Onward and upward
I have been suffering from a little altitude sickness for the last couple of days-nothing serious, just a headache and a slight queasiness-so Mike was left to go on his own with our guide on the treck through the Sacred Valley while I caught up on a lost night´s sleep. He has some amazing photographs and on the way back he mentioned that he hadn´t seen any animals here, other than the ubiquitous llamas and alpacas (we had our photograpoh taken with one and its owner on Saturday-it is something you have to do!) so he was taken to a rescue centre where he was able to photograph condors and puma from close up. Fantastic.
By yesterday lunchtime, however, I had recovered enough to go to the Museum of Pre Columbian Art in Cusco. We had read about it in Hugh Thomson´s book, Cochineal Red, and it really is as spectacular as he claims, especially if you enter the galleries when they are empty as the cases light up as you go through the door. The point of the museum is that all the work-pottery, woodwork, shellwork and gold and silver-are displayed as art and not as ethnographic evidence of particular cultures. You are given the minimum amount of information-broad dates, the culture, since it covers the pre-Inka civilsations and the Inkas-and just left to look. According to Thomas it is perhaps not possible to give much information by way of provenance since looting is, or at least was, almost officially accepted in Peru, seen by the descendants of the indigenous people as a way of liberating their history from the detested Spanish conquerers and by the government as a cheap and feasible way of getting access to archeaological sites. Whatever, it is amazing and leaves you feeling able to wonder at the beauty and quality without trouybling yourself with a lot of information. That is for another day.
Must rush now as we are off on the Hiram Brigham Orient Express to Macchu Pichu, leaving our suitcase here as the Orient Express kindly provide you with your own little case. We have left another case in Lima. Must remember to collect everything on the way back!
By yesterday lunchtime, however, I had recovered enough to go to the Museum of Pre Columbian Art in Cusco. We had read about it in Hugh Thomson´s book, Cochineal Red, and it really is as spectacular as he claims, especially if you enter the galleries when they are empty as the cases light up as you go through the door. The point of the museum is that all the work-pottery, woodwork, shellwork and gold and silver-are displayed as art and not as ethnographic evidence of particular cultures. You are given the minimum amount of information-broad dates, the culture, since it covers the pre-Inka civilsations and the Inkas-and just left to look. According to Thomas it is perhaps not possible to give much information by way of provenance since looting is, or at least was, almost officially accepted in Peru, seen by the descendants of the indigenous people as a way of liberating their history from the detested Spanish conquerers and by the government as a cheap and feasible way of getting access to archeaological sites. Whatever, it is amazing and leaves you feeling able to wonder at the beauty and quality without trouybling yourself with a lot of information. That is for another day.
Must rush now as we are off on the Hiram Brigham Orient Express to Macchu Pichu, leaving our suitcase here as the Orient Express kindly provide you with your own little case. We have left another case in Lima. Must remember to collect everything on the way back!
posted by Team Tierney | 2:43 PM
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