After returning from my rainforest trip at Muyuna Lodge, I had a few days spare in Lima before joining up with the Tucan tour group on Saturday so I visited various attractions, the highlight of which was a visit to El Museo Larco with their collection of ceramics showing the sexual practices of pre-Columbian civilisation.
First though, a trip to Lima Zoo, called La Parque de las Leyendas, which (bizarrely) translates to Park of the Legends. However, after visiting here, it should be renamed Parque de los Ninos Diablo (Park of the Devil Children). Reviews of the zoo I had read online had mentioned the fact that the place was usually full of screaming schoolchildren later in the day and to visit as soon as it opened at 9am to avoid them. I turned up at 9.15am and was mightily disheartened to see numerous school buses and hundreds of school kids at the entrance. This wasn't good. It wouldn't have mattered so much if they were well-behaved, but they insisted on barging into anyone who got in their way, screaming at the animals, and jumping up and down every time I tried to take a picture. If the animals didn't have to suffer enough being stuck in cages and small enclosures, they also had to contend with children from hell, screaming at them all day long.
Surely Darwin's Theory of Evolution should dictate that in the future, monkeys will develop the ability to take the ropes provided in their enclosures for swinging on and learn to tie them into nooses to put themselves out of their misery of having to suffer these devil children day in, day out. I was sorely tempted to toss one or two into the jaguar enclosure, the low wall surely designed by the architect for such a purpose. Also, I had left my handy guide to Spanish expletives (see link at bottom of page if interested) at the hotel and the only words I had memorised so far were puta and mierda - "chinga usted" may have come in useful. If you hadn't already guessed, I don't have any children, not since I took them shark-diving and they slipped through the bars anyway.
Lima Zoo was built on the grounds of the pre-Inca city of Maranga and dotted around the place were the remains of huge pyramidal structures that served as temples and burial mounds. There was a museum related to this which I didn't have time to visit. The zoo contained a collection of Peruvian wildlife, some of which would be very difficult to see in the wild. It was interesting visiting it after spending so long in the jungle, as they had lots of monkey species at the zoo, albeit many were in glass cages (with dirty glass) or barred cages, so it was difficult to take any decent photos. Also, it was slightly sad to see them incarcerated like this after seeing many of the same species in the wild but this was a usual issue with zoos. It was particularly sad to see the majestic Condor caged and also the jaguar. Many of the big cats constantly paced their cells in circles through boredom.
I then visited El Museo Larco, the highlight of which was a collection of pots showing sexual practices of the pre-Columbian empires, but rather than representing erotic images for the sake of it, in pre-Columbian art, these have different representations such as fertility or the origin of life. It is this thought-provoking use of erotic imagery as a representation of more profound understanding of life and death that drew me to the museum, or it might have just been an excuse to look at some amusing ancient tit, ass and cock on pots. There was also an amazing collection of body ornaments and decorations, particularly gold, both for the living and the dead.
On Friday, I hired a taxi to drive me to and around Pachacamac, the most renowned pre-Inca and Inca pilgrimage site of the Pacific coast, dating back to 200 AD. It was originally devoted to the worship of the god Pachacamac, whose name means Lord of Earthquakes. Over the centuries, temples for other gods of the coastal cultures were erected throughout this immense ceremonial center. When the Incas arrived, they respected the religion of the conquered peoples but, at the same time, built their Temple of the Sun at the highest point of the site. To date, several pyramids have been uncovered; archaeologists have identified at least 17 pyramids but lack of funds has meant that only about 7% of the complex has so far been excavated. Favelas (slums) back onto the site, and in some cases, have supposedly been built over unexcavated ruins.
I visited the Gold Museum of Peru (Museo de Oro) next, a quite pricey S/33 for entry, especially considering you couldn't take photos (guards followed you around in case you were tempted). The main collection comprised the clothing, ornaments and funerary offerings of the pre-Columbian elite, much of which was constructed from gold. Objects included monumental necklaces, funerary masks, sceptres, ceremonial cups, tumis (sacrificial knives), nose rings, earrings and idols, all fashioned of sumptuous gold and semi-precious stones. The religious and political leaders decorated their bodies with ornaments to transform them both physically and spiritually by adopting a different personality. There were also amazing mummies complete with original hair and teeth and weapons of all types from every continent of the world - I particularly liked the ivory-sculpted samurai sword scabbards, it could have taken years to carve each one. I could have spent all day here and not seen everything, there were that many pieces.
In the evening, I paid a visit to El Parque de la Reserva which contained El Circuito Mágico del Agua (The Magic Water Tour), a series of fountains combining water, light and music, in fact the largest fountain complex in the world, and only S/4 entry. The fountains were lit at night, some with continuously changing color schemes, some interactive (eg. the walk-through water tunnel, a maze), and the Fantasia Fountain, which presented a laser and picture show to music (although I didn't see the latter while I was there, they just had jets of water synchronised to the music).
On Saturday, it was time to leave the Hostal Bonbini and check-in to the Tucan tour joining hotel, La Kamana. I'd read beforehand (on TripAdvisor reviews) that the hotel was a bit shite but it turned out that it was actually pretty decent so I should have stayed there the last few days, never mind. The facade of the hotel was a bit strange though - no hotel name visible from the street, just a set of metal bars like the entrance to a bank vault. I wandered around the centre in the afternoon, including the tourist stalls where I appeared to be the only tourist and half the stall-holders were fast asleep. Peruvian Presidential elections were being held the following day. This meant an alcohol ban in the country, although thankfully tourist establishments appeared to be exempt. There were more scary-looking police on duty than normal, clutching their riot-shields and twitching uncontrollably at their machine guns. Some police were unarmed, but these were more scarier as they were probably mentally unstable and weren't allowed access to weapons in case they started randomly shooting. I considering taking a sneaky photo of them but thought better of it.
We had a Tucan pre-departure meeting in the evening where we were introduced to our Kiwi tour leader Mark. It was a pretty full group this time (16), as usual composed mainly of Aussies which was by no means a bad thing. After a meal in town, we proceeded to try and empty the hotel bar of alcohol until the early hours of the morning, aided by the few other Tucan tour groups that were also staying in the hotel. We didn't have to leave Lima till lunchtime the following day which helped.
Tour group:
Mike (Tour Leader), Me, Adam (UK), Peter (Australia), Amee, Gemma & Kat (all Oz), Peter & Audrey (NZ), Bill & Felicity (Oz), Dan & Chips (Oz), Kate (UK) & Sarah (Oz), Kev & Rachel (Oz/UK).
Link to Tucan trip ("Coast to Coast") plus they have many other South America trips (no, I don't work for them):
http://www.tucantravel.com/tour/overview/coast-to-coast/sce/?wl=
Other links:
http://chromlea.trap17.com/spanish/insults.html (Essential Spanish swear words)
http://www.leyendas.gob.pe/
http://www.museolarco.org/iindex.html
http://www.pachacamac.net/
http://www.museoroperu.com.pe/museum.html
http://www.circuitomagicodelagua.com.pe/
The Kama Sutra of Ancient Peru
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Lima, Peru
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