sudamerica

for our latest trip my mom and i set out for peru, much awaited for her as she had been longing to see machu picchu and i was excited just to finally set foot in south america. we managed to get a direct flight from atlanta to lima and despite the airport's best efforts we did manage to make it to the long-term parking garage (park and ride? misleading) and onto the flight. we arrived in lima after midnight (hey, it was a direct flight, okay?) but managed to get a taxi that would take us to our hotel for what we thought was a reasonable rate. even with no traffic the ride was looong, because lima is a big city. so by the time we were up in our hotel room and off our feet it was past 2am.

gorgeous grounds of the museum

after sleeping in as long as we thought we could without feeling guilty we woke up and had breakfast on the terrace. our hotel was in miraflores, a very liveable part of this huge city. we had a bit of a view from the hotel terrace but couldn't see the sea. the city itself is fairly unremarkable-looking. our first stop was the museo larco, an archaeological museum that told the story of peru's pre-Columbian past through its impressive array of artifacts. they were incredibly well-preserved - ceramics with no cracks or fading, even textiles that were almost completely intact.

incredible preservation

and these pieces were thousands of years old! i guess being entombed with your valuable possessions has its advantages. the ancient incans used three principal animals to represent their spiritual realms - the bird (condor) to represent the heavens, a cat (jaguar) to represent the human world, and a snake to represent the underworld. these motifs come back again and again. they touched on human sacrifice and other (less titillating) rituals in ways that made their behavior very relateable to today's audience. the grounds of the museum itself were gorgeous also - all manners of indigenous flowers spilling out in every possible place. between the grounds and the galleries themselves we spent quite a while in the museum.

colorful streets of lima

by the time we were done it was well into lunchtime. instead of calling another taxi (which we suspected we were overpaying for) we thought we'd try to uber and see what happened. it worked great, and was about a third of the price as a taxi. we made our way towards the historic district where we stopped at a little sandwich shop we'd heard was good. it ended up being little more than a storefront with a small bar to sit at. but the sandwiches and fresh fruit juices were quite tasty. from this little roundabout we again ubered to make our way to the historic area. once we got close our driver seemed taken aback by the road closures he encountered and dropped us off as near to the main square as he could. as it turned out there was a major summit going on - APEC (asia-pacific economic cooperation) - and several major world leaders were in attendance, including obama and mark zuckerberg (who evidently is a world leader now). we couldn't get inside any of the historic buildings so we thought we'd save it for our last day. a very helpful government employee, who had told us about the summit, gave us directions to get to the art museum instead. it was quite a long walk but most of it was down a pedestrian shopping street so there was plenty to look at. it reminded me of a much bigger san josé, with tons of shoe stores and H&M type shops.

the cusqueño madonna

after a long walk and past some very busy streets we made it to the museum of art lima (mali for short). my mom wanted to rest outside so i went inside on my own. there was an odd little exhibition in the first floor. there was another gallery of cusqueño paintings, which is a mix of western styles and traditional andean elements. one aspect that really stood out were the typical triangular shape of the virgim mary - some scholars have said it was to reflect the shape of the mountains. i also noticed several paintings of joseph and the christ child, which is interesting only because it's so rare in european traditions. i thought it was a nice counterpoint to the ubiquitous madonna and childs. the permanent collection upstairs showed a nice cross-section of peruvian modernism. artists obviously wrestled with how much to embrace or reject european styles and what to depict. it was something i knew nothing about so it was a nice introduction to later (as in post-columbian, i suppose) peruvian history.

ceviche at mama's

the thought of braving the traffic or walking much more didn't sound terribly appealing so we were hoping to find a cafe nearby where we could sit and relax for a bit. there wasn't much around though so we ended up in a little shopping mall coffee shop where mom got a rich hot chocolate and i got something with arequipe sauce, something akin to caramel. after a bit of relaxing and journaling we made our way out and hailed an uber to make the long trek across town back to the hotel. we had a nice rest before making our way out again for dinner. luckily there are plenty of restaurants in the miraflores area. we walked toward a restaurant we'd come across in our research - just a few blocks away. but we were dismayed to find it was closed. we encountered the same thing again and again in our walk - which incidentally was full of bright lights from the signs of the many casinos in the neighborhood. we ended up going back to the hotel to ask if anything was actually open on a sunday night. they said there was a traditional place but it was quite a few blocks away. we headed that direction but ended up on a little side street with a few restaurants. i'm glad we did because mama olla did not disappoint. we started off with some little taqueños (what they sound like, a bit like taquitos) with peruvian (slightly salty) cheese inside. even better were our entrees - seafood risotto and our first taste of peruvian ceviche. outside of guinea pig (cuy), ceviche is probably the closest thing to a national dish of peru - or so we were told. the fish was so fresh, the acidity of the lime was just perfect, and it was served with giant indigenous corn, which was fun. we savored every bite but couldn't linger too long, as we head another early morning ahead of us.

the new gold standard

the next day we were up obscenely early to get a taxi to the bus station. the ride took about 30 minutes less than the concierge had budgeted so we found ourselves in a very bright little bus station waiting for our bus at 3am. when it arrived, though, we were not disappointed. luxurious doesn't quite cover it - these bus seats were nicer than most recliners i've sat in. they had not only a foot rest but a panel for your entire leg and they reclined so you were almost laying flat. that plus a pillow, blanket and individual tv screens made for a very pleasant four-hour trip. by the time we made it to paracas we were much better rested. we ended up in a tiny little bus station that looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. that turned out to be somewhat misleading. it was off of a quiet road but also surrounded by a wall. as we discovered later, if you walked out down to the bottom of the grounds, through the gate and out you ended up on the main road and just across from the building of the little town of paracas.

sea lions lazing

we ended up setting up our boat ride there in the station, not having made plans already. they drove our little group down to the water in a van, where we then loaded onto the small boat. i think it sat about 35. we ended up with great seats at the back since he let 'retired people' board first. my mom took full advantage and got us seats at the back left of the boat. once everyone had settled we sped over to the islands (islas balestas).

PENGUINS!

the largest island was largely uninhabited but there were a few trucks zipping along the one road we could see. on the side of this island was a large symbol that looked like it had been written in sand. from there we jetted over to the smaller, rockier islands. this is the main attraction because of the wildlife. these little islands are absolutely full of animals - mostly birds but also quite a few sea lions lazing on the rocks and occasionally playing in the water. we even managed to see one group of humboldt penguins! there must not be many of them because on our trip all around the islands we only saw the one little group. we had a lovely time floating around the islands, soaking up the sun and looking for sea lions with funny expressions. after we had made our way almost all around the islands the little boat sped up again and we braced ourselves for a windy ride back to the mainland.

paracas' little harbor

we had a few more hours until our bus left to go back to lima so we explored tiny town of paracas, such as it was. it seems to be a little tourist spot, filled with little shops and restaurants along the water but not much else. we walked along the shore, taking in the colorful boats and waiting until restaurants would be serving lunch.

scallops on the half shell

to pass the time we stopped at a little cafe for some fresh passion fruit juice (our favorite), which came with a little dish of corn nuts. my mom was not a fan. finally we made our way down to another restaurant where we got some nice ceviche (our last day on the coast for a while, we figured we should take advantage) and little scallops covered in parmesan. maybe it's just me but somehow i hadn't put together that the word 'scalloped' is related to the shape of the shells scallops are in. i guess i'd never seen them served that way! quite tasty though. after a bit more lingering we made our way back to the bus station and braced for another comfortable yet long bus ride. by the time we got back to lima it was rush hour and getting an uber took longer than usual. after that long ride all we wanted was to be back at the hotel so we were very relieved when our uber driver finally made it through traffic and dropped us off.

soup and sips

after a rest we went down in search of another place for dinner. in the hotel lobby we discovered that one that had been on an anthony bourdain show we watched just before we left was just blocks away. we thought we might as well try it out. it's called amaz - not for 'amaze' but for the amazon, from which many of the dishes ingredients are sourced. the food had a mix of andean and amazonian food with some asian touches. (did you know there's a large asian population in peru? me neither.) the very kind waiter recommended several dishes so we tried a few different dishes. first was the wild prawn soup with smoked pork, tapioca and noodles. fairly thin, yet with a hint of pepper and i didn't even mind the tapioca balls (which in bubble tea i find disgusting). next was the main course - peking duck juane with rice and hoisin sauce, cooked in a banana leaf and - the best dish - the tender and flavorful lomo saltado (basically sauteed beef and vegetables) even our drinks were filled with interesting amazonian ingredients - mine had caribbean rum, berries from the amazon, guava, and pineapple juice. a bit pricy but a great experience.

glorious tiles

dem bones

and now, if you'll permit me, i'll skip ahead a bit to our last day in lima. our first priority was to head back to the historic district, where we hadn't been able to see much of anything the first day. our first destination was the iglesia san francisco, which we discovered had a huge line out front. we (correctly) guessed that it must have been a saint's feast day, which accounted for all the people lined up in the square with flowers in their hands. i had mostly wanted to see this church because we read it had a great muqarnas dome. well, we never got to see it because the church was full of worshipers. but we did take a tour of the monastery, where our rather inept (but sweet) guide walked us around giving us vague information about the monastery and spaces we were in. the cloisters were some of the prettiest i've seen - the walkways were all covered in spanish tiles (from sevilla, no less). the middle of the cloisters was filled with green gardens and palm trees. we weren't supposed to take photos, for some reason, but the guide quite literally looked the other way, which was most appreciated. the other highlight was the catacombs - quite extensive. many chambers filled with sorted bones all neatly stacked. in some parts we could look up through a grill and see into the church's sanctuary, and even hear part of the service. oh and there's also a 'last supper' painting there that's somewhat famous. the titular dinner on the table is all traditional peruvian food - potatoes, chillis, and even guinea pig. tourists clearly get a kick out of it.

tiles on every surface

from here we walked over toward the plaza de armas, where we stopped in a little hole in the wall for some lunch. the food was modest - the usual thin soups and mediocre cuts of meat - but it did the job. from there we walked through the large but otherwise not terribly interesting main square and on to the convento santo domingo. we went there almost on a whim - it was on our list of places and we had plenty of time to kill. i am SO glad we did. it was stunning. when we walked through we immediately saw the cloisters - even more stunning than the last (and we were allowed to take photos - bonus!) with red columns covered with tiles and walls to match. the central fountain was surrounded by flowers, palm tress, and birds chirping. from the courtyard we could see the church's bell tower, completing the illusion that we were not in peru but a moorish mosque-turned-church in spain. (the tiles, once again, were from seville).

light from above

we had a lovely guide who did a great job of showing us through the space and telling us about the various residents - two of them now saints - who had once lived there. (this is a pretty unfair characterization but we noted that the female guides we had always tended to be slightly better - succinct, even when giving bilingual tours, and yet packing a lot of information in.) one of these was st. martin de porres was the first black man to be canonized in the americas, although it was about 330 years after his death. he worked at the monastery all his life, cutting hair and tending to sick monks, never attaining the rank himself. a humbling story - one can see why people flock to his shrine to venerate him. the rest of the grounds were beautiful too. each room was decorated differently - whether with painted walls, colorful stained glass or tiles. (even the floor of the small crypt was covered in gorgeous tiles.) needless to say, i had a ball roaming around taking pictures and was so glad we had decided to stop in.

at this point we figured we had seen what we wanted to of the historic district and set about trying to find a way back to miraflores. after walking through the maze of one way streets we eventually hopped in a very old taxi who was willing to take us back towards the more residential part of town. we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in the little markets to fill out the rest of our gift lists, relaxing in a small cafe (with wifi of course) over tres leches cake and coffee, and walking through the more commercial districts popping into grocery stores to buy some potable souvenirs. for dinner we decided we wanted seafood and set our sights on a rather upscale place that was within walking distance. the meal was good but pricey (which helped us use up the last of our soles) - we had giant portions of risotto and one last order of ceviche. we dragged out dinner as long as we could but eventually we figured we should make our way to the airport (even though our 1am flight still wasn't for several hours). it's a good thing we weren't in a rush because the cab ride took literally two hours! traffic was a nightmare - we felt for our driver (since we had already negotiated a price), along with everyone else trying to get to the airport in a hurry. eventually of course we made it to the airport and collected the rest of our luggage from the lockers (what a godsend those are). this took a while, too, though. the second key needed to open the locker seemed to be missing and the poor night manager took quite a while to bust open our locker. again, good we were not in any hurry. in spite of all these hangups we still had several hours to wait and even then our flight boarded late as every single person's hand luggage had to be inspected by airport personnel. it was a full flight in the middle of the night and this last obstacle was almost interminable. finally we did get on the flight and managed to sleep some. we even made the drive back from atlanta without any problems.

but now on to the middle of the trip..