An eating tour through Trujillo

Doña Panchita is visited even by the President for her famous deep fried pork. For over 30 years, this fine lady, mother of 10 children, prepares what for many is the best breakfast in Trujillo: a portion of pork cooked in a pot served with yucca, salad, coffee and two loaves of bread. On a good day she sells about 150 kilos, say one of her daughters and one of her daughters-in-law. “We are one big happy family united in this business thanks to these wonderful hands (Doña Panchita’s),” they say as they proudly show pictures of the authorities who visit them regularly. Most of them belong to the APRA party, they admit without hiding their sympathy with the party of the red star, although they make it clear that all are treated equally. With the same love.

Just like this place, located in block 5 of Spain Avenue, others have become a reference point for those who know good food. One of them is undoubtedly the Salon de Te Buenos Aires. Dozens of people enter and exit this place on block 3 of Jiron Pizarro (half a block from the Plaza de Armas in Trujillo) with a smile that says it all. Their sandwiches are delicious, especially the turkey sandwich. Unbeatable. Doña Carmen Maeshiro runs this place that has existed for 67 years. It is almost an institution. When asked about the secret sauce that accompanies the turkey, this lady gracefully changes the subject. Her workers do not know. At first glance, it contains Chinese onion. Other than that, we can say very little but enjoy very much.

Delicious Noon
For breakfast, these two locations, plus others like El Rosado, San Agustin, D'Marco and Asturias, in the Historic Center of Trujillo, are the most prominent. For lunch, the offer is multiplied and many cooks come out to fight for their customers with spoons in hand. Doña Peta earned a name for the delicious duck that they prepare. This is a true stew dish that is well-served – as one deserves – and accompanied by rice, cassava and beans. Due to that quality, they now have three locations (the two main ones on Daniel Alcides Carrion Avenue and another one right at the exit used when heading north) that do not close any day of the week, to avoid neglecting its most loyal guests.

Another place that managed (in its 12 years of existence) a place on the agenda of the people in Trujillo is Danielita. Cebiches like the ones served there, always guarded by a good portion of beans, are not found in any restaurant. It is also the winner in terms of requirements that demand those with big bellies: good, pretty, cheap and in great amounts. It's outrageous to leave Danielita, located in block 8 of the Husares de Junin street, without trying its steamed fish with a northern flavor or the choritos a la chalaca in a sauce similar to Huancaina.

Very close to Danielita, on the second block of the Cienfuegos Street, is Squalos. This restaurant, which counts with the experience of two restaurants owned by the same family which are Rincon Romano and Rincon Romano Criollo, is the most demanded of the city. Its dishes are, regarding presentation and taste, a delight. Elena is the one that manages the place; she is the conductor. She moves from side to side, making the entry and exit of the waiters more smooth. Succulent tiraditos, cebiches, picantes and the two dishes that are their trademark: a tacu tacu with beef a lo Squalos and "Huando" goat (boneless) served with yucca, rice and salsa criolla appear from the kitchen. Incredible.

These are some recommendations for a weekend, but if you come for more days and have time you can escape to Huanchaco or Moche and taste the food that these places have to offer. In the center you could also visit Mochica, Rustica, Mar Picante, Paisa, La Sirenita, Pollos Bolivar, La Toscana and Mollejitas de San Andres. These are several places that will surely be cause for another hearty walk.

More Info: About Trujillo
Source: El Comercio News

Lima ranks sixth best destination for business travelers

Lima ranks in the sixth position among the Latin American cities currently offering the best experience for business traveling, according to AméricaEconomía Intelligence.

The ranking is led by Miami (USA), followed by Santiago (Chile) with 33.7%, Buenos Aires (Argentina) in the third place with 31.8%, Sao Paulo with 25.6%, and Ciudad de Panama in fifth place (Panama) with 22.4%.

According to this survey, Lima has the sixth best financial district, San Isidro (17%) and the third best bohemian district, Miraflores (22.1%.); in addition, Peruvian Pisco Sour is the 4th best drink for business travelers, and Lima ranks the second best city to eat in Latin America

Source: Living in Peru.com

PISCO : The history

The conditions for preparation of pisco were established centuries earlier by smart Inca engineers between Ica and Moquegua regions on the southern peruvian coast. This area has a dry, infertile and desert weather when the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century. The Inca civil engineering set foundations of future farming, harvest and cultivation of grapes in the Ica-Moquegua region. The Spaniards followed and tracked clues left by Inca emperor Pachacutec and channeled andean river waters to where they planned to cultivate their vineyards and other fields.

Henk Milne (a north american historian) and her staff described the long legend Incan of Pachacutec:

Before Spaniards discovered America, Inca emperor Pachacutec offered his hand (and his kingdom) in marriage to a fair and beautiful maiden from the Peruvian mountains and was rejected in favor of her plebeian and current boyfriend, he might have been punished for being chosen, but instead of pressing over the making of his desire by, say, imprison the rival and go after on the nuptials, or other similar simple and monarchical solution so common in those times, he gave in gracefully. He offered the woman to grant her dearest wish. She, said that her wish was that the waters of the rivers be brought to her village in the middle of the desert. 15 days later, 40,000 workers wiped theirs brow, pusking all the shovels and sat down beside the 50-kilometer canal they had dug. The Inca Supreme Panjadrum dubbed this artificial and hand-worked waterway: "Achirana".

This Achirana provided the Spaniards with sufficient water to plant several seeds and vineyards with the Quebranta grape in 1548. These vineyards were so fertile that within less that 12 years, Peru exported grapes and wine to Argentina, Chile, Spain and other countries. In the Ica region flourished over 150,000 acres of vineyards. The cultivation of the grape in L. America was a result of Ica's success and it is believed that other kinds of grapes as Criolla of Argentina and the Pais of Chile are direct descendants of the Negra Quebranta grape originally brought over to the new world (America) by the Spaniards.

Incan people had a favorite drink called Chicha, a purple-colored made from aged corn and water. This beverage was a ceremonial alcoholic drink for Inca people and could be made only by beautiful women, the called "chosen ones."

One of the main occupations of those "chosen women" was the preparation of this alcoholic chicha for the Inca lord and his nobles, and its making process required the crushing of the different types of corn after it had been boiled. Many hours of crushing was demanded because much chicha was drunk by the people. Drunkenness was required at Incan festivals and ceremonies, since the liquor of corn was as sacred as the seed they named "life giver". No meeting or ceremony began without the Inca lord or board of priest pouring this chicha on the ground to honor and praise the corn goddess: Mama Sara.

The Spaniards, at this time, craved their spanish brandies. "The found through trial and error that there was a grape called Quebranta that produced a pure, highly potent, pure, tasty and aromatic brandy which in the future became known by the port from which it was widely exported to demanding drinkers abroad: Pisco.

This drink is the current national drink of Peru and comes mainly in two sorts: “sipping” for the palate without blends or additives and there are more fine ones and “rough” best used for preparing the famous Pisco Sour.

Peru: Machu Picchu Pueblo Mayor claims it is "not chaos"

Machu Picchu Pueblo Mayor, Edgar Miranda, said that his office is dedicated to restoring the order in the area, and that, like many other districts in Peru, Machu Picchu is prone to suffer from climatic events and natural disasters.

“We are working in organizing the town, asphalting streets, supervising constructions, and we expect to uniformize the ceilings and the colors of the houses,” said Miranda, quoted by TNews.

He said that during the last days media attention has been focused on the “inability” and “inaction” of local authorities regarding preparedness for disasters, but he said that this topic is included in Mayors' agendas.

“It is not correct saying that Machu Picchu is a chaos. We are a district that provides services, and in recent years it's been an improvement in these services' quality,” added Miranda.

He also remarked that now the works are focused on restoring the road between the town and Puente Ruinas, the train station: “this might take up to 20 days,” he said.

Resource: Living in Peru

Paijan and the Legendary Peruvian Paso Horse

By Charles Sizemore

Driving north on the Panamericana highway out of Trujillo, you pass through several small agricultural towns that break up the seemingly endless expanse of sugar fields that flank both sides of the road. Some, such as Casa Grande, have rather impressive histories. Prior to Peru’s agrarian reforms of the late 1960s and 1970s, the Casa Grande hacienda was one of the largest private landowners in the world, stretching from the Andes to the Pacific Ocean. The hacienda was, for all intents and purposes, a country within a country, and for better or worse, it is unlikely that anything like it will ever again exist in South America. It was one of a kind.

Generally though, you’re not missing much if you drive through the towns without stopping. Most are characterized by what seems like one never-ending solid wall of colorless cinderblock buildings punctuated by the occasional gas station.

From the Panamericana, Paijan might at first appear to fit this description. But if you turn off the highway and into the old colonial core, you will find a real gem of a town.
Paijan has a surprisingly long history. It was founded by the Spanish in 1540, and the pre-colonial history of the area goes back much further. The nearby temple compound of Las Huacas del Sol y Luna attest to the sophistication of the pre-Colombian culture and is definitely worth a visit, as is Chan Chan, a nearby archeological site that holds the distinction of being the world’s largest adobe city.

Within Paijan itself, the traditional Plaza de Armas is a pleasant place to stop for an ice cream or a Coke. The plaza has a series of well-manicured gardens separated by wrought-iron fencing and park benches, and despite the bustle of the town it is surprisingly peaceful.

Still, Paijan is most famous today for the reputation of its Peruvian paso horses, bred by the local Vásquez family.

The Vásquez clan, led today by brothers Luis Vásquez Nacarino and Anibal Vásquez Nacarino, is a virtual horse breeding dynasty, and the collective influence of the family over the past 30 years has been nothing short of phenomenal. (I will admit, I am a little biased here. Luis Vásquez is my father-in-law. The numbers, however, speak for themselves. Mares bred by the Vásquez family won the National Champion of Champions prize fifteen times in a twenty-three year period and a record eight years in a row in the 1970s. Not a bad run, indeed.)

Luis and Anibal are carrying on the legacy of their father, the late Anibal Vásquez Montoya, who was a breeding legend in his own time, and have raised their own sons to carry on the tradition into the next generation. For the sake of the breed, let us hope they are successful.

For readers unfamiliar with the Peruvian paso, the horse is one of the most graceful animals to ever walk the earth. Bred in virtual isolation for over 500 years from an original breeding stock left by the Spanish conquistadors, the Peruvian has developed into a breed with several distinguishing characteristics.

The Peruvian is one of the few breeds in the world that has a four-beat gait; its hooves touch the ground in an evenly-spaced 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 pattern (Most other horse breeds trot, meaning they walk with a 1-2, 1-2 hoof pattern that tends to make the rider bounce in the saddle.) Among the gaited breeds the Peruvian is generally considered to be the smoothest to ride. You can ride a Peruvian horse with a drink in your hand and not worry about spilling it.

Interestingly, the gait is not learned; it is bred. Peruvians are born with their distinctive walk.
Another characteristic of the gait is the action in the forelegs called término. This is something you really must see to understand. But to give you an idea, Peruvian horses walk with a distinctive high step in the forelegs that almost resembles a swimming motion. That the horse is able to walk with this flair while still keeping the saddle stable is truly testament to the quality of the Peruvian’s breeding over the centuries.

The Peruvian’s disposition is also noteworthy. The breeders call it brio, and unfortunately this is one of those Spanish words that doesn’t translate well into English. The literal translation is “sprit,” but this definition doesn’t fully reflect the meaning of the word. It’s more like that “special something” in the horse’s personality that you can’t explain.

Ernest Hemingway — who wrote his masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea in Cabo Blanco, Peru, by the way — had his own complaints about Spanish words that didn’t translate well into English. When writing about bullfights in Sun Also Rises, he laments that there are no fitting equivalents for afición or aficionado, which literally translate into the rather prosaic “fondness” and “fan” in English, respectively.

As Hemingway would have told you, afición means something much deeper than “fondness.” It is more of a profound appreciation and respect for something. And an aficionado is much more than a “fan”; he is a person who understands and appreciates something on a more complex level and who can see the intricate subtleties and shades of gray. Basically, if you can explain what you feel in words, then you’re not really an aficionado.

Certainly, not all fans of the Peruvian paso horse can legitimately be called aficionados. I certainly cannot make that claim for myself at this stage. But I am looking forward to the 2010 Concurso Nacional this coming April in Mamacona, outside of Lima, and I encourage any readers who are interested in seeing a unique aspect of traditional Peru to attend.

Fuente: Living in Peru

Lady of Cao’s Temple

In 2006, the archaeological complex El Brujo was in the news for the discovery of a richly dressed, mysterious sovereign Moche woman’s tomb. Now after several years, a stupendous museum has opened. It holds the remains of this woman and lets visitors know a bit more about the Moche culture which used the Chicama valley as one of its ceremonial centers.

The archaeological complex is called El Brujo by the local people due to the great affluence of shamans. It is over 5,000 years old and started with the Huaca Prieta which was a key site of study for Junius Bird.

There evidence was found of the domestication of plants from 2,300 BC, that is, 1,500 years before Chavín. This was the first time that Carbon-14 tests had been used in our country.

Back to the Past
The Mochicas arrived here at the beginning of our era. From approximately 100 to 650 AD, this place served as a ceremonial center. During this period, the architecture went through lots of expansions and renovations that produced four superimposed buildings.


“Just like the bodies, architecture is buried after a period of crisis; it’s like a sort of renovation ritual,” explains Denis Vargas, the complex' resident archaeologist. He said that the place gained more importance with the discovery of the denominated “Lady of Cao” in one of the platforms of the temple.

The tomb contained, various meters deep in the ground, a funerary bale with amazingly well kept remains of a woman. Next to her, the remains of a young sacrificed woman and other three companions were found.

The mysterious woman’s body was adorned with fine offers which lead the archaeologist to think that she was a high Moche authority. The investigators were also surprised to discover that she had symbolic figures tattooed on her body.

This finding adds to the San Jose de Moro priestess who was a feminine character who apparently also occupied an important place in the Moche elite.

Her New Home
The Lady of Cao funerary context was discovered by the El Brujo Archaeological Project investigating team, lead by Régulo Franco and has been under investigation since 2006. Now, we can visit the recently opened museum and get to know about the Moche sovereign.

The museologist Lucero Silva points out that water is the narrative pivot of the museum since it has been a determining factor in the development of the complex and of the culture itself.

“The El Brujo complex is situated near the river mouth. This element has allowed for the development of multiple readings on pre-Hispanic cultures and has served as an intermediary agent between different cultural experiences,” explains Lucero Silva. She also adds that “water and its associations with other sacred substances like blood and chicha de jora, run across the museum through different audiovisual aids, allowing the visitor to relate to more organic and sensorial processes.”

This relation to water is present through different iconographic elements that appear in the museum, whether it is in the designs on the walls, or in the funerary objects of the Lady of Cao. The river also appears repeatedly represented by the fish and the ocean with its waves.

Fuente: El Comercio

Peru: Machu Picchu not damaged by rains

The citadel and archaeological park of Machu Picchu has not suffered any damage due to the rains (Link in spanish), said Fernando Astete, Director of the park. He told Andina news agency that at present there are no reports of emergencies inside the complex, and that so far the only issue is the big increase in the levels of the Vilcanota river, which runs at the feet of the mountain where Machu Picchu is located. He also pointed out that Machu Picchu has undergone previous prevention works, and that is being constantly monitored to prevent any damage caused by the rains.

Fuente: Isabel Guerra, Living Peru and RPP Noticias

Archaeologists find 5,500-year-old plaza in Peru

By Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) - A ceremonial plaza built 5,500 years ago has been discovered in Peru, and archaeologists involved in the dig said on Monday carbon dating shows it is one of the oldest structures ever found in the Americas.

A team of Peruvian and German archaeologists uncovered the circular plaza, which was hidden beneath another piece of architecture at the ruins known as Sechin Bajo, in Casma, 229 miles (370 km) north of Lima, the capital. Friezes depicting a warrior with a knife and trophies were found near the plaza.

"It's an impressive find; the scientific and archaeology communities are very happy," said Cesar Perez, the scientist at Peru's National Institute of Culture who supervised the project. "This could redesign the history of the country."

Prior to the discovery at Sechin Bajo, archaeologists considered the ancient Peruvian citadel of Caral to be one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, at about 5,000 years.

Scientists say Caral, located a few hours drive from Sechin Bajo, was one of six places in the world -- along with Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India and Mesoamerica -- where humans started living in cities about 5,000 years ago.

"The dating done by the German archaeologists puts it at about 5,500 years," Perez said of the plaza, which has a diameter of about 46 feet (14 metres).

Earlier finds near Sechin Bajo had been dated at 3,600 years, and there may be other pieces of the citadel older than the plaza.

"We've found other pieces of architecture underneath the plaza that could be even older," German Yenque, an archaeologist at the dig site, told Reuters. "There are four or five plazas deeper down, which means the structure was rebuilt several times, perhaps every 100 to 300 years."

Hundreds of archaeological sites dot the country, and many of the ruined structures were built by cultures that preceded the powerful Incan empire, which reached its peak in the 16th century, just before Spanish conquerors arrived in what is now Peru.

There are so many archaeological treasures that tomb robbing is a widespread problem in the Andean country.

Yenque said the scientists are filling in the site with dirt to preserve it and plan to resume excavation of the deeper floors when they get more grants to fund the project.

"We are lucky it was never destroyed by tomb robbers; that is why we are covering it up now," Yenque said.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino, writing by Terry Wade, editing by Eric Walsh)

Tomb find reveals pre-Inca city

Archaeologists working in northern Peru have discovered a spectacular tomb complex about 1,000 years old.

The complex contains at least 20 tombs, and dates from the pre-Inca Sican era.

Among the discoveries are 12 "tumis", ceremonial knives which scientists have not been able to study in a burial site before, as well as ceramics and masks.

The Sican culture flourished from approximately AD 800-1300, one of several metalworking societies which succumbed to drought and conquest.

Archaeologists working on the project say the find will help them understand details of the culture.

Sican was a very organised society

Izumi Shimada"It is a religious city, a sacred settlement, and at each excavation site is a cemetery," Izumi Shimada told Peru's El Comercio newspaper.

"That tells us that Sican was a very organised society."

Professor Shimada, based at the University of Southern Illinois in the US, has been excavating Sican sites for a quarter of a century. The latest dig was performed in conjunction with the Sican National Museum.

Trading goods

The burial site sits on Peru's northern coast, near the town of Ferrenafe.

Discoveries in the tomb complex include tumis formed from an alloy of silver, copper and gold; masks, breastplates and ceramics.

The site contains at least 20 tombs, making it a "religious city"

Buried in a pyramid 30m (100ft) long, archaeologists found the bones of a woman in her early 20s surrounded by figurines of Sican gods, ceramics and objects in copper and gold.

Another set of bones, clearly from a person of some stature, were found in a seated position accompanied by a metallic crown, part of a thorny oyster, and various ceramic objects including a vase.

The tumis are a prize find, because until now the knives have come to scientists from tomb raiders. Finding them in situ would allow a closer understanding of their role in Sican culture, researchers said.
One of the tumis features a representation of Naylamp, the mythical founder of Sican society who according to legend emerged from the sea and became a god.

The Sican were noted for producing gold, silver and copper in quantities which were substantial for the period.

They traded shells and stones with societies in what are now Ecuador, Chile and Colombia.

Their civilisation had already declined by the time that the mightiest of Peruvian cultures, the Inca, rose to prominence about AD 1200.

Lost society tore itself apart

Two thousand years ago, a mysterious and little known civilisation ruled the northern coast of Peru. Its people were called the Moche.

They built huge and bizarre pyramids that still dominate the surrounding landscape; some well over 30m (100ft) tall.

They are so heavily eroded, they look like natural features; only close up can you see they are made up of millions of adobe mud bricks.

These pyramids are known as "huacas", meaning "sacred site" in the local Indian dialect. Several contain rich collections of murals; others house the tombs of Moche leaders.

As archaeologists have excavated these Moche sites, they have unearthed some of the most fabulous pottery and jewellery ever to emerge from the ancient world.

Archaeologist Dr Walter Alva with an elaborate Moche ear ornamentThe Moche were pioneers of metal working techniques such as gilding and early forms of soldering.

It enabled them to create extraordinarily intricate artefacts; ear studs and necklaces, nose rings and helmets, many heavily inlaid with gold and precious stones.

Archaeologists have likened them to the Greek and Roman civilisations in Europe.

But who were these extraordinary people and what happened to them? For decades the fate of the Moche has been one of the greatest archaeological riddles in South America.

Now, at last, scientists are coming up with answers. It is a classic piece of archaeological detective work.

'Mud burials'

This week's Horizon tells the story of the rise and fall of a pre-Inca civilisation that has left an indelible mark on the culture and people of Peru and the central Andes Mountains.

One of the first important insights into this remarkable culture came in the mid-1990s when Canadian archaeologist Dr Steve Bourget, of the University of Texas in Austin, made a series of important discoveries.

Excavating at one of the major Moche huacas - a site known as the Huaca de la Luna - he came across a series of dismembered skeletons that bore all the signs of human sacrifice.

Archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo holds a Moche ceramic depicting warriors engaged in ritual combatHe also found that many of the skeletons were so deeply encased in mud the burials had to have taken place in the rain.

Yet in this part of Peru it almost never rains; it could not have been a coincidence. Bourget speculated that the Moche, like many desert dwelling peoples, had used human sacrifice to celebrate or encourage rain.


The theory appeared to explain puzzling and enigmatic images of human sacrifice found on Moche pottery; it provided a new insight into Moche society; yet it did not explain why this apparently sophisticated civilisation had disappeared.

Then American climatologist Dr Lonnie Thompson, of Ohio State University, came up with a startling new find. Using evidence from ice cores drilled in ancient glaciers in the Andes, he found that at around AD 550 to 600, the coastal area where the Moche lived had been hit by a climatic catastrophe.

Internal collapse

For 30 years the coast had been ravaged by rain storms and floods - what is known as a Mega El Niño - followed by at least 30 years of drought. All the human sacrifices in the world would have been powerless to halt such a disaster.

It seemed a plausible explanation for the demise of a civilisation.
But then in the late 1990s, American archaeologist Dr Tom Dillehay revisited some of the more obscure Moche sites and found that they dated from after AD 650.

Thompson's ice cores have opened up the climate history bookMany were as late as AD 750, 100 years after the climatic double-whammy. He also found that at these later settlements, the huacas had been replaced by fortresses.

The Moche had clearly survived the climatic disaster but had they then been hit by an invasion? Dillehay cast around but could find no evidence for this.
He now put together a new theory, one that, in various guises, is now widely accepted by South American experts.

The Moche had struggled through the climatic disaster but the leadership - which at least in part had claimed authority from its ability to determine the weather - had lost authority and Moche villages and/or clan groups had turned on each other in a battle for scarce resources such as food and land.
Moche society had pulled itself apart.

Food of the Andes by the Golden Gate

SAN FRANCISCO has a well-deserved reputation for restaurant fare that is freshly inventive, but with studiously authentic roots. Gastón Acurio, a celebrity chef in Lima, Peru, known for his novo-Andino cuisine, which adds modern sensibilities about freshness, presentation and technique to the culinary traditions of Peru, took note of this when considering where to open his beachhead restaurant in the United States.

“In San Francisco, people love to eat, and are open to new cultures and flavors,” Mr. Acurio said. “It’s the best place for us to start our dream of bringing our food to America.”

The city’s connection to Peru dates back to Gold Rush days, when pisco, white Peruvian brandy, was the drink of choice. So late last year, Mr. Acurio opened La Mar Cebicheria Peruana (Pier 1 ½; 415-397-8880; www.lamarcebicheria.com), adding to a collection of Peruvian restaurants to make San Francisco perhaps the best place in North America to sample Peru’s rapidly evolving, fervid foodie scene.

A new generation of often classically trained chefs (Mr. Acurio studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris) is making wildly creative use of Peru’s diversity. The country’s climate zones range from Amazonian to alpine, nurturing all kinds of foods, and its riot of cultural influences includes Andean, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and African.

“By nature, Peruvian cuisine is a fusion cuisine,” said Alejandro Reccio, chef de cuisine at Limón, an elegantly boisterous Peruvian restaurant in the Mission District. Limón (524 Valencia Street; 415-252-0918; www.limon-sf.com) was recently closed for remodeling but is reopening soon. Meanwhile, an annex, Limón Rotisserie (1001 South Van Ness Avenue; 415-821-2134; www.limonrotisserie.com), is serving a limited but well-executed menu focusing on pollo a la brasa — rotisserie chicken.

Ceviche, the classic dish of raw fish marinated in lime juice and spices, contains echoes of Inca dishes, but with limes, a Spanish introduction. In its modern form, it arose at the hands of Japanese chefs employed in the kitchens of Peruvian gentry. At Limón, the ceviche de pescado ($9.25) is dependably good; a zingy sauce and delectable choclo (big Peruvian corn) kernels enliven toothsome chunks of halibut.

Limón combines sophisticated interpretations of Peruvian cuisine like this with exquisitely executed, unembellished Peruvian comfort food like pollo a la brasa ($9.50 for a half chicken). Marinated in oregano, cumin and lime, it was tender with a lightly spiced bite. It was accompanied by dipping sauces made with Andean herbs and peppers.

Piqueo’s (830 Cortland Avenue; 415-282-8812; www.piqueos.com), in the Bernal Heights neighborhood, is a red, intimate corner with a small, bustling open kitchen and the friendly vibe that is de rigueur at San Francisco’s Peruvian restaurants. For five years, the chef, Carlos Altamirano, has supplied this quiet neighborhood with daring novo-Andino inventions. They include plates of tequeños ($10), wispy wontons filled with ground squid, fried and dusted in sugar and cinnamon; and pastel de choclo ($10), a mounded torte of choclo and potato alive with peppery watercress.

On a more basic level, numerous small restaurants around San Francisco serve the straightforward fare of Lima’s neighborhoods.

At one such place, Mi Lindo Peru (3226 Mission Street; 415-642-4897), a cheerful, unpretentious space of fake wood paneling and Inca kitsch, the ceviche ($14.95) is a big pile of seafood that with a hoppy Cusqueña lager ($4) could constitute a great lunch on its own. But I followed it up with parihuela ($15.95), a classic Peruvian bouillabaisse overflowing with soft, yielding chunks of fish that contrasted with chewy squid and clam in a rich red broth.

Just up the street, I found Inkas (3299 Mission Street; 415-648-0111; www.inkasrestaurant.com), a lively spot in an old, high-ceilinged bank building, and joined a happy, noisy lunch crowd (including lots of happy, noisy children) for more basic fare: coastal Peruvian dishes as they might be created by a home cook. This meant that classics like ceviche mixto ($14) and pollo saltado (chunks of chicken sautéed with peppers, onions and French fries, $12) were filling without being inspired. Only the anticuchos, skewers of beef heart ($7), really stood out: they were perfectly done, like succulent lean steak, peppery and piquant with a wash of lime.

La Mar, Mr. Acurio’s new establishment, is a big, elegant space overlooking San Francisco Bay. Moody blue light is combined with dark wood and tiles. But flavors seemed to take a back seat to presentation in some of its small plates on the night of my visit.

The ceviches ($16 to $19) were lovely assemblages of fish, but the sauces seemed a little wan. Cebiche Nikei ($17) presented succulent tuna with Japanese cucumber and avocado that only made me miss sushi.

The causas ($11 to $12) at La Mar take the form of delicate cups of suave, cool whipped potatoes of startling hues topped with subtle delicacies, rather than the filling snack that goes by that name in coastal Peru. These causas verged on conceptual: better seen and not tasted.

But the mains were satisfying. Arroz norteño ($24) was smoky, with succulent calamari and sparkling salsa criolla. Cau cau ($31) — roasted scallops with a corn risotto — were succulent and sweet, set free by simple flavors and a pleasant saltiness.

And desserts were stellar: exquisite chocolate bombs called buñuelos ($12), and dessert spring rolls ($10) stuffed with sweet rice pudding and served with bright mango sorbet and fresh mint serving as counterpoint to the elegant crunch.

In the end, it was delightful. Inside La Mar, the crowd grew and the sound rose to a roar. Outside, lights gleamed in the black bay water. And Mr. Acurio’s vision — to make ceviche as known and beloved as sushi — seemed a noble cause indeed.

Peru's Wild Rainforest

Stay at an Amazon eco-lodge to experience a jungle teeming with life

Paddington Bear is said to have lived in "darkest Peru" with his Aunt Lucy until she moved to the Home for Retired Bears in Lima. My suspicion is that he came from some part of the Peruvian rainforest.

Before taking this trip, I only associated the Amazon jungle with Brazil, so discovering that it includes part of Peru adds to a sense of mystery. We take a short flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonaldo, leave surplus luggage in a travel company office, then board a motorized boat for a half-hour trip down the Madres del Dios River -- a wide, muddy tributary of the Amazon.

Gallery: Explore Peru
Gallery: Discover Lima
Gallery: See More of Peru

We hike three kilometres of trail, then spend a final half hour in a canoe being paddled across Sandoval Lake. As one guide book says, "getting there is half the fun".

In the late afternoon, after a brief recovery time in the lodge, we take a two-hour boat trip, being silently paddled around the banks of this huge oxbow lake, a non-intrusive way to observe in safety. The boat is two canoes joined by a viewing platform, catamaran style.

Lonely Planet guide to Peru
Lonely Planet guide to Lima

Every aspect of the environment seems teeming with life. It is almost sensory overload as even the air is alive with noises from the jungle. We are treated to the raucous passing of a large troupe of squirrel monkeys crashing from tree to tree.

It is understated to describe bird life as abundant as we see everything from herons to vultures. As dusk falls, there are waves of different species of birds taking turns to devour the insects -- once the night hawks have had their fill, hoards of bats swoop in the fading light.

Apparently it is just as active below the water's surface with piranhas, stingrays, and electric eels -- information that reduces the temptation of trailing your hand in the water.

We are told the story of a giant anaconda that tried to pull a dog off a boat and how the owner lost a piece of arm in a successful attempt to save his pet.

Modest-sized white caiman (from the crocodile family) watch us from the banks and only dive when our boat gets too close. Adult caiman are reputed to be formidable; we hear of another lodge where meat was thrown into the water so tourists could actually see the larger black caiman, until a lone photographer was attacked and killed.

Perhaps it's better not to disturb natural cycles. I'm content just to see the shore dotted with menacing sets of red gleams, the reflection of their eyes in flashlight beams.

The next trip around the lake leaves at six the following morning, a thick mist giving the scene a magical quality. We are rewarded with our first sighting of a family of giant otters jostling and diving and making a sound rather like Chewbacca from Star Wars.

Later, through binoculars we see them munching on part of the six kilos of fish that each adult consumes every day.

The lodge is really happy that this family is increasing; a sign that tourists are not causing much of an "ecological footprint." The lodge deserves the positive publicity produced by a BBC documentary filmed on this lake about the life of giant otters.

A guide leads a small group on a botanical walk through jungle trails. She describes the normal squawks of multi-coloured macaws, and attributes their absence this morning to the looming presence of sentinel hawks.

We hear stories about how the garlic tree protects animals sleeping among its roots. We marvel at walking trees with their many small trunks allowing them to move up to 50 centimetres a year in order to get more sunlight.

Products from the jungle are amazing in their scope and variety: everything from leaves that make lipstick to bark that can bring about abortion.

We discuss the ethics concerning the profits made by certain North American pharmaceutical companies who base various drugs on rainforest products yet provide no recognition to the country of origin.

There is one intriguing product which, when taken after fasting, is supposed to cause you to see episodes from your past, both good and bad.

Our guide tells us of his experience with a Curandero or shaman who made a potion including the bark of the kapok or ironwood tree. J. K. Rowling should come here if she needs additional inspiration to end the Harry Potter series.

Sandoval Lake Lodge is built out of ecologically correct driftwood mahogany and is partly owned by a non-profit conservation group. It provides a restful haven with excellent food, and a row of hammocks for reading and dozing through afternoon heat.

In the evenings mosquito nets are arranged around beds, although the mosquitoes are surprisingly minimal. The generator goes off at 10 p.m. sharp, ending all activity as the lodge is plunged into darkness.

Many guests are keen naturalists, like a couple from Scotland who came to see just one bird that inhabits this particular area of Peru. But we are content to watch the sunset over the water, and wonder why Paddington ever decided to leave. Darkest Peru has so much to entice you to stay.

On the web:

Sandoval Lake Lodge: www.inkanatura.com/sandovallakelodge.asp

Five Places You Should Visit Now for Authentic Experiences

09/4/08

Northern Interior, Peru



For many travelers, Peru has become synonymous with Machu Picchu.

However, in the largely undiscovered North, Peru’s rich culture combines with extraordinary opportunities for adventure activities as well as more gentle nature and wildlife experiences. My colleagues at Xola worked in Peru for several weeks this spring and turned up the following off-the-radar itinerary.

From Chiclayo, drive to Chachapoyas, home to the ancient People of the Clouds before the Inca took over their civilization.

The basis for this culture’s name was evident as our car edged up the mountain in dense cloud cover until we were rewarded at our destination with a stunning view of sharp mountain peaks poking through downy, white clouds.

Hike or ride horseback through the area to view the ruins that archaeologists are just starting to map and excavate. The massive fortress at Kuelap is quickly gaining recognition as “the Machu Picchu of Northern Peru,” with over 400 buildings enclosed by a 70-foot stone wall.

The members of the Xola team were the only visitors at the site that day, and marveled at how the Chachapoyas people created this stone compound atop a mountain without the use of the wheel.

The burial ground of Karajia features impressive capsule-like tombs built into the hillside. Stop by the museum in Leymebamba to view over 200 mummies recovered from the remote Lake of the Condors.

When you have had your fill of cultural history, take a kayak down the Utcumbamba River, explore the colonial town of Levanto, or wander the Sunday market at Tingo. Be sure to try the milanesa at La Tushpa restaurant in town!

More Info:
http://www.inkanatura.com/interiorchachapoyaskuelap.asp

The Big Trip: Peru

On the Inca’s Trail

Conquering Peru’s Amazon wilderness, ancient ruins, and newfound treasures is easier than ever.

Text by Robert Earle Howells

Map by Emily Cooper
National Geographic Adventure magazine

Every trekker who tackles the 5,900-foot gain of Peru’s Inca Trail eventually ponders an ancient mystery: Were the folks who carved the original route to Machu Picchu awesomely adapted to high-mountain life? Or just oblivious to little courtesies that future visitors from sea level might appreciate, like switchbacks?

Fortunately, the thigh-busting Inca austerity program is now optional, since a slew of private operators have invested in Peru’s once rustic tourist infrastructure over the past few years. This recent boost has made discovering the Lost City more feasible than ever and raised standards of accessibility across the country. These days, Peru’s lesser known classics—from high-altitude ruins to damp lowland jungles to colonial cities—are within easy reach on a weeklong itinerary, so you can set the level of challenge as high (or low) as you please.

1. Machu Picchu

Face the Undisputed Andes Champ

It’s easy to see why the Lost City of the Inca got misplaced, so dramatically hidden is its perch at 7,970 feet, beneath the cloud forested spire of Huayna Picchu. A 2,000-foot drop-off to the roiling Urubamba below guards its three riverside flanks. Machu Picchu was built in the 15th century as a royal religious retreat for Inca rulers, and the supernatural majesty of its stone facades and terraces makes it one of the world’s most compelling sites, even if it’s besieged by 2,000 visitors a day. The 24-mile Inca Trail is the trophy approach, but it requires making reservations up to four months in advance with licensed outfitters—and the will to challenge steep, 15,000-foot passes. (Watching your porters dance up the hills in flip-flops is a humbling reminder that Inca messengers once sprinted this route.) Less crowded alternatives include the 35-mile Camino Salcantay and the off-the-radar, 20.5-mile Lares Trek. Or you can zip to Machu Picchu in a single day by taking the train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes and catching a shuttle from there. You’ll have plenty of company.

Links:
More About Machu Picchu
http://www.inkanatura.com/moreaboutmachupicchu.asp


2. Cotahuasi River

Raft a Grander Canyon

The chance to run whitewater in a canyon twice the depth of the Grand is reason enough to head for the Cotahuasi—and the rapids truly are extraordinary: At its late-spring peak, the froth flows for a hundred miles at continuous Class IV, with some stretches of Class V. Set out from the so-called White City, Arequipa, a former Spanish colonial settlement built mostly of pearly volcanic rock. From there, a 15,500-foot pass leads to the remote village of Cotahuasi, "a happy little place in the middle of nowhere," as BioBio Expeditions river guide Marc Goddard puts it. Then take a ten-mile, mule-assisted hike skirting thundering Sipia Falls before commencing seven rollicking days on the river.


3. Choquequirau

Trek to Machu Picchu’s Cool Kid Sister

Choquequirau is the Quechua word for "Inca ruin without hordes of tourists arriving by train." (Actually, it means "cradle of gold.") Machu Picchu’s sister city, tucked into the saddle of a 9,950-foot cloud forest ridge in the Andes, is nearly as impressive in size, stonework, and design. Outsiders discovered Choquequirau more than 300 years ago, but restoration began only in 1993. Even today, just a third has been excavated. Getting there is tough, but that means the site sees just a tiny fraction of Machu Picchu’s visitation and that permits can be arranged on the fly. The two-day trek starts in the town of Cachora, five hours from Cusco by bus. From there, a 20-mile trail plummets 5,000 feet to the Apurímac River, then climbs 4,000 feet to the ruins, where you can pitch camp outside—without another tourist in sight.

Links:
More about Choquequirao
http://www.inkanatura.com/choquequirao_treksinkanatura.asp


4. Kuelap & the World’s Third Highest Waterfall

Explore the Mysteries of the North

Long before the Inca swept through Peru, the Chachapoya people of the northern Andes established a mountaintop city called Kuelap (circa 500 a.d.) that holds its own in any battle of ancient engineering marvels. It’s been known to the modern world since 1843, when it was hailed as northern Peru’s "Tower of Babel," but since it didn’t have Hiram Bingham (and National Geographic’s ink) to tout its glories like Machu Picchu did, Kuelap remains little known and rarely visited to this day. The monumental fortress is an easy 23-mile drive south from the town of Chachapoyas. Kuelap has only three entrances, each a narrow staircase that slices through the outside wall, leading to a city of hundreds of limestone structures inside. Near Chachapoyas, you can also trek to the two-tiered, 2,530-foot Gocta Waterfall, the third highest in the world.

Links:
Chachapoyas, Kuelap and Cajamarca
http://www.inkanatura.com/interiorchachapoyaskuelap.asp

5. Cusco & the Sacred Valley

Find Your Comfort Zone

The base camp for Machu Picchu and one-time capital of the Inca Empire is today’s Kathmandu of Peru—a nexus of outfitters packed with great cheap eateries, five-star hotels, and open-air vendors crowding the narrow cobbled lanes (hawking alpaca sweaters instead of prayer flags). The altitude here (11,500 feet) dictates a go-slow strategy for gradual acclimation, so take a few days to explore locally. Just above the city sits the Inca fortress of Sacsahuaman, an eerie architectural wonder built with stones weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds each. About 11 miles northeast of Cusco, the terraced village of Pisac becomes a vast indigenous market on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, where Quechua-speaking locals sell woven hats to the tune of panpipe music. The Sacred Valley of the Inca merits a day to ogle more mind-blowing ruins, notably the massive pink granite complex at Ollantaytambo, and is just 32 miles away, accessible by train, bus, or cab.

Links:
Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
http://www.inkanatura.com/machupicchuandincatrailcusco.asp

Scientists get dirt on mystery plant

May 5, 2009, by Kim mcguire, www.stltoday.com

The quest to solve a 70-year-old mystery led Rainer Bussmann and Douglas Sharon to northern Peru to interview traditional healers, or curanderos, about a plant that seemingly vanished more than a thousand years ago.

Known as the Ulluchu, the plant turns up in ancient artwork, often seen floating over the soldiers marching off to be sacrificed or flying priests.

But while the curanderos have heard of the Ulluchu, it is not something they use. They cannot describe the plant, and it has no place in their language.

Almost eight years later, however, Bussmann and Sharon have identified the Ulluchu while showing how the plant might have played a key role in human sacrifice. Not only does it appear the plant triggered hallucinations for priests, but it also helped get the blood flowing for those on the sacrificial altar.

And in a surprising twist, the discovery may have turned up modern medical therapies for some age-old health problems.

"For the last 70 years people have been trying to identify this fruit but couldn't," said Bussmann, an ethnobotanist at the Missouri Botanical Garden. "And when our work started, I thought to myself, 'This is not going to be simple.'"

To understand how Bussmann cracked the case of the Ulluchu, the story goes back to 1930. That's when a Peruvian archaeologist first noted the appearance of a comma-shaped fruit frequently shown in the artwork of the Moche, a agriculture-based culture that lived in northern Peru from A.D. 100 to 800.

The archaeologist dubbed the fruit Ulluchu, and scientists have been trying to identify it ever since. Cousins of the papaya and wild avocado are just some of theories that have been scientifically dismantled.

Bussmann became intrigued by the Ulluchu mystery while working at the University of Texas. And in 2001, he and Sharon began conducting fieldwork in northern Peru, home of the Moche.

"We would go to these markets and people would say, 'We think we know what that is, but it's not being sold here,'" said Sharon, the retired director of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California-Berkley. "Well, one of the reasons it wasn't being used is because the Ulluchu seems to show up during sacrifices. And no one is being sacrificed anymore."

They did find some evidence in the Quechua language, where Ulluchu roughly translates to "penis pepper."

More on that later.

Still, Bussmann had to sort through more than a thousand botanical suspects in one of the most biodiverse spots in the world in hopes of singling out the Ulluchu.

Then a breakthrough.


Archeological excavations at the ancient Moche city of Sipan and the tombs of Dos Cabezas unearthed actual desiccated remains of the fruit. And true to the Quechua translation, the plant indeed has a phallic shape.

"Rainer is a first-rate taxonomist," Sharon said. "He studied every physical characteristic of these plants until he was absolutely certain we had it."

Bussmann began to suspect their elusive plant had hallucinogenic properties. Remember the flying priests? One of them appears to be holding an instrument that Bussmann believes is snuff tube.

With it, priests might inhale ground Ulluchu seeds, get high, and then commence with the sacrifices, he deduced.

"So imagine you're a priest and it's your job to convince God to stop the rain," Bussmann said. "You need some pretty strong stuff."

Bussmann began closing in on a genus of fairly common plants known as Guarea that are found throughout Peru's lowland forests.

He determined that the plants contain compounds that could cause hallucinations if the seeds were ingested. Another effect of eating those seeds would be elevated blood pressure.

Getting the blood to flow quickly would certainly aid in sacrifices, Bussmann thought. And it would explain why the soldiers about to be sacrificed appeared to have erections in the scenes that Moche drew.

What might explain that physical reaction to pending death?

"That was what really got the bell ringing for me," Bussmann said.

When Bussmann compared specimens of Guarea kept in the garden's herbarium to drawings of the Ulluchu that were unearthed about a decade ago, he knew he had a match.

"When I saw the Guarea, I thought, 'That's pretty conspicuous looking.'"

In late March, Bussmann and Sharon published their findings in a scientific journal, identifying Guarea as the mystery plant, Ulluchu. So far, no one seems to be challenging the identification.

Bussmann, director of the garden's William L. Brown Center for Plant Genetic Resources, plans to further study the plant's chemistry and suspects it might have applications as a blood pressure and erectile dysfunction treatment.

Meanwhile, archaeologists continue to dig at Moche burial sites. Because of Bussmann and Sharon's discovery, they know a little more about human sacrifices, many of which occurred during times of extreme weather events and were meant to pacify the gods.

"When life gets unsettled, people find ways to cope with it," Bussmann said. "It all makes perfect sense now."

Peruvian Stalagmites Hold Clues To Climate Change

ScienceDaily (May 16, 2009) — How will the Netherlands, dominated by water, be affected by future climate change? Dutch researcher Martin van Breukelen hopes to answer that question by analyzing stalagmites from the South American Amazon tributaries in Peru as a way to reconstruct climate changes in the past.

Information that can be used to test climate models is stored in various forms: in ice formations, plant remnants, oceans and caves. Limestone formations in caves, so-called speleothemes, provide insights into the land climate. The best-known speleothemes are stalagmites, standing formations and stalactites, hanging formations. Van Breukelen discovered stalagmites in South America that provide information about the climate over the past 13,000 years.

In order to study climate change, Van Breukelen analyzed the accumulation of oxygen isotopes in both the cave water and the stalagmite. A small quantity of fossil cave water is enclosed in the core of the stalagmite, so-called fluid inclusions. The entrapped water is just as old as the carbonate of the stalagmite in which it is trapped. The isotope ratio of this fossil water can be measured using an extraction technique. As this water has been entrapped for thousands of years it provides unique information about the climatic history.

Much climate research on the land and sea is based on the measurement of subtle changes in the ratio between stable oxygen isotopes in, for example, ice or stone formations. Isotopes of an element can have different numbers of neutrons but always contain the same number of protons. Light isotopes (¹⁶O) respond differently to climate change than heavier isotopes (¹⁸O). Climate changes result in an altered ratio of the ¹⁶O and ¹⁸O isotopes. The ratio of the different isotopic elements oxygen, carbon and hydrogen provides a lot of useful information about the climatic history. Van Breukelen uses this information to reconstruct the changes in temperature and precipitation.

Climate research reveals that even without human influence the Earth's climate was changeable in the past. To what extent humans have influenced climate change since the industrial revolution remains unclear. It should be remembered that studies into climatic history can provide insights into the natural behaviour of the climate in the past. Additionally current climate models can only be improved if more historical data become available so that the accuracy of these models can be tested. The research method used by Van Breukelen that examines stalagmites is vitally important for climate research. This method allows the accurate reconstruction of independent temperature changes and precipitation patterns from thousands of years ago.

Van Breukelen's research was funded by a grant from the NWO division WOTRO Science for Global Development. WOTRO focuses on funding innovative scientific research into development issues, especially sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

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Adapted from materials provided by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research).

First Evidence Of Pre-industrial Mercury Pollution In The Andes

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2009) — The study of ancient lake sediment from high altitude lakes in the Andes has revealed for the first time that mercury pollution occurred long before the start of the Industrial Revolution.

University of Alberta Earth and Atmospheric Sciences PhD student Colin Cooke's results from two seasons of field work in Peru have now provided the first unambiguous records of pre-industrial mercury pollution from anywhere in the world and will be published in the May 18th Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"The idea that mercury pollution was happening before the industrial revolution has long been hypothesised on the basis of historical records, but never proven," said Cooke whose research was funded by the National Geographic Society.

Cooke and his team recovered sediment cores from high elevation lakes located around Huancavelica, which is the New World's largest mercury deposit. By measuring the amount of mercury preserved in the cores back through time, they were able to reconstruct the history of mercury mining and pollution in the region.

"We found that mercury mining, smelting and emissions go back as far as 1400 BC," said Cooke. "More surprisingly, mining appears to have began before the rise of any complex or highly stratified society. This represents a departure from current thinking, which suggests mining only arose after these societies emerged," said Cooke.

Initially, mercury pollution was in the form of mine dust, largely resulting from the production of the red pigment vermillion. "Vermillion is buried with kings and nobles, and was a paint covering gold objects buried with Andean kings and nobles," said Cooke. However, following Inca control of the mine in 1450 AD, mercury vapour began to be emitted.

"This change is significant because it means that mercury pollution could be transported over much greater distances, and could have been converted into methylmercury, which is highly toxic," said Cooke.

"All of these results confirm long-standing questions about the existence and magnitude pre-industrial mercury pollution, and have implications for our understanding of how mining and metallurgy evolved in the Andes," said Cooke.

Cooke is an interdisciplinary scientist researching human impacts on the environment. His research combines paleolimnology (the study of ancient lake sediments) with the fields of archaeology, and geochemistry. The research team included Prentiss Balcom from the University of Connecticut (USA), Harald Biester from the University of Braunschweig (Germany), and Alexander Wolfe from the University of Alberta

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Adapted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

EBay Has Unexpected, Chilling Effect On Looting Of Antiquities, Archaelogist Finds

ScienceDaily (May 9, 2009) — Having worked for 25 years at fragile archaeological sites in Peru, UCLA archaeologist Charles "Chip" Stanish held his breath when the online auction house eBay launched more than a decade ago.

"My greatest fear was that the Internet would democratize antiquities trafficking, which previously had been a wealthy person's vice, and lead to widespread looting," said the UCLA professor of anthropology, who directs the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Indeed, eBay has drastically altered the transporting and selling of illegal artifacts, Stanish writes in an article in the May/June issue of Archaeology, but not in the way he and other archaeologists had feared.

By improving access to a worldwide market, eBay has inadvertently created a vast market for copies of antiquities, diverting whole villages from looting to producing fake artifacts, Stanish writes. The proliferation of these copies also has added new risks to buying objects billed as artifacts, which in turn has worked to depress the market for these items, further reducing incentives to loot.

"For most of us, the Web has forever distorted the antiquities trafficking market in a positive way," Stanish said.

Looting, which is illegal, is widely recognized as destructive to cultural heritage because it can remove from public ownership tangible links to a people's past. In addition, looting is perceived as the enemy of scholarship because it typically is done without regard to any appropriate methods that allow scientists to date objects and to place them in a larger, more meaningful context.

One of the world's premiere authorities on Andean archaeology and supervisor, at UCLA, of the one of the world's largest collections of working archaeologists, Stanish has been tracking objects billed as antiquities on eBay for more than nine years. His conclusions also are informed by experiences with the U.S. customs service, which occasionally asks him to authenticate objects. In addition, Stanish has visited a number of workshops in Peru and Bolivia that specialize in reproductions of pottery and has interviewed these artisans. While his background is in South American archaeology, he has tracked eBay listings of antiquities from many cultures.

"Chinese, Bulgarian, Egyptian, Peruvian and Mexican workshops are now producing fakes at a frenetic pace," he writes.

When he first started tracking eBay's sales of antiquities, Stanish focused mainly on objects related to his field. At the time, the ratio of real artifacts to fakes was about 50-50, he estimates. About five years later, 95 percent were fakes. Now, he admits, he can't always tell, because the quality of the fakes has improved so much.

He estimates that about 30 percent of "antiquities" currently for sale on eBay are obvious fakes, in so much as creators mix up iconography and choose colors and shapes for visual effect rather than authenticity. Another 5 percent or so are genuine treasures. The rest fall in the ambiguous "I would have to hold it in my hand to be able to make an informed decision" category, he writes. Stanish admits himself to occasionally being duped by fakes encountered in shops in areas where both looted items and fakes are sold.

The advent of eBay has had the biggest impact on the antiquities market by reducing the incentive to unearth precious treasures in the first place, Stanish has found.

"People who used to make a few dollars selling a looted artifact to a middleman in their village can now produce their own 'almost-as-good-as-old' objects and go directly to a person in a nearby town who has an eBay account," he said. "They will receive the same amount or even more than they could have received for actual antiquities."

As a result of the rise of a ready market, many of the primary purveyors have shifted from looting sites to faking antiquities.

In addition to linking craftsmen with a market for cheap fakes, eBay has tended to have a depressing effect on prices for real looted artifacts, further discouraging locals from pillaging precious sites.

"The value of ... illicit digging decreases every time someone buys a 'genuine' Moche pot for $35, plus shipping and handling," he writes. (An authentic antiquity would sell for upwards of $15,000.)

So far, authentication techniques have struggled to keep abreast of increasingly sophisticated fakes, Stanish said. Pottery can still be authenticated reliably, although the process is costly. In addition, forgers tend to only guarantee the authenticity of their pieces as long as no form of "destructive" analysis is used. While just a tiny flake of pottery is required for thermoluminescence dating — the gold standard for pottery — the process is technically considered destructive, Stanish points out, so the test invalidates such warrantees, no matter its conclusion.

Thanks to laser technology and chemical processes for forming antique-appearing patinas, stone and metal, reproductions are "almost impossible" to authenticate using today's technology, Stanish writes. However, the prospect of authentication techniques eventually catching up with today's fakes is also having a chilling effect on the market for antiquities, by dramatically adding to the risk of illicit, high-end trafficking.

"Who wants to spend $50,000 on an object 'guaranteed' to be ancient by today's standards, when someone can come along in five years with a new technology that definitively proves it to be a fake," he asks.

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Adapted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles.

Dwarf In The Elfin Forests: Tiniest Frog In South America’s Andes Mountains

ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2009) — It fits on a fingertip: Noblella pygmaea is a midget frog, the smallest ever found in the Andes and among the smallest amphibians in the world. Only its croaking was to be heard from the leaves on the mossier ground of the “elfin forests” in the highlands of Manu National Park, before German and Peruvian herpetologists discovered the tiny little thing in south-eastern Peru.

The popular name of the new species is fitting: Noble’s Pygmy Frog has an average length of 11.4 millimeters. It was introduced in a paper recently published in the journal Copeia by Edgar Lehr, a German herpetologist at the Senckenberg Natural History Collection Dresden, and the Swiss-Peruvian ecologist Alessandro Catenazzi from the University of California at Berkeley, USA. The pygmy that fits on a fingertip was discovered during field work in the Wayqecha Research Station. Not only its small size left it undiscovered for so long. Its predominantly brown colour camougflages Noblella perfectly. But Noble’s Pygmy Frog could be spotted with the assistance of the members of the native communities adjacent to the Manu National Park.

Manu National Park is well known as “hotspot” in the lowland rainforests, a place of exuberant diversity; however the biosphere reserve also preserves vast areas of montane cloud forests, where the sempiternal mists envelop and often conceal plants and animals. In the countless ecological niches many of them were able to evolve undisturbed and are highly adapted to the cold and permanently humidity at a daily average temperature of 11° Celsius. Genetic studies show that the diversity of amphibians in general and especially in this region is highly underestimated. That is why Edgar Lehr and Alessandro Catenazzi think that Noblella pygmaea is only one of many undiscovered amphibians in the Andes mountain area. The scientists expect to find other new species during the next few years.

Currently the midget frog is one of the smallest vertebrates ever found above 3000 metres, where most species tend to be larger than congeneric or similar species in lowland areas. Noblella pygmaea inhabits the cloud forest, the montane scrub and the high-elevation grasslands at a height from 3025 to 3190 metres above sea level. Beside its size the remarkably long forefinger is a notable distinguishing feature that was not found at other pygmy frogs in the mountains of Peru. The females lay only two eggs of approximately four millimeter in diameter. In contrast to most amphibian species these eggs are laid in moist, terrestrial microhabitats, such as in moss or leave litter, and are protected from insect predators by the mother frog. It is noteworthy also that embryos do not change into aquatic tadpoles, but immediately after the hatching lead a fully terrestrial life.

Whilst the scientists cannot give a reason for Noblella’s minute size, it is apparently advantageous. Maybe it is perfectly adopted to its special niche. The fact, that the species is not forced to leave its habitat – not even for egg deposition – might protect it from natural enemies. Despite living in the Manu Biosphere Reserve the survival of the midget frog and of other amphibians is uncertain. Several adverse influences such as anthropogenic habitat changes and the effects of global warming, which among other things facilitates the dispersal of the highly virulent pathogenic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis threaten amphibians of the Andean region. Fotunately the fungus, which has become epidemic, has not been noticed on Noblella so far. Possibly because of its terrestrial life Noblella is less exposed to the fungus than stream-dwelling frogs.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is suspected to be the cause of the extinction of many frog species in Ecuador and northern Peru and is currently decimating populations of high-elevation frogs in southern Peru. Up to now no effective means are known for stopping the expansion of fungal infections in the region. Researchers hope that the large topographic heterogeneity of the Andes cordilleras will provide refugia where the fungus is unable to cause massive population declines in amphibian species, thus ensuring the survival of the dwarf in the Andean "elfin forests."

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Adapted from materials provided by Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum, via AlphaGalileo.