Juanita, the Ampato Incan Ice Mummy

I visited the Ice Mummy exhibition here in Arequipa on my last day. Cameras were not allowed; sorry, no photos.

There have been approximately a dozen finds of ritual burials by the Incas among the various peaks of Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Many are in poor shape due to exposure and/or lightning strikes.

In the early 90's, I believe, Juanita was discovered at 21,000 feet on one of the peaks of Colca Canyon. A neighboring, active volcano had been erupting for several years, and melted away the glacier enough to expose her burial site, she actually rolled down the hill about a 100 meters where they found her, but was in incredible condition.

We watched a film in English describing the Incan customs of sacrifical burial, and the process by which Juanita was discovered. In the exhibit, I got to see in person many of the pottery and gold artifacts that were buried with her, her sandals, satchel of coca leaves, her vestiments, etc. Juanita herself is only on display 6 months a year in a little glass chambered freezer. Right now she is at a university lab, so they had on display 'Sara' I believe it was, a similar find. Though not in as good a shape, her hair was still shiny, and her garments and artifacts displaying bright colors and workmanship.

It was really a nice exhibit, and another piece of the puzzle of Colca Canyon. I was able to puchase a dvd (in English) about Colca Canyon for only $5, so I look forward to being able to show off more of the beauty and intrigue of Southern Andean Peru to anyone who would be interested. Be sure to scroll to the end of the page, I added a mongo size photo of the canyon. Hopefully the video will help do it more justice than my little point-and-click camera. A lot of my shots didn't come out because the dimensions are so huge, you can't fit it all in the frame, nor distinguish all the features at distance.

Heading out on the bus tonight for Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. Woo-hoo ! Wish you all were coming along on the trip.... Jesse