Puruchuco and Pants.

Good day my muffins!

So this fine Saturday found us on our way to the ruins at Puruchuco early in the AM. Today was a short day---we arrived back at the Casa de Baraybar at 1 PM, much to everyone's relief, and there are no classes on the weekends, so it also kicked off our free time until Monday!

But on to the ruins...
Puruchuco is in a region of Lima called Ate. It's about an hour drive away from the Casa (in ridiculous traffic). It is supposed to be an Inca palace which would house only the most important Incas and their guests, usually royal governors. Here is an overview of the site, in scale miniature:

The top right includes two guest rooms for visiting nobility, the bottom
right is the entrance to the complex and courtyard. At the center is the
balcony and chambers for the head honcho. At the top left are two rooms
meant for priests to use when hallucinating on drugs, so that they can go there
and talk to the gods. The bottom left is all domestic areas, including a
storage room, a kitchen, and a guinea pig farm.

And here are some pictures of the inside of the palace:

A hallway that goes nowhere. The guide suggested that
it may have been used for bringing goods into the
complex, like a temporary storage space, and that the
wall to the right may also functioned as a rock barrier.

The main courtyard is to the left, the governor's rooms
to the right. Ahead is the path into the head honcho's
chambers.

Me inside one of their tiny doorways. The
average Inca around these parts was only
4'11" or so.

A view of Lima out of a window inside the complex.

And outside of the palace walls was this burial ground, which formerly contained thousands of mummies across its whole span:

And inside the museum at the site, there were a few interesting things that I took pictures of:

Some spindles for making thread. 

This extra small garment looks like it's made for a child
but in actuality it was intentionally made small and to be
used as an offering to the gods.

A feather cape. Everyone needs a feather cape.

A feather hat!

And the back of said feather hat.

The bones of a baby that was found in a mummy. It was
likely an offering to the gods.

Spondylus shells!

A few pieces of pottery. The pot to the far left has a
sun and moon motif.

An extra-grande quipu.

Moi. Fiddling with the camera.

And here we have the final overview of the whole palace, from above:

After we returned to the Casa and ate dinner, I headed out for the evening to Kennedy Park to shop! I bought myself three new pairs of pants for 80 US dollars. PICTURES TO FOLLOW:

Coral, blue and teal/green! All made in Peru.

We also hit up Starbucks, and for the record, their Chai Tea Latte tastes the same in Peru as it does in the US.

And thus ends my Saturday in Lima. See you sunshines again tomorrow.