Bits and bobs from my travels

This was the straw hat I wore to keep the strong Andean sun off my balding pate, all those years ago. The original hat band got lost quite quickly, so I purchased the one you see there, and pinned it on. The string of beads attached to the hat used to include bright red macaw feathers, but some mice in our attic found them terribly attractive. That is a macaw beak. The necklace was traded with indiginous Ashanica people whose hunting is completely sustainable.The thing wrapped round the hat is a khipu, the Inca way of recording things by tying strategic knots on one long cord. The space blanket is there as we used it to fend off the cold, umpteen feet up on the back of a lorry. Our Peruvain or Bolivian fellow passenges though it very funny, but it did work.