Tunal Petroglyphs
A Catholic cemetery keeps a… pantheistic shrine? By Nelson Peñaherrera . Photos by Alesban López . SAPILLICA , Peru – “Cachirís Mount is straight there and Pilán Mount is mostly on the right,” Sapillica [pronounce “Sapijicah”] District Municipality’s Alesban López points me out, whom I am riding a motorcycle again , on our way to Tunal, 37 km away the southwest of the district capital. A local told him there are rocks “pretty identical” to those he featured on his Facebook account . We have to go down from Sapillica town until Timbes [pronounce “Timbehs”], then climbing up until 1617 meters altitude according to the GPS ( global positioning system ) device the crew carries within. An hour 20 minutes, at least on motorcycle, by the west flank of Andean Western Range, viewing the coast along the full trail. In Tunal, we are on the spine of the mountain, the rocks are so little (1,5 meters by si, approximately) those just could carve one petroglyph per each one...