After several days at sea, we stopped in Peru for three days. The first port was Callao, a suburb of Lima. we spent two days touring all around Lima. We booked a private tour with Haku tours for the two days in Lima, and we highly recommend them if you ever visit Lima. With just nine people in our van and our great tour guide, Jhonney Lucas, we were treated royally and shown the best of the city.
Our first stop was the Inca architectural ruins of Pachacamac just outside the city. We learned from our guide about the Incan culture, religion, and engineering that went into the creation of this site. Pachacamac was a very important god in the Inca civilization and the ruins were once a huge temple complex where the Incas came from all over to worship and make requests of Pachacamac. Pachacamac means "Hearth's Creator" or mother heart in Inca. We saw the building that is most intact where the young women selected as the best of the Incas lived. They were destined for royal marriages and/or human sacrifice to Pachacamac.
We also saw the partially excavated Temple to the Sun at the highest point of the site where the sacrifices took place. This huge pyramid was built of mud and bricks next to the Incan Trail, the road that connected the north and south of Peru and the Andes beyond. There is also a pilgim's square where the faithful waited to be admitted into the temple. The site is about 40% excavated, so much more is waiting to be uncovered under all the rocks and dirt.
After a wonderful lunch of typical Peruvian food, we drove to the historical district of Lima where we saw the Presidential Palace and other impressive buildings. We went to the Saint Francisco Monastery and Church and walked down to the underground catacombs where the bones of 25,000 Spaniards have been stored for hundreds of years. It was dusty and a bit creepy to see the 300 year old bones arranged in neat piles in the underground stone pits. We walked through the streets of the oldest buildings in Lima where balconies are being restored and viewed the ocean from the clifftops of the city.
We took a break for drinks and tapas and our tour guide treated us to Peruvian churros, more like foot-long filled doughnuts than the Mexican churros we had expected. Our last stop was a visit to a beautiful park with fountains and a water and laser light show at dusk. The Magic Water and Lights show was a spectacular way to end our very full day in Lima.
Our second day in Lima we went with the same Haku Tour Guide on Lima's Colors and Flavors Tour. We visited the places in Lima that locals go to and tasted the yummy flavors of Peru. We visited two different, but equally wonderful local districts of Lima that are non-touristy. We started our adventure in a local town on the beach called Chorrillos . Here, we viewed the the district’s main industry: fishing. We checked out a local fish market, saw Peruvian fishermen and women cleaning and selling their catch, and learned about the local products. We walked out to the pier and saw the crabs scuttling on the rocks and the boats at anchor in the harbor. Then we drove to the top of the cliffs to the Chorrillos neighborhoods and visited the local market.
We tasted different fruits and enjoyed the colors and activity of the market. We stopped at a local restaurant to taste the typical foods: ceviche, deep fried bass, rice, and yucca that is cooked like a french fry all washed down with local light and dark beer. Our next stop was a little street-side restaurant where they cooked whole fish wrapped in leaves over a grill. We sampled grilled pirana and another fish hot from the grill. The Peruvian people were all very happy and smiled and joked with us, eager to share their food and culture.
We then drove to the Barranco district and walked past a variety of colorful, stately mansions and quite impressive local murals, while hearing about Barranco's fascinating lifestyle. We saw the famous 'Bajada de los Baños' walkway where many of the balconies are being restored. They say that Barranco has two lives going on at the same time: one on the streets and another on the balconies above the streets. Barranco is Lima's most trendy district, famous because it is the most interesting and colorful district, known for its 'bohemian' lifestyle and as the local artists’ favorite district.
Lima is a city of 50 different districts, and we saw beautiful historic buildings as well as very poor neighborhoods as we drove from the port. The people are warm and welcoming and eager to share their lifestyle with visitors. We enjoyed learning about their history, their culture and tasting their delicious food.
Our last day in Peru the ship docked at Pisco, and we took a tour to the Incan ruins at Tambo Colorado. These ruins are quite extensive, and we walked through rooms that clearly showed how the Incans lived and decorated their homes. There are faded areas of red, yellow and black paint still on the adobe brick walls that show the Incan designs from hundreds of years ago. Driving back to the ship, we passed through typical Peruvian neighborhoods and as we neared the port, the sand dunes were impressive. Huge mountains of sand surroud the port and reminded me of the pictures of Egyptian sand dunes.
We're now at sea for two days on our way to Chile. We have planned a tour in Chile to visit a winery and see the countryside. You can view our pictures below and then stay tuned for our visit to Chile.
Steve D
2018-03-07
Wow, some really cool and unique pics, a lot of history in those ruins