My new Charango

My goal as I travel is to buy a stringed instrument from each locale that I work in as I travel and learn how to play it. This is the first if the collection. It is indigenous to the Peruvian and Bolivian areas. The Charango has ten strings and is tuned to five notes. The paired strings are tuned in unison except for the middle E strings which are tuned to the octaves. Here are the pictures.

It was created after the Spanish conquest, it was influenced by the Spanish vihuela (an ancestor of the guitar). The back of the instrument is traditionally fashioned from the carapace of the armadillo, however today many of the best charangos have wooden backs instead of employing the armadillo shell.