Pachacamac

Today was a day devoted to seeing Pachacamac, and for that I was very excited.

I woke up a little late---we left out at 9:30 again so I didn't have time to run in the morning. Instead I ran just before dinner, four miles into Miraflores through the parks. I am going to miss this city so much when we have to leave in two days!

We left out on buses. That's always an adventure considering the traffic laws here in Lima are largely disregarded. The bus stalled a few times and at one point had to make a pit stop at a Repsol gas station for one of my fellow travelers to give in to Pachamama's Revenge in the women's restroom (this was a man, by the way).

Once at Pachacamac, our guide, a small Peruvian woman dressed in full safari gear, took us on our adventure:

A small quipu, but a wonderful one nonetheless. Quipu
means "knot" in Quechua, if I haven't mentioned that
already.

It's probably wise to note that no one really knows what
quipus are used for beyond record-keeping. We don't have
a Rosetta Stone with which to translate them, so though we can
see different coloured strands, different types of knots and
different string lengths, we have no idea what they signify.

A small piece of textile in an unusual colour. Possibly a border for a larger
piece.

More textile. This one includes representations of
reverent people, fish, sharks, and a few birds.

A small-scale overview of the Pachacamac site.

All of the above were highlights from the indoor museum, displaying finds from the Pachacamac archaeological site. The following are pictures of the actual ruins, which we were fortunately able to tour by bus, and get out to walk around at the important stops (meaning, we didn't fry in the sun. This is a desert we're talking about, here).

The first pyramid at Pachacamac, Ichac Temple.

The wall surrounding Ichac.

It is a DESERT. Seriously. I felt like I was walking through ruins in Egypt
more than in Peru.

The North-South road through Pachacamac.

The Templo del Sol, from the bottom.

View of Lima from the side of the Templo del Sol.

The Pacific Ocean from the top of the Templo del Sol.

More from the Sun Temple, just below the top level.

The Templo del Sol's architecture.

Me! Wearing my new shoes! Standing atop the Sun
Temple! Excitement!

And the following two pictures are from the Acllahuasi---the living space of the women who were devoted to the Sun God (the Sun Virgins). It was shaken by an earthquake a few years back and we were unfortunately unable to get any closer to it, but I took the following two pictures. It's really quite beautiful.

More photos and maps on Pachacamac can be found at their site, in English, here: http://www.pachacamac.net/photos-maps.html

My days in Lima are drawing to a close! More ruins to be visited tomorrow, will report on those later.

Love, -B