Woke up Thursday with the plan to go to the Museo de Historia Natural in Lima. It was an adventure getting there—the directions didn’t match the address and I ended up walking 12blocks more than necessary, but I got there! And immediately realized that it is the freakiest taxidermy museum I’ve ever been to and it was awesome. Very much like a Cabinet of Curiosities set-up. So many sadly preserved taxidermy animals….. And most of them from Peru! So that sloth that I’ll never get to see because they’re shy and nocturnal? Saw one there!
8 or so fierce jungle cats (Jaguars, Ocelots, ect), saw them too (the cats were in BAD shape). There was also a paleontology section full of Peruvian fossils (from the deserts outside ICA). The best of these was a jaw of the Livyatan Melville (the giant pre-historic whale eating whale) whose teeth are bigger than my head!!
I also learned about which dinosaurs (Los Terribles Lagartos) lived in South America: Carnotaurus (which looks very similar to the Ceratosaurus in the 3rd JP movie), Titanosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Amargasaurus, and a type of Pterodactyl, to name a few. What I found interesting about the fossils and dinosaur section was nothing was labeled if it were real or a cast. I like to think I’m good enough by now to tell which is which, but in the US, that would not fly… I got outside to find the yard around the Natural History Museum functioned like a botanical gardens for the plants of Peru, and there just happened to be casts of two whale skeletons in with the plants.
There was a second building housing the geology collection of rocks and rock-like things from Peru. There were something like 12 types of meteors, a wide array of volcanic rock, precious stones, gold, copper, silver and other metals, a few more types of fossils, cave rocks, and even one type of radioactive rock. Ran into two groups of 1st graders in the gardens (no wonder all the guards were looking at me funny when I got there). Lost myself again walking back to the hostel (I got excited about walking and passed my street…). Almost made it Parque Kennedy before I realized it and then had to wander north again.
My appointment I missed the Museo Amano for was a BUST. I will not be letting the Commission arrange meetings for me again. I went to the University of San Marcos (an almost S./20 taxi ride) to be told the Fiber Faculty I requested to meet with were not there at our scheduled meeting time…. One wouldn’t be in until 8pm that evening and the other would be in the next morning (during the Commission Project Presentation). They then tried to give me information on their school (as if I’d consider going there if they can’t even organize a simple meeting and facilities tour) and then drug me into a room full of stuffy old men (Including the Dean of the “Industry” program that the arts fall under?) who called Andean weaving “tejidos antiguos” as if it isn’t a living practice and debated without asking me the idea of bringing me back in the spring to do a presentation on Andean Weaving for the textile students……
Not meeting the faculty meant I got back in time to see Rob and Miguel (both Fulbright Scholars as well) before heading to Maria Scurrah’s apartment for dinner! How do I know Maria? She is Laurie Snyder’s cousin (Laurie = one of the book arts/photo faculty from MICA). Maria and her husband Martin work for NGO’s in Lima (and have for many many years). Maria had a few important weavers in her family and has a small collection of Andean textiles because of it, as well as stories and books and a general interest and enthusiasm on the topic of textiles. One of the weavers was her grandmother, who escaped Nazi Germany by going to Sweden and while she was there she learned Swedish Weaving. Later in her life she attended and then taught at Black Mountain with the Albers, who brought her to Peru for one of their visits. She eventually moved to Peru and began an organization in south-central Peru to re-teach weaving traditions, as well as Swedish traditions, to the women there. Her sister, who died young, was a tapestry weaver and lived in Peru with Maria as a child. She had a few amazing tapestry pieces her sister had made up on the walls. Maria, having grown up in Peru and Germany, forgot it was Thanksgiving, and her husband is Australian, so we had a delicious Peruvian meal instead of turkey. Not that I mind, I love Peruvian food.
After dinner and discussion, I met up with Rob, Miguel, and Carmen and we wandered around Miraflores a bit before realizing we had to be at the Commission at 8am the next morning...
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