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Published: January 8th 2013
Christmas Tree
One of many ridiculous trees you will see in Peru at ChristmasI'm not sure why Lima get's such a bad reputation amongst travellers. I can only assume that those who espouse that it's a horrrible place haven't actually spent any time here or have gone to the wrong part. We spent Christmas in Miraflores, which is a bit like the west end of London or Glasgow, in that it has too many people with too much money, but is also rather pleasant. Lima seems to be quite Americanised too, I managed to get a root beer in a supermarket and we even saw a Dunkin' Donuts somewhere, they also drive stupidly large cars here. But it isn't all bad, the Italian Plaza in the centre of town has a great selection of food vendors on the weekend, choose what you want and have a seat, a bit like a food court, but with edible food, and it's outside in the sun. Unfortunately quite a few museums were closed due to the Christmas holidays...lazy Christians. The Inquisition Museum sounded very promising, shame it wasn't opened, maybe they were off torturing a heathen or something? No one would have expected it! (Too obvious a joke? Thought so, too late now though). We made do
with the literary museum in the old train station, which was interesting and doubled as probably the coolest library imaginable. Peru has a pretty decent sized Chinese population, and Lima has a China Town, which was heaving with people, presumably getting last minute stuff for Christmas, but considering the only christmassy stuff for sale, apart from roasted ducks, were decorations, you have to wonder if some people left it a bit late to get into the Christmas spirit. Downtown lima has the obligatory buildings, cathedral and plaza de Armas, and these were all well and good but we've seen most of this stuff before and sort of flew round it all, although some of the colonial houses were awesome! The Contemporary Art Gallery was pretty cool too, well the bit that was open was anyway, some of it was just nonsense, as modern art tends towards, but some of it was definitely real art, not just an unmade bed or half a shark in formaldehyde.
Christmas was a bit of an experience. It wasn't like home. It was warm and sunny for a start. On Christmas Eve there were hundreds of amateur firework displays lasting until the
small hours. Apparently everyone gets very drunk after the kids have been put to bed, meaning that the restaurants are all quiet until mid-afternoon. We didn't have a party to go to, just red wine and whisky to drink and then a delicious excusion to a coffee shop for huge hot sandwiches and churros with hot chocolate (if you're ever in town head to Madolo's, it's always busy for a reason). Christmas day was a Skype-athon followed by a quarter roasted goat for me, something equally meaty and delicious for Ellie (rice with chicken, goat and duck). More red wine and whisky was imbided after a walk on the beach in the 25C heat! Not right at Christmas is this heat malarky. In the evening we headed back to the local park which was packed with people eating food. We joined them with hot sandwiches and wonderful milkshakes from La Lucha (top 2 after Mug & Bean Pretoria). It was an indulgence too far, I really didn't need anything else to eat, but it's Christmas and you kind of have to suffer from eating too much right? Just like Jesus...probably...my understanding of the Bible is a bit hazy, but at
Lima Pier
Serves no function but for Xmas Day strolls. least Santa was present for that miracle birth...
Boxing day is just a normal day here. We spent it on a bus. In the desert. I'd have prefered the Great Escape on TV, a slight hangover and turkey with salad and chips, but you can't have it all. We ended up in Trujillo after 9 hours. It was swelteringly hot and the town wasn't up to much. It used to be the Spanish capital I think. One of the Pizarro's had a house here, I read that somewhere. The ruins of Chan Chan and the Huaca del Luna were why we came...and seafood, although I was in the midst of an 8 day virus which was most unpleasant, so little seafood for me. Chan Chan is a city made from mud. I guess that's underplaying it a bit, but it's also the truth. It's huge, 28square km or there abouts. The mud, adobe really, has been intricately scuplted in places and it's very impressive, especially as it's about 800 or so years old (probably, all I know is that it was before the Incas, I had a virus and hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before so
Lima Cathedral
Catholicy and Christmassy. cut me some slack). I needed a lie down after that adventure so we left the Huaca del Luna for the next day. Again it's made of Adobe, but it's a huge pyramid. Massive in size and scale, and has a bigger next door neighbur (Huaca del Sol) but you aren't allowed to go there. The museum was mindblowing, the pottery they made was creepy but incredible. Moche society also loved a bit of human sacrifice...excellent. There was lots of detail about the sacrifice and it was quite gory. The pyramid temple thing still has it's original paint work and carving which is amazing to see, up there with Machu Picchu in terms of grandiose archeological discoveries. The science bods here haven't even uncovered 5% of the site. The odd thing about the temple is that every 100 years or so the Moche would just fill it with bricks and build a bigger one on top, so you have a Russian Doll effect with one temple inside another. More people should come here, sort it out touristy-types!
As an aside from travelling Eleanor has put it to me that she never moans or complains, she merely makes negatively flavoured
Food
Italian Plaza...weekends only. comments! Interesting take on it. Also, no one in Peru, anywhere has change, ever. It's bloody frustrating and as Eleanor pointed out, why don't they have a float "...you wouldn't have a jumble sale in the UK without one!" Quite. If the cash machine ony deals in 20s and 50s why the hell doesn't the economy? Baffling.
On our final push up the coast we arrived in to Chiclayo. My virus really upped the ante and thus I stayed in bed for a day, doctors orders...the downside to being married to one is you actually have to listen to them. Not all bad though, there was cable TV in the room so sports and movies it was! On the second day Ellie attempted to visit the museum in Lambayeque which is supposed to be the best museum in South America (it is, but I'll come to that in a bit). However, the curse of Peruvian deafness struck again and the collectivo took her to the beach, not the museum, the opposite direction in fact! Well done Peruvian drivers...actually the taxi drivers don't know where anything is either, you have to point to a map, you may as well drive
Huaca del Luna
One wall...they're all like this yourself. British taxi drivers, with their "Knowledge" would be ashamed, which they'd displayed by swearing and beeping their horns no doubt...something they have in common with the South Americans. Uh...nearly forgot what I was writing about then. Ellie and I took a taxi in the afternoon as I felt better, I wasn't I was probably a bit delerious. But it was worth it as a the musem is like a giant pyramid, mimicking the site of Sipan, and takes you through the layers of the pyramid/excavation displaying the finds and explaining the science. It's like an archaeologists fantasy and how museums should be done. This was kind of our last stop in Peru. We decided against going further up the coast and we don't have time to visit the Cordilla Blanca, not enough time to do it justice anyhow. A final night in the utterly uninteresting and unnoteworthy town of Piura (come to get the bus to Ecuador and get the hell out) before heading to Vilcamaba in Ecuador for New Year, virus and all!
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maria mcadams
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❦ A man needs to travel. On his own, not through stories, images, books or what is on TV. He needs to travel with his eyes and feet, to understand what is his. …And one day, to plant his own trees and cherish them. Having known cold to enjoy heat. And its opposite. Having felt separation and homelessness, to be comfortable under his own roof. A man needs to travel to lands foreign to him, so as to break way from the arrogance that leads us to see the world as we imagine it, and not as it actually is, or can be. And that makes us think we are experts of what we have never experienced, when we should rather be life-long apprentices and just go out and see. - Amyr Klink in \"Mar sem fim.\"