.

Chachapoya cliff necropolis known as Diablo Huasi, a day trek from Leimebamba.

Chachapoya cliff necropolis known as Diablo Huasi, a day trek from Leimebamba.

Chachapoya ruin near Leimebamba known as El Molinete

Chachapoya ruin near Leimebamba known as El Molinete..

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. Its protective wall rises at places to more than 30 feet. Llamas browsing.

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. Its protective wall rises at places to more than 30 feet. Llamas browsing.

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. 

 Kuelap, a Chachapoya walled city and citadel. The snake was one of four Chachapoya deities.

 I photographed this Chachapoya stone engraving at a hotel. The owner could not tell where it came from. The puma that it represents was another of four Chachapoya deities.

Leymebamba (Amazonas). Museum. Casing of a Chachapoya mummy  inside a glass display.

 Chachapoya bones rolled up like firewood. Was displayed at the Leimebamba Museum.

Peru: Chachapoya Lost City Hiding In The Cloud Forest

Lost Chachapoya city hiding under the moss of centuries

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Back in 1976, on assignment for Natural History magazine in northeastern Peru’s Upper Amazon Province, I came across the remains of a huge rectangular stone building, almost flush with the summit. It commanded a sweeping view of the countryside.

     “A great military observation post,” I remember thinking. I would later learn that it had belonged to an enigmatic, warlike people known as the Chachapoya, who flourished in the region from the beginning of the ninth century until their subjugation by the Inca in the 1470s. For defense reasons, they built their fortress cities and tombs in the remote heights along the eastern edge of the Andes.

     As I walked around the foot of the cliff, looking up in search for a good camera angle, I dropped into a 10-foot hole. Dazed but unhurt, I found I had landed inside a tunnel that stretched far in opposite directions. Somehow, I managed to climb out. Back at the farm where I was staying, I asked about the tunnel.

     “It was to shorten the distance,” the farmer replied. What he meant was that, according to local lore, the Chachapoya who entered the tunnel were magically transported, Star Trek-style, to places hundreds of miles away.             

     Moved by the experience, I promised myself to return, and 31 years later, hearing of the Discovery of a new Chachapoya lost city, I flew back there, this time on an Archaeology magazine assignment.

     In my yesterday post of a cloud forest picture, I mentioned how the ruins are so hidden behind the moss of centuries that you could pass near them without noticing them.

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Peru: Spooky Cloud Forest

Peru’s moss-choked cloud forest in Upper Amazon, darker in real life than in this photograph, is as silent as it is mysterious. Nothing moved there as I looked for moss-covered and overgrown pre-Inca Chachapoya stone ruins, now as green as their surroundings and nearly invisible. Not a twig snapped. Not a bird sang. Not a snake slithered away. Not an insect peeked from under a dead leaf.

     The ancient Chachapoya there had rested untouched for many centuries. But settlers had discovered their ancient village and they would soon go treasure hunting before archaeologists could find support for their own digging.

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Peru: Riding Home From The Market

Young farmers riding home in Peru’s Andes Mountains of the Upper Amazon after selling their families potatoes at the market in a valley below.

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Madagascar: Carrying Home The Corn Harvest

Barefoot women carrying corn from the fields near Sambaina Bara, Madagascar.

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Madagascar: East Coast Village Downpour

Downpour on Boanoerana-Ivongo, a village on Madagascar’s East Coast.

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Madagascar: Périnet Natural Reserve.

A view of Madagascar’s Périnet Natural Reserve. The big dirt ball on the ground is a termite nest.

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Benin: Ewe Men Fishing The Sea

Ewe fishermen pulling in their seine net from the sea at Grand Popo, on the coast of Benin.

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Benin: Ewe Fishermen Moving Out To Sea

Ewe fishemen pushing a canoe out to sea at Grand’Popo, on the coast of Benin, where they will drop a seine net to pull back to the beach. 

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Benin: Cotton Harvest Going To Market

 Near Kandi, Benin, a family cotton harvest is on its way to be sold to a local company.

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Morocco: Goats Believe They Are Cats

Like black cats, and under the  watchful eyes of their shepherd below, goats have climbed a thorn tree near Agadir, Morocco, to feed on its tiny leaves.

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Malaysia: Transplanting Rice

Near Papar, in Sabah, a part of Borneo that belongs to Malaysia, a Kadazan girl is transplanting rice.
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Malaysia: Bajau Fisherman

In Kota Belud, in the  Malaysia’s territory of Sabah, in north Borneo, this ironic Bajau fisherman was smoking a cigarette rolled in a leaf. He seemed to wonder what I found so interesting about him. Few people know what is interesting about them, but every person is worth a portrait, and photographers can make such portraits read like books.

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Malaysia: An Exuberant Little Girl

Little Bajau girl peeking out of her family’s hut window near Papar, in Sabah, a Malaysian part of Borneo.

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Canada : Acadian Historical Village

Girl drawing water at Caraquet’s Historical Village in Canada’s NewBrunswick Province.

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Acadia: Bay Of Fundy

In Canada’s Acadia, the beautiful rock-studded Bay of Fundy boasts the world’s highest tides, averaging heights of 47 to 54 feet. I photographed it at low tide, when people were walking around the rocks, but at high tide I would have seen them kayaking around them. Unfortunately my schedule did not allow me this.

Though the sun still shone brightly on the surrounding park when I got there, the bay, at the bottom of steep cliffs, was already bathing in the purple light of dusk. The sea looked reddish from the sediments it was dragging back and forth.

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Bolivia: Another Example Of Stone Forest

Following my yesterday’s post, here is another example of standing eroded rocks,  among hundreds more in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, that are known locally as the stone forest.

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Bolivia: Altiplano Stone Forest

In Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, an often beautiful if bitter cold 10,000 feet-high plateau between two Andean cordilleras, hundreds of rocks sculptured like these by erosion form what the locals call bosque de piedras, or stone forest.

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Brazil: Two-Toed Sloth For Sale

Boy trying to sell me this two-toed sloth near Manaus, in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest.

The animal's inviting expression would make you think he was pushing the sale as well.

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Madagascar: Herding Zebus To Market

Along a puddle-strewn dirt road near Feonarivo, in Madagascar, a boy holding a sign warning drivers to stop is walking ahead of a herd of zebus on its way to a market several days march away. The boy and the men carry on their backs all their travel needs.

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Madagascar: Traditional African Village

Evrata Village, reachable after a strenuous canoe trip from Taolagnaro, previously Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, on the Evrata River. Coconut trees and breadfruit trees shade it.  To view more Madagascar photos on this blog, write the word in the search box.

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Kenya: Lake Logipi

 Just south of Kenya’s Lake Turkana, Lake Logipi, stretching in the Suguta River Valley, itself part of the Great Rift Valley, is being visited by flamingoes, crowding the waters near and far.  

    Though this blog is about humanity's cultures, people everywhere are so defined by their environments that I must also, once in a while, show some of them. 

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Sahel:Tuareg Watering Flocks At Water Holes

Tuareg nomads water their flocks at several water holes dug out of a dry river bed in Niger’s Sahel region.

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Sahara: Unveiling A Tuareg Man's Face

In 1965, accepting me as a member of his family, a noble Kel Rela Tuareg took off his veil and let me photograph him without it under his tent. This surprised even his grandsons, who had never seen his full face. Their surprise made his younger sister behind them laugh. It surprised me too, of course. And the man may have been smiling over his audacity.

     Like Tuareg men often do, he had shaved the front part of his long hair to mitigate the heat generated by his tagilmust, or turban veil. His hands were blue from the heavy indigo dye of his robe, which comes off like that of carbon paper and has earned the Tuareg the name of Blue People.

     The Kel Rela are originally from the Sahara’s Ahaggar Mountains in southern Algeria. However, dwindling pastures there had pushed them south to txhe Sahara’s Tamesna region of Niger.

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Benin: Somba Dinner Preparation

As the sun nears the horizon in Benin’s Atakora Mountains, two Somba siblings pound carob pods outside their adobe dwelling. Others behind are cooking the evening meal.
(c)1973
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Benin: Indigo-Dyeing Men

In Kandi, North Benin, two men are dyeing fabric in two of several indigo vats spread around. The indigo dye, which comes off the cloth like carbon paper, is much appreciated by the Tuareg nomads of the Sahara and Sahel to the north. Because it colors the Tuareg’s skins, they are known as blue people. I wonder whether that indigo may not be more than an ancient fashion but also help protect white Tuareg skins against the scorching sun.

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Ghana: Beach Scene Along The Gulf Of Guinea

In this picture taken on the beach of Ghana’s Atorkor village along the Gulf of Guinea, Ewe fishermen’s wives were waiting with basins and baskets for their individual shares of the morning catch. Some of the fish would be consumed by their families, the others would be sold at the nearby market of Keta. Copra, from the coconut trees in the background, added to the Ewe economy.

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Peru: Cute Lima Street Boy

Sad to see such a beautiful little boy having to play in a street of Lima’s Cerro San Cristobal slum. But then, all the kids of Peru I photographed were beautiful.

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Peru: Boy And Monkey Pet

Boy with pet monkey at Iquitos, Peru, against the backdrop of the Amazon River. He wears a used cap bearing the logo of a maintenance company.

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