1934 COLCA VALLEY, PERU magazine article, Ancient Andean natives

Description

Selling is a 1934 magazine article about:
Colca Valley, Peru
Title: A Forgotten Valley of Peru
Author: Robert Shippee
Subtitled “Conquered by Incas, Scourged by Famine, Plagues, and Earthquakes, Colca Valley Shelters the Last Fragment of an Ancient Andean Tribe”.
The article is about the author’s excursion in Peru. Lots of info and photos on the scenery, wildlife and natives.
Quoting the first page “Indians crowded the plazas and threw their hats into the air as we zoomed half-forgotten towns in the Colca Valley of Peru. One old woman groveled in the dirt as our strange "birds" roared overhead.
Some towns were completely deserted. On the zigzag trails that lined the steep valley sides, we could see stampeding herds of llamas. Over short stretches of pampa we flew so low that blasts from the propeller stirred the dust into little whirling cones. But nowhere in the valley had we found a safe place to land. At sea level we could have landed in several of the flatter stretches, but the floor of this valley was two miles above sea level, and we needed plenty of room.
In a previous article we told how we lost our other plane, the Lima. Had it not been cracked up, we might have attempted a landing; but with only one plane, the Washington, now in commission, we finally thought it best to explore the valley first on land, and thus find a spot where the plane might alight.
So it came to pass that late in June we left the plane at Arequipa and set out for Chivay, a town at the head of the Colca Valley, some 70 air miles north. Valentine Van Keuren, topographer; W. O. Runcie, motion-picture cameraman; Max Distel, mechanic, and I, pilot and historian, went on this trip. Lieut. George R. Johpson, our chief photographer and field leader, and Irving G. Hay, pilot and mechanic, remained at Arequipa to complete an aerial survey of the Colca.
Over a circuitous and difficult route, by train, truck, and muleback, we reached Chivay in two and a half days. Our path had taken us along trails cut into sheer mountain sides, through icy streams, and across sun-blazed pampas. Yet we were more than repaid by our first sight of this strange little town (see map, page 113).
Over brown-thatched roofs loomed two white church towers, their spires in sharp relief against dark, scarred cliffs until they lost themselves in the whiteness of distant snow peaks. The deep gorge of the Colca swung wide of the town; hundreds of feet below our trail we heard the voice of the river as it poured over hidden falls. Curls of blue-tinged smoke, at first the only signs of life, dissipated as they formed, when afternoon winds began to freshen. When our mules came plodding through unpaved streets, natives eyed us unconcernedly.
Whatever warmth was lacking in our reception by the general public was, however, soon forgotten in the hospitality afforded at the town's combined hostelry and bodega (wine shop) . There Senor Salinas, owner of the bodega, and his manager met us with open arms, as we rode through a whitewashed archway into a tiny paved courtyard.
Soon we were being shown all the wonders of this Colca Valley outpost of civilization-tin roofing, a miniature gasoline-electric plant, an ancient phonograph, a typewriter, and bottled beer-all brought from Arequipa on muleback. Chivay, we learned, was the valley's link with the outside world. The natives sold their llama and alpaca wool at this trading post, from whence it was sent on by llama train to the railroad or direct to Arequipa.
Both Salinas and his manager seemed well acquainted with the history of the valley. In 48 hours we had acquired the answers to more than half the questions later asked by New York historians when they saw our photographs of the Colca…”
7” x 10”, 11 double-sided pages, 22 B&W photos plus map.
These are pages carefully removed from an actual 1934 magazine.
34A3
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