Spring Waxing Moon of the Southern Cross
Trujillo, Peru 8 degrees 14 minutes S 78 degrees 59 minutes W
Finished our run from Guayaquil early this morning. Today we’re docked in yet another working dock with a gray metal platform of some kind, a conveyor belt I believe, extending at exactly our cabin level from a gray industrial building to the end of the pier.
Below the promenade deck an Andean band plays with a large hand held native drum, pan pipes and a guitar, an airy lilting music that reminds of some Celtic music though the plaintive tone has a peculiar Latin American folk accent.
Both Kate and I had the same reaction when we heard the pan pipes. Austria. Vienna. The Astoria Hotel. We had a second floor room in this grand dame on the Ringstrasse and it had a balcony overlooking the the Ringstrasse. Beneath it, for the entire time we stayed, a three person Andean band played, featuring the pan pipes. In this city of Strauss, Mozart and The Vienna State Opera it was strange to have Andean music become our musical mnemonic device, but it’s true. So, here in the port for Salaverry, Peru we think of the Hapsburg royal city, city of waltzes.
We went out early to the artisan shoppes lined up on the pier. I bought two more alpaca sweaters, $50.00 total. I’m not bargaining so far, a breach of local trade customs, I know, but I have decided when
I feel the price is a bargain that I’m willing to donate the extra to the vendors.
I’m looking for Moche ceramics, reproductions, but excellent reproductions. They have them here, but they’re the cheap knockoff type; many of the ones for sale here in Salaverry are erotic. This is not an anachronism, the Moche did produce erotic ceramics though that’s not what I’m looking to purchase. The Moche did excellent portraits in their clever pots and that’s what I want to find. The local guide on the ship said the Museo Nacional Antropologia in Lima will be the most likely place to find what I want.
That’s tomorrow. We have two days in Lima and I plan to cab down to the Plaza de Armas tomorrow morning to visit the museum and hunt for Moche ceramics.
Today we visit the Chan Chan Citadel, a stronghold of the Chimu culture. While the Inca worshiped the sun, the Chimu worshiped the moon. I want to learn more about that aspect of Chimu culture.
Until later.
