MUMMY AT FONCK MUSEUM in Valparaiso, Chile – the geezer’s memory, not the geezer!

One of the best things about traveling while old is that you come across something that reminds you of an experience early in your life, allowing you to relive that experience. It also gives you  a new story to tell.

Mummy from the Atacoma Desert on display in the Fonck Museum, Valparaiso, Chile.

This happened to us in February 2019, on a Viking Sun Cruise included tour at our last stop in Valparaiso, Chile. We stopped at the Fonck Museum in Valparaiso. The museum had archaeological exhibits from Chile and one of them was a mummy from the Atacama Desert  near Arica, Chile in the northern part of Chile on the Chilean/Peruvian border.

Thirty some years ago we had gone on an EarthWatch expedition in connection with the University of Tarapaca, Arica, Chile. For two weeks, working with a pathologist, professors, and students from the University of Tarapaca, we dug up mummies, measured them, documented the burial cloths and checked them for evidence of arsenic poisoning from the water in Northern Chile.

Some of the mummies were over 7000 years old and due to the Atacoma Desert’s lack of rain, were perfectly preserved.

Years later, the mummy pictured above brought back memories of an early adventure.

THINK OLD!