In the words of the famous Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa "Lima es la ciudad del color de caca," translated: Lima, the city the color of shit. And so goes many people's view of Lima. However, Maya and I decided that we had heard of some cool things to do there, and wanted to give it a shot. I wasn't expecting a whole lot, and was pleasantly surprised. I actually think Lima is a rather pleasant city. While some parts may be the color of...well, you know...in general, I thought it was pretty, especially the parts of town on the beach and the center of town. We stayed in the part of town called "Miraflores," which is one of the upper class neighborhoods. It is perched atop the cliffs overlooking the ocean, which creates some spectacular views when it's not fogged in.
Our first night we didn't do much. We both arrived from Cusco on a plane and were tired, plus I was sick, so we just decided to go to the hostel and relax. The next day, we decided to head down to the center of town. Our roommate, a girl from Germany, told us there was a changing of the guards in front of the Palacio del Gobierno at 11:30am, so we made it in time to see that. We took Lima's "metro" downtown. It's essentially lane's that are just for the "metro bus," and it's surprisingly effective and fast, since there is a lot of traffic around the city. There are stations, just like metro stations, just instead of getting on a metro train, you get on a bus. I was impressed...way to be creative Lima. We watched the changing of the guards which took a full hour! You had to stand across the street from the Palacio and there were police all over, it was like they were expecting a riot or something during the changing. Anyways, it was fun to watch. After that, we walked around the plaza, saw the main cathedral, and walked down the paseo (a street just for pedestrians) from the Plaza de Armas to the Plaza San Martin, where everything is white: the plaza, the buildings... After that, we headed back up the Paseo to find a restaurant for lunch (set menu's are the best deal in Peru). We spent the rest of the day wandering around the center of the city. That evening, we went to Larcomar, a really nice mall on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and saw the move The Ides of March (it was really good, I recommend it). It basically discusses how awful politics and politicians in the US are.
The next day we went to an anthropology museum called Museo Larco (named after the guy who discovered a bunch of the artifacts). Maya had heard about it from one of her professor's at Santa Barbara--it was by far one of the best museums I have been to in a long time. It talks about all the ancient civilizations in Peru, apart from the Inca's (although it talks a little about the Inca's too). I had no idea that so many ancient civilizations existed! There have been civilizations in Peru since 5000 BC...aka as long as Mesopotamia and Egypt. However, they often get ignored because their societies were not as elaborate as the Incan society. There were artificats from all different regions and time periods, and I learned A LOT about the history of civilizations in the Americas. Their "temporary exhibit" was on phallic pottery, yes, sex pottery. Apparently the Moche civilization was really into fertility, so they would water their plants with things like penis pots because they believed they were giving them life. It was really hard to be mature during that exhibit.
That afternoon we tried to paragliding, but with no luck because the coast was completely fogged in. We instead made an appointment to go the next day to some mountains to the south of Lima, where it doesn't get fogged in. Instead, we went and got manicure's and pedicure's :) The manicure and pedicure were amazing after having walked around Cusco and Lima for a week and a half. On our way, we stopped and had another set lunch menu, including our first taste of Peruvian ceviche (spelled cebiche sometimes in Peru...anyone who can explain why..?) Delicious.
The next morning we got up and checked out and headed to go paragliding. We got a "tour" of the city on our way out of town, which was interesting because we left from Miraflores, one of the upper-class neighborhoods, but then had to drive through some of the poorer parts of town on our way to Pachamac (where we were paragliding). It seemed like there was an even greater contrast here than in Santiago, which was interesting.
Paragliding was amazing. I don't really know how to describe the sensation, it's like flying outside I guess. The takeoff and landing were surprisingly smooth. It was like, one minute my feet were on the ground, the next minute they weren't, and vice-versa for landing. I got to go up pretty high because the way the winds were blowing, which was awesome. We were over the town of Pachamac, plus got an ocean view...pretty cool.
Here are some pictures from Lima, in reverse order (sorry):
The view of the coast from Larcomar.
Paragliding in Pachamac. That little dot up there is me.
Manicure's and pedicure's
Posing with some manikin's in Larcomar. It's a really, really nice mall. And very obviously for the upper-class.
Some phallic fertility pottery.
Some more phallic fertility potter...there were all varities.
The "storeroom" of pottery and Museo Larco. There were 4 big rooms filled with shelves from floor to ceiling which were filled with pottery from different civilizations. It was really impressive. These are some of the few pots they have found of women.
Some of the wear of the nobility. They had their choice of gold or silver, sometimes embedded with other precious stones. In most ancient cultures in Peru, gold and silver were regarded as equally precious metals. I just can't imagine wearing those nose and earring pieces...
Some of the pottery from the oldest civilizations. They can date how old the pottery is by things such as how many spouts it has, how long the spouts are, how the pottery is glazed, and what the pottery is depicting. I think that is quite impressive. Also, it was stunning how elaborate some of the early pottery was.
Maya and I in the Plaza de Armas. Why are the buildings are yellow...I don't know. Maybe that's where Lima gets its reputation for being the color de caca.
Changing of the guards in front of the Palacio del Gobierno. There was a live band and a march. In this part, everyone had a mini Peruvian flag and it almost looked like they were about to start charging each other with flags in hand. They didn't however, and instead turned toward the front of the Palace and changed the guards.
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