Lima Highlights

"Lima is home for a week. Our rental house [in Miraflores] - is cute. Spacious. An outdoor terrace with grass where doggies can nap. Art deco. Brick and wood surroundings. Paris meets Peru. I think you would dig the place. Lunch (almuerzo), a delicious 2 course menu with soup and entree costs 10 soles ($3.70 USD). The largest chocolate bars the boy has layed his hands on. Beautiful ocean views on a sunny day. Divine! Me gusta Lima."

 

where's Manly?

dessert = alfajore!

 

the love statue

center divider meets gas station

On the Go: Trujillo - Lima, Peru

"April 16, 2012: This year's birthday was anything but uneventful. 6:30 wake call, by 7:30 we hit the road, 9 hrs later, I was the brave lemming behind the wheel to guide us safely into Lima - in 1.5 hrs, I must have over taken 20 buses, myriads of moto taxis, a bulldozer! - and as the landscape went from dramatic desert shanty suburbs to skyscrapers, as the russian cars and kias faded into a steady stream of black tinted bmers, mercedes and audis, we knew that we'd arrived in the ritzy hood of miraflores.

Lima is strangely foggy..."

Chan Chan Part 2: A Feeling

Remember on the prior post, the tour of Chan Chan (a large pre-Colombian ruin from the 15th c in Northern Peru)? Well, without any prior knowledge of the archeological site, I felt some unexplainable mojo while roaming the ruins. I was a little reluctant to share. But here goes, maybe I'm not completely crazy and I'm not the only one out there?

Ever since our travels in Central America and now South America, my senses and intuition have percolated and in some circumstances heightened.  I don’t know what triggers them (hormonal, travel alertness, lack of sleep, all of the above?) and why, dear god, they happen – but it feels like an intense visceral sensation in my body that quickly fades and goes away. Have you ever felt this?

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Walking behind the tour guide (the man all the way in front in fresh mint aqua with hat - btw, he's out of my ear range), through a long passageway, I felt as if I were waddling in water, then the sensation of water filling my lungs.

yours truly in blue, uh oh, picking up something... 

At the end of the hallway, we've arrived at a fresh water lake or well. The guide begins….”they used to perform ceremonies in this lake - throw offerings to the gods, and in some cases, women were sacrificed.”  At this point, my head is bobbing uncontrollably in agreement and amazement. This is the gran huachaque dedicated to water or fertility rituals.

gran huachaque ceremonial lake

As we turned onto another passage way, I felt my stomach being hollowed out then my body being carried.

the path where the mummified chimu king would be carried for worship

The guide continues, “here, every year they would carry out the mummified king for the people to worship.” By now, I'm hugging my black bag so tight, it's as if I'm unable to let go of a treasured blankie.

Perhaps because Chan Chan is so mysterious and because we still don't know so much about it, my wonderment and imagination decided to let loose. In any case, this is definitely a place, I'm glad I had a chance to visit and feel in my lifetime. (Cue X-files music - na Na na Na na Naaaa….)