THERE IS NO JAPANI HERE!

In January 2010, we produced a webvideo featuring Japani, an ancient Peruvian community whose remains date back to the XVIth century. Japani is tucked away high in the mountains of the Santa Eulalia valley, near the present-day town of Carampoma, about 100 km northeast of Lima.1

On the return leg of the trip, while still in the Santa Eulalia valley, we stopped at a local kiosk for well deserved refreshments. The vendor, a hardened old lady who appeared to be in her 70s, inquired where we were coming from.

I said: "We just came from Japani."

She promptly proclaimed: "There is no Japani here." She went on to say that she had lived in the valley all her life, and that she was pretty sure there was no place called Japani.


1 Hydraulic Engineering in Japani, Visualab Productions, 2010.
Ancient irrigation reservoir at Japani, in the Santa Eulalia valley, Lima, Peru.

Ancient irrigation reservoir at Japani, in the Santa Eulalia valley, Lima, Peru.