The difference between the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Peru is like night and day. El Nino keeps Ecuadors coast hot and humid, with mangrove jungles and lots of floar and fauna. About five miles north of the borderThe humboldt current is cold and the Peruvian coast is all desert for 1500 miles. Further south, the northern coast of Chile has never had any measurable rainfall. The Andes are a very new mountain range, and are pretty dry, too. Most of the ancient cultures along this coast depended on rivers and sophisticated irrigation systems that are still in use today.
There were amazing ancient cultures along the coast of Peru and part of Ecuador. There are ruins near Barranca called Caral, where there were 20 cities in the Caral group, and the main city state had adobe pyramids 100’s of feet high. They were constructed 5000 years ago, before city states in China and India. The political system was based on their religion, and they were not warlike–they had no f ortified walls around the city. Arquiologists suspected it was an old civilization becuase there were no pottery shards–they used gourds. The only city states that preceded Caral were in Africa and Mesopotamia in Arabia.
The Moche culture built pyramids and were the best potters. They were conquored by the Chimus who came from the sea, and built palaces of several thousand square feet. When the Incas formed their empire about 80 years before the Spanish came, they took the architects and artisans from Chan Chan and Moche cultures to Cuzco.
For the northern part of Peru, Gary Wollf, Charla Robertson, Brandon Bean, and Eli Fowler from the Pasadena area joined the walk. They really liked visiting the ruins, and a shaman in the old market in Chiclaya who had some important adivce for them. Charla touched a bone from the Catacombs of San Francisco, the oldest grave in South America in a church. But I think they liked the camping at Huanchaco the best–they sat around the campfire and compared living with young people from Holland, Canada, Australia and Peru. I told them it was desert and would be hot, and it was overcast and cold the entire time they were here.
It was great having their youthful energy and ideas. They were pretty flexible and talked with people everywhere we went. Charla is very sociable and kind of a take charge person, which was great. Brandon is laid back and had lots of information about different topics- -he’d look up stuff on his Ipod when we had a question. Eli is an old soul who really thrived on being able to run free in the Reserva Los Lachay, where we were the only campers in fog shrouded Andean foothills. We walked along the coast, in the foothills and across Lima together. Those of you going to Pacific Yearly Meeting of Quakers should ask them what they thought. I gave them all about ten cards to give out to their friends when they got back. It has been very quiet this week without them. I miss you guys!
I am going to California for my son, Martin’s, marriage and will start the walk again in October. I will be showing pictures and talking at the San Francisco Public Library August 26th at 6:00 pm, would love to see you all.