Stuff I forgot to mention before

As I run from town to town, cybercafé to cybercafé, I always find myself way to hurried to write all the stuff I want to. My mind is always on other things, like answering emails, making reservations for a hostel in the next town, etc. So I forget to mention things that I later think, wow, I wish I had put that in the blog. So here are some of them, with photos as well. (Especially because some of the photos turned out really good.)

While in Codpa, I participated in an age-old Aymara ceremony known as "dressing the cross." I went with Tibor to a plot of land a bit outside of town, where the family was in the process of putting up their cross on an altar overlooking their farm. First, they dressed it in sort of pink fabrics and blue gauze, and there was a round of praying in which each person had to kneel in front of it, drink a beer, and pour some of it on the altar in front of the cross. Then you had to throw coca leaves onto it and make a wish. They also poured onto the altar some wine made from Codpa grapes (harvest was at the end of April). The point was to pray to the Pachamama (which is the Altiplano earth god, as far as I know) for a good harvest in the coming year. Then, they took some flowers and plants and put them into bushels, which they tied onto the cross (that is what the picture is of). And then there was another round of kneeling, wine and beer, except this time you had to eat candy as well. The cross then stays up for another year, until it's time to change the plants again next May. They have been doing this every year for more than a century, since they first got to Codpa.

After the ceremony we ate chicken cazuela and picante de conejito. It was good stuff.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I saw some petroglyphs in Codpa, or actually in Timar, to be exact. Basically the valley itself--one of few fertile areas in a massive desert--was a major travel route for the Incas, between what is now Bolivia and the Pacific coast. So the engravings on the rocks there--mostly pictures of llamas and men, pointed towards the ocean--were messages for travelers. I put my hand near one so you can get a better idea of their size.


Here are some pictures from Lauca National Park as well. First, Lake Chungará.


And then, one of a vizcacha, which is kind of like a rabbit but not.


That is all for now. I have now left Chile, so here's one last patriotic photo.