Erin & Regan's South American Adventure
Textile Museum
Hola,
Today I (Erin) went to the Textile Museum while Regan played computer games. The Textile Musuem relates to what we saw when we went to Tarabuco (see a previous post).
These four photos are some of the weavings on display. If you zoom in you can see all the detail and the figures of people and animals. It is extremely fine weaving. The second photo is of a chuspa (a bag) that they use for holding coca leaves.
A spindle used for spinning (Mum I couldn´t help putting this one in).
A different style of weaving from a different area.
The weaving style and materials adopted in the 1950s-1960s.
A weaving dating from the 1890s. We hope that the one we bought is this old but I suspect it dates from the 50s or 60s.
Three weavers from different areas (note their different styles of clothing) plying their craft at the museum. It takes about 2 months to make one of these weavings.
They call these "four cornered caps". Due to their small size it is thought they were worn by people with elongated skulls (which were created by wrapping strips of cloth round the head tightly when a person was young).
This is a tunic made from very fine vicuña hair using interlocking woven tapestry. Close up it was amazing despite the disrepair, which can be forgiven because it is 1,600 years old! (The photo is not very good because it was taken through glass).
This is the church across the street from the museum which dates back to 1665.
The kind lady from the reception desk at the museum saw me waiting in the street for Regan and warned me that the area was not safe for tourists and under no circumstances should I go down the alleyway next to the church. Regan and I have been walking up this street and the ones near it pretty much daily for the last two weeks. Maybe she thought I was travelling on my own????
Regan played Max Payne II.... it was cool (Regan´s words).
On to the salt flats on Monday, all going well.
ross: game noir! its all class :) almost as good as the first one... the textiles are purrty too. (11/28/06)
sue: Computer games over 1600 year old textiles!! Hard to believe. (11/26/06)