Nasca "Bones and Gold"

Breakfast and booking ahead for Ica and to visit the Museo Regional De Ica before busing it to Nasca. The museum visit in Ica was rushed; we only had 45minutes before our Nasca bus. All the displays are in Spanish an unfortunately we didn’t have time for the English speaking guided tour. Wish we did, there are some pretty creepy, cool things to see. It would have been a great primer for the burial sight at Nasca. They have a mock up of the Nasca lines in a back compound. It’s kind off welfare but it’s as closes as we’re likely to get this visit.

Once in Nasca we found a tour guide to take us on an express tour of a few sights.  We chose the Chauchilla Cemetery, Acueducto de Ocongalla, and a local pottery studio. We had little time as usual the sun was going to bed to early for us. Jo, a Kentucky gal, didn’t mind the express tour and joined us. 

 We began at the cemetery, on the way passing a contemporary graveyard that held its own interest. The cemetery is on a lonely windy plain. The bones of the disturbed graves are strewn over the plateau. The excavated graves have been repaired as well as the archeologist could.

After the burial sight, we out drove the falling sun to exam the ancient aqueduct system still in use and maintained by local farmers. Interesting aside one of the crops was a cactus that attracted parasitic insect called Cochineal. The insect excretes carminic acid that reacts with the host cactus to produce a red die. It has been harvested since Incan times and is used today to produces lipstick and food die. The openings go on for miles every 25 feet or so and are use to exam and access the water. Effectively they are ancient manholes.

We then went to a one of the many skilled pottery makers in town. He demonstrated the traditional hand building process and was busy making a series of replicas of ancient pottery for museums. Unfortunately as we left Jo had realized her camera was missing. We went back to the pottery gallery but it was gone. That sucks! Our last stop was a small museum. It was little more than a demonstration by a local miner of the gold extraction process he and others like him practice. It was really quite entertaining as he a funny man. It ended in him trying to sell some of the jewelry he said he made from the gold he extracted. We didn’t buy anything but the jewelry was top notch.

Many of the locals have been extracting gold by hand with pick and shovel for years. For there toil they get about $40.00 a day worth of color. I’m told the government wasn’t getting tax from these operations and has allowed a large multinational mining company in the valley. Some of the local feel as though there community sees little of the economic benefits of the mining activities. Further there are conflicting reports as to the environmental impact of mining in the area. The native individual miners continue to mine the area but I was given the impression their activity might be less than legal. I understand they are now attempting to legitimize their activities in an attempt to maintain their livelihood and control over their environment. I confirmed none of this or even attempted to get the story of the large mines or government but it s an interesting story that is one of many that is not being reported on. After a quick dinner were off to Cruz Del Sur for a long over night trip to Arequipa.