Saturday, May 28, 2011

Today, we woke up at 6:30am to head to Caral, the oldest known civilization in the Americas. We rode about two hours down a highway and then turned down a dirt road, which, after 45 minutes, lead us to Caral. We then walked about twenty minutes to the actual archeological site that seemed to appear out of nowhere. First stop was the bathrooms. These were probably the nicest bathrooms I have used thus farin Peru. I seriously didn’t want to leave them! Beautiful bathrooms in the middle of nowhere; who knew!? Our guide explained that Caral was discovered very recently, within the past 20 years. When Caral was first discovered, it was basically ignored because archeologists hadn’t found any ceramics. It is thought to have existed among the same time as Mesopotamia. It is located in the Supe valley, which allowed for irrigation and a wealth of agriculture. An enormous mudslide had caused the demise of the city and made the valley appear to be full of hills. Underneath these hills were the ancient ruins of Caral. There was almost no evidence of human remains, and it was believed that Caral was mainly used for religious purposes and festivals. I really enjoyed this tour. I felt so privileged to be touring the oldest civilization in the Americas – and before today I didn’t even know it existed! I found myself falling back from my group to really take in the scenery.