Lima, at last

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I flew into Lima from Cusco on a Sunday morning. I'd arranged a pick up with my hostel and for once everything went smoothly. I was staying in Miraflores, the main tourist and restaurant area to the south of Lima city centre. I had a restaurant tip for lunch, so set out to find Punto Azul - famous for its ceviche. Food generally, and ceviche in particular, had played a big part in my decision to come to Lima. It had been a long time since I'd been close to the ocean (Ushuaia) and I was really looking forward to a large plate of seafood swimming in a sharp citrus dressing with a chilli kick. Punto Azul did not disappoint.

Once I´d fed and watered I went for a wander to get my bearings. After Cusco, Lima, or at least Miraflores, felt not so much like a different city as a different country. It was strikingly western, wide freeways, international hotels and casinos, rather than narrow, cobbled streets; designer stores rather than local arts and crafts. I had got used to women in tradition dress with their pet llamas chasing the tourist dollar, here it was jogging, rollerblading and sublime indifference. I ended up at Miraflores' famous cliffs, overlooking the pounding surf and by the looks of it the pounded surfers of the Pacific Ocean.

Lima would be my final destination before meeting up with Penny and John in Quito, and as I sat on the edge of the continent my thoughts drifted back to the beginning of my trip in Buenos Aires. There seemed to be a fitting sense of closure that I should find myself once again in a large, western-looking capital. all be it now on the opposite coast of the continent. But I am getting ahead of myself...

...I'd had three days after returning from Machu Picchu in Cusco to recover. Whilst I will remember the trek as one of my trip's undoubted highlights it had felt good to return to civilisation. I'd felt dog tired at the end of it - far too much fresh air, exercise and early starts. The healthy life had nearly killed me. Now I had a couple of days in which I did little but potter. I met up with "Team Yahtzee" for a celebratory dinner and joined some of them for a gentle walking tour of the city - lured once again into an upright position by the promise of free pisco sours. I visited the major churches - fantastic bling (alas photos not allowed) and religious art, including an interesting Andean take on "The Last Supper" in which the lamb is replaced by a vizcaucha (Andean rabbit) - Andean folklore styles the vizcaucha as a guardian of the mountains. so there is more evidence here of the cross fertilization between Christianity and native pantheism. I also ate some great meals about which more in a separate entry.

On my final day in Cusco I stirred myself for a tour of the Sacred Valley , highlights of which were tours of the Incan archaeological sites at Pisac and Ollantaytambo. I had passed through Ollantaytambo on my way back from Machu Picchu, taking the scenic train ride down Machu Picchu valley to Ollantaytambo which sits at the intersection between Machu Picchu Valley and the Sacred Valley. However, on that occasion it had been all I could do to keep my eyes open so it was nice now to see it when I had a bit more time and energy. Both Pisac and Ollantaytambo are spectacular sites in their own right. Whilst they can not rival Machu Picchu's unearthly setting, or the complexity of its reconstructed buildings, both are much larger, cities and administrative centres, which housed several thousand rather than a palace or place of scholarship that at most housed several hundred. As such they arguably tell a more interesting tale of the life of the Incas than the enigmatic Machu Picchu in so much as they give a broader indication into how the Incas lived. Each city reflects the rigid heirarchy of the Incas, containing clearly defined areas for different castes. They also continue to demonstrate the same grasp of astronomy in the layout and structure of their temples. I was glad I'd made the effort for these two sites (they nearly passed me by) and to have a further look at the sacred valley - so called because its slightly lower elevation and unique ecosystem meant it was (and remains) the most fertile of valleys - reaping the biggest harvests and the best crops and ensuring a year round growing cycle rather than being limited to two harvests.

In the end it was a wrench to pull myself away from Cusco and my very comfortable hostel but my flight was already booked. In total I´d allowed myself 5 days in Lima. This was more than enough time to see the main attractions, but only enough time to scratch the surface of the city´s culinary offerings. Lima is a curious place. You might expect a city located part way between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Equator to have a tropical climate. However, Lima, is trapped between the Andes and the cold Humboldt current, which comes up from the Antarctic. The result is a micro-climate that is exceptionally dry. After Cairo, Lima is the second driest capital in the world and is surrounded by sandy desert, criss-crossed by fertile valleys caused by rivers carrying Andean meltwater to the ocean. The winter climate is generally for cool, grey days but I was greeted by a couple of days´of glorious if unseasonal sunshine and a temperature in the low 70s.

After the weather the other two things that people remark on about Lima are the food (more to follow) and the traffic. I´d met an Italian woman on the way back from Machu Picchu who´d warned me about the traffic. After 2 years living in Lima, she´d had enough and was planning to return to Italy. The traffic, she explained, was just crazy and the traffic in turn made the people crazy. After a couple of bus and taxi drives I could see what she met. The traffic seemed engaged in a complex, choreographed dance or game, the aim of which was to change lanes as frequently as possible, to the constant accompaniment of blasts on the horn. It certainly wasn´t for the faint-hearted.

I spent my time in Lima alternating between sightseeing and pottering, walking and eating. It was nice to have the luxury of time for once. I went to the main square (as in Cusco, the Plaza De Armas) took in the cathedral and the main buildings of government, watched the changing of the guard outside of the presidential palace - a bizarre ceremony that involved a goose-stepping military band in full plumage. I went to the church of San Francisco, a 16th century church founded by the Franciscans now famous for its catacombs. It was a slightly unsettling experience to walk through room after dank and low-ceilinged room looking down on the bones of some 25,000 plus Catholics, interred here in the belief that the proximity to the Church would ensure a shorter route into heaven. The bones are 17th and 18th century and the passage of time and various disinterments have ensured that only the largest bones - skulls and femurs have survived.

I went to two excellent, contrasting museums - Museo De La Nación and Museo Larco. The Nación featured a moving permanent exhibition instigated by the country´s truth and reconciliation commission, set up in the aftermath of Peru´s 20 year struggle between the government and The Shining Path. The conflict lasted from 1980 - 2000 and the exhibition used reportage photography and a simple recounting of the facts to eloquently tell the stories of some of its 69,000 victims, most of them innocent civilians either murdered or disappeared. It was a sobering experience to think that in its recent past this country, which I had found so rich and welcoming, had been at virtual civil war.

The Larco focused on the other end of the historical perspective, charting the rise and fall of the country´s pre-Colombian societies up to and including the Incas, but mostly focusing on those societies that preceded them. The museum featured some impressive stella, intricate fabrics and ritual jewellry in gold and silver but most impressive of all was the pottery, which in its decoration mapped the developments of the belief systems of the indigenous people.

All the cultures seem to recognise a complex inter-dependency between three world´s - the world of the gods (heaven, or in quechua, the language of the Incas, Hanan Pacha), the earthly world (Kay Pacha) and the underworld (Uku Pacha). The motifs on the pots moved from representing the inter-play between the duality which was essential to life (heaven-earth, death-life, man-woman) using colours and shapes - typically steps to show the relationship between each of the worlds or contrasting swirls to reflect the inter-dependence of opposites, to stylised representation of the animals, which were felt to be the avatars of the gods in each of these realms - bird (condor or owl - visión, sight, leadership); puma (power, strength); snake (wisdom). Finally to the point where the icons were replaced by human faces, representations of the leaders of the society, who, on dieing, provided the necessary rites were observed, would be welcomed into the society of the ancestors where they would continue to shape and influence the development of the society. Sometimes literally (as in the case of Incan mummies) remaining present for the great, seasonal rites. The comparison between the pantheistic and Christian approach to death was striking, I couldn´t help but wonder, which, on an objective level, was the more primitive.

I made a trip out to Pachacamac, a vast archaeological site about 30 kilometres south of Lima. The site is an imposing collection of dunes and bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, spread over several hundred hectares. Archaeologists believe that it was a major pilgrimage site for successive cultures (Limas, Ichas, Huaris and finally Incas) for well over a 1,000 years prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Interestingly, in stark contrast to the Conquistadores whose first action was to the kill the local gods, the indigeneous populations adopted a tolerant attitude to previous religions, respecting and adapting them into their own. The site is very much a work in progress and whilst it may lack the cohesion and complex structures of some of the Inca sites in the South it compensates for this with its impressive scale.

Mostly I seemed to spend my time wandering the streets of Miraflores and neighbouring Barranco, enjoying the bar and restaurant scene and relishing the extra money that staying in a shared dorm allowed for my budget. Lima is a great city for the gourmet and a pretty good one for the glutton. In amongst all this sightseeing and general relaxing I spent a nerve-shredding afternoon trying to follow QPR v Wigan on the internet. Licensing issues meant that I was unable to find a commentary of the match and was reduced to impotently trying to refresh my browser in hope of a QPR equaliser and then winner. All being well I will be in the Galápagos for the final so will be spared the purgatory of a repeat performance for the final...

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