After naptime and lunch, we took a 2:30 bus trip out to Paracas National Reserve. The majority of the reserve looks like the surface of the moon… one of the driest places on earth. Years ago, the water table was quite high and you could dig just a few feet for water (supporting plant and animal life) — now, the water is approximately 30 meters down. We toured the reserve with a guide and an extended Peruvian family with three boys; they were great and very friendly. Mist shrouded some of the key vistas within the reserve (see below) but we are still happy we went. The museum within the reserve was very interesting (more than we thought it would be) and was home to some impressive textiles, trophy heads and other skull remains (did you know that the Incas were into head-shaping and brain surgery?), and mummies! One of the coolest parts of the museum were remains from the Paracas Necropolis, a 5000-year old site of the Paracas culture (predating the Incas by more than a thousand years). 400-some funerary bundles were found (check out the mummy below to see what I mean about “bundles”) wrapped with colorful textiles and loom work.
Will and I outside of the Paracas museum. I also took pictures of Paul with the travel bunny here — he’ll post those, eventually…!
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