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AROUND THE LAKE AND THE DESERT

Dear Readers,
First of all we want to thank you for your comments and congratulations for the new design of your monthly newsletter, we are glad to know our effort to offer you always the most agile and fresh information of Peru is appreciated.
In this new deliver you will find your second lesson of our pre-inca cultures, this time Paracas Culture will show you, that not only the Incas were able of develop advanced activities, in fact they were the result of the wisdom of several other groups.
In our Main Article we will show you a bit more of the common culture the countries located in the shores of Lake Titicaca share. Also enjoy the wildlife article, this time about the great biodiversity Paracas desert has. The same area were Paracas culture grew.
We hope you will enjoy this new edition.
Regards,
José and Cynthia

FROM PUKARA TO TIWANAKU, THE LORDS OF THE LAKE

More than just a myth, archaeology confirms the existence of highly developed pre-inca societies on the shores of Lake Titicaca, such as Pukara and Tiwanaku.
The commonest story about the origin of the Incas tells us that the first man and his wife emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca, thus reminding us of the importance of the highest lake in the Americas. It is very likely that the plants and animals of the High Andean Plateau were first millennium AD created the economic basis for the growth of lakeside cultures.
The myth of Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo says that Titicaca was the "pacarina" or place of origin of the Incas. From this sacred spot the royal couple left for Cusco to civilize the rest of the mortals. Although the story doesn't say so, we can conclude that the shore of the lake was home to societies that had already achieved an advanced state of development, such as Pukara and Tiwanaku.
Myths apart, archaeology confirms the existence of highly advanced pre-Inca societies. 400 BC saw the rise of the Pukara culture, which survived for almost five hundred years. This society may have had a theocratic system of government by a caste of priests and successfully managed trade and barter through a network of llama caravans that reached as far as Cusco and the north of Chile.
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YAVARI

One of the products of Peru's adventure-filled history is a gunboat built in England in 1862, which now forms part of an attractive cultural tourism project on Lake Titicaca.
The legendary Yavari rides at anchor in the port of the city of Puno, on a part of the lake normally covered with a green weed that feeds on organic pollution - thankfully now receding. Today the ship is a floating museum and will soon be offering trips over the lake.
In 1861 Ramon Castilla (President of Peru) ordered the construction of two gunboats for Lake Titicaca. The idea was to use the wealth created by guano industry to systematic exploit the natural resources of Peru's Southern Andes. The ordered was placed on the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and one year later the two vessels arrived at Arica - in 2766 pieces. It must be remembered that at that time there was no railway from the coast to the highlands and all goods destined for the Andes had to be carried by mule, and that is how 210 tons of dismantled gunboat started across the mountains to the Andean Plateau.
It was not a simple task, however: many of the pieces were lost on route, then powerful earthquake, a revolution and a second attempt by Spain to reconquer Peru produced an eight year delay between the unloading of the dismantled ships and the launch of the Yavari on the25th December 1870. Three years later the Yapura was launched, to be renamed BAP Puno by the Peruvian Navy.
Over years the Yavari was altered, re-engined and put to a variety of uses. In 1914 her original engine (with boiler fired by dried cattle dung!) was removed and a Swedish Bolinder semi-diesel fitted. This engine runs perfectly to this day and is the oldest of its type and size still in use, though needless to say later repairs relied upon creativity of Puneño mechanics and the generous assistance of Volvo and other private companies.
Life has held many surprises for the Yavari, but perhaps, the most unsual of all was her acquisition in 1982 by an English lady called Meriel Larken.
Larken, having fallen in love with Peru, commissioned a survey of the ship and when she was found to be suitable for restoration bought her as an information center and tourist attraction. Today the Yavari is the country' s first floating museum and will soon be carrying tourists and travelers over the what Squier described as the onyx waters - because of their methallic blue color - of the lake.

PARACAS CULTURE

The name of the peninsula located between Pisco and Ica valleys is used by the archeologists to name the cultural development of this area previous to the Nazca culture. The rewards found by Julio C. Tello in 1925 in the Paracas bay, in the spot called "Large Heads", would be the evidences of one of the last stages of a history which involved in the development in the bay as well as in the other valley of the Ica region. The Paracas small villages were found in the Chincha, Pisco, Ica and Rio Grande. The antecedents of Paracas culture aren't clear enough. In fact, they received foreign influences which allowed the development we now know from them.

THE STAGES
From his discovers, Julio C. Tello identified two moments in the development of Paracas Culture:
1. Paracas Caves:
From 700 B.C. until year 0 A.D. Its designation proceed from the rewards of collective buries in caved cameras in the underground.
2. Paracas Necropolis:
Between year 0 A.D. and 200 A.D. This is related with the Greek term that means "city of dead people" the rewards shows buries in rectangular cameras half underground.
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LIFE ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT

Few areas of Peru can be so exuberant yet barren at the same time. Few areas of the world harbor so much history and nature, and all within reach. All that is necessary is to follow that narrow coastal strip following the course of the birds and the sun which is, naturally, southward bound.
A hundred and twenty four miles south of Lima, an extensive and arid desert dominates the landscape. To the west, a cold but extraordinarily rich sea wears away at the rugged coastline. Two extreme, but diametrically opposed environments united to create one of the most singular natural ecosystems in the Americas: Paracas National Reserve.
The surface of the sea sparkles in the orangey light of sunset. Above the waves a dark cloud appears, birds plunging into the water and re-emerging like feathered projectiles. The cloud is alive and changes its appearance continually. Going close we can hear the deafening noise as of arrows swishing through the air. It is an immense flock of birds, a pajarada, one of the most fascinating spectacles the Peruvian coast has to show.
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