We planned to visit two museums today if we don´t get too tired especially with Beth´s cold and Allen´s problems from the antibiotics and my infirmities in general. One is the Bruning Museum and the other is the Lord of Sipan Museum. They are about four block apart in a small town 11 km outside of Chiclayo called Leyesque or someting similar.
We walked about four blocks to a bus station and got on a van that holds about 12 passengers, the driver, and a young man who opens and closes the door and collected the ca. 40 cents from each of us for the fare. It was a chicken van,that is, it stunk of gasoline fumes, and the motor was loud and seemed like it was on its last legs, but we arrived at the two museums in the small town in about 15 minutes.
The Bruning museum showed all the different cultures in the area from about 10,000 years BCE to the Incas of the 14th and 15th century after Christ. The development of large organized societies began about the time of Christ. What was surprising to me was that the Moche, which were dominant in one area around Chiclayo from about the first to the eighth century after Christ were incredibly talented artists and craftsmen. Their ceramic works, and ornaments and jewelry they created would measure up to the finest artists of today.
Before the second museum we stopped for lunch and I had a turkey wing in a marvelous peanut flavored, mild curry sauce with rice on the side and we ordered a pitcher of that chicas morada (sp?) drink. Beth and Allen shared a great fruit salad and some meat with rice. Again, oo much food. And my turkey was a disapointment not becasue of the wonderful sauce, but I did not know I was getting a wing, and I struggled to get any meat off it.
The vast majority of the second museum, that of the Tomb of the Lord of Sipan contained the findings from that tomb and a few others, but dominated by the Lord's tomb. This tomb, discovered in 1987 rivals the finding of the King Tut tomb in Egypt in 1923, So one can say that the former is the most significant archeological discovery in the latter half of the 20th century.
This ruler lived about 1600 year ago, and from all the splendid artifacts they found buried with him, archeologists have deduced that he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, ruler in many centuries. If you were lucky enough to see the King Tut exhibit that toured the U.S. about 30 years ago, you can get an idea of the splendor of this exhibit. The ceramics, gold, silver and copper ornaments and jewelry are bereathtaking. Photos of some of these artifacts can be seen on the following website.
And much of this would have been looted by grave robbers or taken away by the Peruvian government if the Peruvian archeologist, Walter Alve, had not taken charge and personally resisted the thieves, as well as the government.
After the two museums we were exhausted and hopped a taxi for the 7 milre ride back to the hotel for a cost of $3.33 U.S.
I mailed some postcards for all of us and we had dinner in the hotel, which was a bit more expensive, but we used a free drink coupon and Allen and I each had a Pisco Soue, which,if I have not mentioned it before, is the national drink of Peru. It was not as strong as the one I had before, but HEY, it was free,
Dinner for me was a national dish consistin fo a milky soup iith shrimp and langostino (tiny lobters). It was extremely taty, and my only hesitation to recommend it is thatit needed a wet cloth to clean the fingers, since one had to peel the langostino. Oh yes, I had a Cuscueño rubio beer.
Beth and Allen shared a mashed potato dish stuffed with chicken and other goodies, Both oor dishes are considered tradional dishes of Peru, the origin of the potato.
Then it was off to our separate rooms for R and R.
ALfredo
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