Earthquakes and Eggwhites

On Wednesday 15th August, Southern Peru was hit by an earthquake which measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale. I was due to be in Lima that day, but luckily I was behind schedule by one day, nestled safely in the mountains about 7 hours away. But the earthquake was still felt in the nearest town to me, Huaraz. To put that in perspective, imagine an earthquake in Edinburgh being felt in London!

The next day I headed to Lima, which was on the edge of the earthquake zone. And little did I know that more earthquakes were to come.... It was a 7-hour bus ride, but this time I was riding in luxury. Instead of some guy just throwing my backpack underneath the bus, I had to "check in" my bag at a counter. After having my passport checked, I boarded a shining new luxury double-decker coach. Once we had set off, a nice lady came round and served drinks. This was followed by a 3-course meal, airplane style, which I ate on a table which folded down from the seat in front. I watched several movies in English with Spanish subtitles, then the bingo cards were handed out. Yes, BINGO! The numbers were read out over the tannoy in Spanish, and everyone cheerfully marked off their numbers. I had no idea what to shout out if I won. In England you shout out "House!" It could be completely different over here, and I might look a complete idiot if I shouted out "Casa!". I didn´t win anyway...

I chatted with a nice Peruvian lady for most of the journey, about the Peruvian government, politics and history. Very interesting. She also gave me a recipe for "Lomo Saltado", a Peruvian dish of fried beef, tomatoes, onions and potatoes.

As we approached Lima, the road ran through some vast sand dunes. And by vast, I mean vast! To the left was a mountain-sized dune, and to the right was another dune/cliff running down to the ocean. There was a queue of traffic at one point because there had been a landslide of sand (sandslide?) and the road had to be cleared. Upon entering Lima itself, I noticed that every shop along a particular street was selling tiles. Bathroom tiles, kitchen tiles, all displayed on stands outside. So I started counting them (such is the boredom of long journeys). I counted 89 shops! Lima is full of such commercial groupings, and I spotted many of the next few days. Jewellery Street, 29 shops. Shoe Street, 18 Shops. DIY street, 34 shops. Carburetter Street, lost count. And that night I ate in Italian Street, restaurant number 5 of 16. Photocopier Street was a disappointment though, with only 4 shops selling photocopier machines.

Despite the earthquake the day before, I didn´t see any obvious damage in Lima. Possibly because it was far enough away from the epicentre, and also many of the buildings are supposedly "earthquake proof". However, the earthquake saga was not yet over.... I awoke early the next morning by my bed vibrating slightly. The shutters on the window started to rattle, and soon my whole bed was shaking. I was in a shared dorm, and I sat bolt upright at the same as the girl in the bed opposite. We just looked at each other with a worried expression that said "Is this what we think it is? Another earthquake?" The shaking started to get worse, and I was wondering whether it would be safer to put my jeans on and run into the street, in case the building collapsed. But then the tremors gradually subsided. The whole event had been little over a minute from start to finish, but it was a very scary experience. I later found out that this earthquake had been predicted. After a major quake, "aftershocks" and smaller quakes are quite common. There would be more over the coming week.

After a calming breakfast I headed off in search of "Hairdresser Street" for a haircut. I figured there had to be a street full of hairdressers somewhere. I eventually found a lonesome salon on "Art and Paintings Street". My previous hairdressing experience had been in Baños, where the lady kept paying me compliments, then locked the door and tried to seduce me! This time the lady kept stroking my head, gave me a neck massage and finally gave me her phone number! Either these hairdressers don´t get out much, or else I must have really nice hair?

My main focus in Peru was doing the 4-day Inca Trail to the legendary Machu Picchu. Nowadays you cannot do this independently, it has to be with a tour group. So I had signed up for a trip, and tonight I was meeting the people I would be travelling with. A friendly bunch, mainly English with a few Belgians and Aussies thrown in for good measure. We all had a meal together, and noticed a strange item on the desert page - "Pancakes Filled With Sweat". A hilarious misprint, although nobody ordered them.

The next day was spent sightseeing in Lima, including the Monasterio De San Francisco, with it´s creepy tombs. Below the church are a series of catacombs containing the bones of 20,000 people. The church tour took us down there, and suddenly I thought "What am I doing? The city is due to have more earthquakes, and I am in the crypt of a church that was built over 400 years ago!" But just then, the guide explained that the catacombs are earthquake-proof. How? One of the ingredients of the mortar is EGGWHITES! Apparently mixing eggwhites with the mortar gives it a certain elasticity, allowing the structure to "wobble" rather than break under the stress of the earthquake. On the rest of the tour we saw plenty of human bones. Many had been separated and arranged neatly into piles of similar types. So there were piles of femurs, piles of tibias etc. In one part was an old well which had the bones arranged in a pretty circular pattern (if a circle of bones could be called pretty!). Apparently the bones were arranged in this way down to a depth of 20 metres. Very macabre!

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