Mummies

On the South side of the Salar de Uyuni lies the small village of Atulcha. It doesn’t have much more than a few houses but it does make an interesting stop on the tourist route of Uyuni and its surroundings. There is a simple museum about Quinoa, the grain of the Incas. The cycle of the plant, its many uses and the customs and traditions that come with it are explained by a local. Ask the man from the museum to bring you to the mummies of Atulcha, called the Qhatinchu Archeological Site. He’ll take you on a small walk outside the village across a small hill where there are a few caves with mummies that are in quite good shape!
Atulcha is not the only place around the Salar the Uyuni that has a salt hotel but this is a quite nice one. The walls, tables, benches, beds, etc are all cut out of blocks of salt. Luckily the mattresses are not made of salt and are nice and soft!

The old part of Popayan is not just another pretty Colombian whitewashed colonial town. It is very much alive, and not turned into a groomed tourist attraction. On special occasions, the town's many churches are lit up in the night like giant Christmas decorations. The biggest church is San Sebastian, which distinguishes itself from the other churches by having a morbid hidden attraction. During the big earthquake in 1983, the church building got serious damaged, but out of the cracked walls fell two mummified monks. These are now displayed up under the church roof and can be viewed if you ask. It is a very low key affair and can be extended with tour on the church roof (if you ask the guard nicely) with splendid views over the town.

Vác is one of the stops on the very scenic day trip to the Danube Bend region. It's a pretty little village with a fine cathedral and a small castle. When they renovated the cathedral in 1994, they stumbled upon a closed vault which hold a huge number of mummies. It turned out they were from 17th century and as they were very well preserved, they gave the historians an insight into middle ages Hungary. Today some of the many mummies are on display in the museum across the square from the cathedral.

Not too far from the Nasca lines, also in the Nazca desert, is the Chauchilla cemetery. The Nascas had the habit of mummifying their deceased before burying them in the desert. Due to the dry desert climate and the mummification of the bodies they are well preserved.
Unfortunately for centuries most of the graves have been opened and robbed off their valuables but there is still plenty to see. It is quite fascinating though slightly morbid so see these mummies of which many of them still are fully clothed and with hair.