Day 79: Chavin de Huantar & the Continental Divide: Tuesday January 25, 2011

The drive to the headwaters of 3 rivers to above 13,000’ was stupendous & grueling. We’re so glad we took a taxi. The roads were in awful condition. We bounced around a lot while our driver went from one side of the road to the other looking for intact pavement. The magnificence of the scenery made it well worthwhile. The drive up to the peak was through a glacier valley and the most recent glacier just receded completely. Upon crossing a tunnel at the peak, there was a giant Zeus/Christ holding a cross. In the glaciated valleys were many stone corrals for the animals grazing in the National Park. Thatched huts provided refuge for the herds people. Being part of the indigenous society going on with its daily life was a treat!

Chavin is an early (750-400 BC) ceremonial site at the meeting point of three passes. Its rivers drain into the Maranon River, and then on to the Amazon. We crossed the Maranon River while traveling from Chachapoyas to Celendin. Then it was brown water running through a desert canyon. Today its tributaries were rushing and clean.

Chavin has a spectacular site below the mountains. It is considered to have given rise to a unifying pre-Spanish religion for most of what is now Peru and to have been a major pilgrimage destination and possible oracle. The major temple is for a shaman based religion that used psychoactive substances to contact major spiritual forces of this world (puma), the underworld (snake and lizard), and the heavens (eagle according our guide). The San Pedro cactus still grows on site, as it does in a lot of the kitchen gardens in Huaraz where we are staying.

The temple was expanded over the years, with passageways and “meditation” rooms between stages, reminiscent of the Mayan temples we saw a few months ago. The temple faces east, our guide says aligned with the moon. At its core is the Lanzon, a slender stone hidden inside the temple core. The Lanzon is carved with dualistic symbols, which are echoed in the half-white/half-black stones of the gate and fasade of the main structure.

The people grow potatoes and corn. This is the first place we have come to where llamas are herded instead of just posed for tourists.