The ruins are a bit underwhelming at first, but all the good stuff is underground. That is because most of the structures have been destroyed by great earthquakes and mud slides that have hit the region. The main building (the Castillo) contains a complex system of tunnels and underground chambers that are quite fun to explore. In the heart of one of the rooms is a carved rock slab (about 5 meters in height) that is known as the lance of Chavin - the main god of the Chavin religion. It is a cat of some sort (cougar?) but has elements of humans and condors. Built around 900 BC, the whole site is quite impressive. Based on Nate's (a friend of Stewart) suggestion, we brought headlamps, and once inside, we found some sewage channels and other nooks and crannies to crawl into. We started getting deep into some of them until they got too constricted and we chickened out. This was tons of fun and we got pretty dirty.

Very interestingly, the Chavin used hallucinogens. Some of the rooms in the ruins were designed to echo the winds and sounds of the river in such a way that it was believed they were designed for the non-believers. On hallucinogens, they were placed into these chambers and shown that there was indeed a higher force they should believe in. I found our tour guide explaining this to be a bit amusing, since present day Peru is quite religious. The Chavin weren't warriors, since there were no weapons found at the ruin sites, but they influenced much of the art and cultural development in Peru at the time.

We also checked out the small museum, which was full of stones carved to resemble human heads. After getting the most out of this very interesting ruins site, we all crammed back into the small bus and made the long drive back to Huaraz, where tasty pizza awaited us for dinner.

	Nevado Shaqsha on the way to Chavin de Huantar	a local woman with a llama	Laguna Querococha

	Laguna Querococha	a boat at Laguna Querococha	a boat at Laguna Querococha

		a local house

		They are really into Jesus here...	Local farmland

	At the Chavin ruins		Chavin ruins

	Chavin ruins		drainage channels

	Chavin ruins	Chavin ruins	Chavin ruins

	llama	a posing llama	more llamas next to the ruins

		Lanzon monument	ventilation holes to the outside

		me walking through the tunnels

	inside the drainage channels	crawling down on my back	Stewart crawling inside the drainage channels

		me crawling around the drainage channels	where we entered the ground :)

		timer self-portrait

	Chavin heads inside the museum