Thursday, March 26th
After finding the remnant of the megaladon tooth, Scott was hooked to shark tooth hunting. So we went out again the morning of Day 3. The sky was cloudy though, and we had no luck.
We broke down the tent and packed out gear back at camp, and then headed out. On the ride back, Roberto stopped for us to see three “tourist” sites, including an amazing canyon, a cemetery of Nazca people (“raped” by paleontologists and others looking for treasures) and the fossil of an ancient whale (also “raped” by paleontologists who opened it up from the ground and then left it to be destroyed by the wind).
Roberto’s stance on what should be done with the fossils in the Ocucaje desert is confusing at first. It wasn’t until a conversation the day after our trip that it started to make sense to me. “It’s like a chess game.” For the most part, he thinks that fossils should be left in the ground. He evokes an ancient goddess Pachamama when talking about this, noting that if you take something from the earth, Pachamama will take something from you.
He also understands “losing some pieces”, or extracting and preserving ancient marine fossils found in the Ocucaje desert, so we can learn from them. Specifically he says that he knows where to find the fossils of the extinct and elusive megalodon sharks. (The only remnants of the megalodon shark that have been found to this date are a piece of a jaw bone and teeth, like the one Scott found.) But he will not guide paleontologists to find megalodon fossils because they are not protected under Peruvian law. The law currently protect fossils only from mankind, and not from animals. So paleontologists have free reign to extract whatever animal fossils they may find and take them out of the country.
The ideal situation for Roberto would be a stalemate of sorts between Pachamama and preservation. He would like to see a museum in Ica under a partnership between the Peruvian government and international authorities.
Driving back into civilization was another surreal experience after having been so isolated for 3 days. Suddenly there were people, and we were covered in sand riding in the back in a very obtrusive truck.
At one point during the trip we had asked Roberto what he thought about the controversial ex-president of Peru, Furjimori. Fujimori has been on trial over the last few months for overseeing the slaying and “disappearing” of innocent people during his fight against the domestic Shining Path terrorist organization. He is a very controversial figure here in Peru.
So our last stop on our way back into Ica was at the cemetary of Ocucaje, a town of maybe 2,000 people.
Roberto pointed out that the huge wall of above ground tombs that we were looking at consisted only of children. Each grave had the name, age and birth date of a child that had been maybe 2, 4, 7 years old. “Before Fujimori 30 children would die each year here.” No doctors, medicine, healthcare, sanitation. “That is enough for a revolution.” Fujimori built hospitals, brought doctors. There was a newer looking wall of maybe 20 tombs stacked on top of each other. “That new wall is for the new president [Alan Garcia].”
So, the Desert Shaman. I think this quote from him sums up the entire trip:
“Maybe it’s just the desert you learned. I don’t think so.”
Awesome post. Did you ever go to Grantsville, UT? It is almost a “traditional” desert, in that it’s desolant,vast and very sandy. I used to go camping there with my buddies wihen I was a young adult. NO ONE ever went there except to dump old furniture, but it was the most beautiful place in the world (to me at the time) and I remember the feeling too, going back into civiilization after camping out there for two to three nights where the only people were us.