AREQUIPPA
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Subject: Waking Incan inking Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 From: Kevin Charbonneau - Frank Herbert, Dune Why did you wake up this morning? Please don't complicate the query with existential pontification. Keep it simple. Did the alarm clock wake you? A crying child? A dawn-crazed rooster? How about an earthquake? This morning, 10:30-vampire-time, I awoke when I believed someone was shaking my bed. Close. The shake-rattle-and-roll Richter rousing was courtesy of El Señor de los Temblores - the Incan Lord of the Earthquakes. A funky new experience. Arequippa, Peru, has since been trembling like an epileptic llama. The latest little rumble rippled my cafe con léche just after sunset. Arequippa, a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site, offers more than seismic scintillation. One could even say, quite literally, the place rocks. (Sorry - I've had a few screws jarred loose). Flanked by white-capped peaks, graced by colonial cathedrals, Arequippa unites the harmonious virtues of an Andean aria with the fluctuating fugue of a cultural concerto. Yeah, whatever that means. Images that continue to resonate and reverberate ... The Plaza de Armas. Forget Peking-Beijing, this is the true Tian'anmen Square - Square of Heavenly Peace. The volcano el Misti. A Fuji-esque cone worth the energy, dehydration, and tingling toes. Juanita, the Ice Princess - the frozen Inca maiden who was sacrificed on the summit of Mt. Ampato over 500 years ago. This pin-up babe from the June 1996 and January 1997 issues of National Geographic currently lies mummified in the Museo Santuarios Andines. Excellent display and video. Three cheers (and virgin sacrifices) for the National Geographic Society. The Cañon del Colca. A two-day excursion through the bleak Altiplano leads to this nicely whelming fissure, reputedly the world's deepest canyon (twice that of the Grand Canyon). The Andean condors that soar beyond Chivay are truly stunning. Rapturian rapture. Topical etymology: The name of the mysterious Peruvian civilization know as the Chachapoya ... translates as People of the Clouds. Fun moniker. Cha-cha-poya. Random etymology: According to the British Lawn Association, the word love, for zero points, is derived / related to the French word for egg - l'oeuf - referring to the shape of a zero. When the game was exported to the British Isles, it was much easier to say 'love' and the word stuck. Random quote: Salvador Dali once exclaimed, "The difference between me and a madman is that I'm not a madman." - enjoying Peruvian locomotion ... your AmerIncan Amigo |
