An amazing evening in Peru, 2004
A repeat visit to Peru
There wasn’t a mad dash to the airport, it was simply a taxi ride that got me to the airport in Tumbes on time to catch my flight. As we took off, heading for Lima, I looked down on the landscape passing below and recalled my very first trip to Peru well over a decade earlier. The first time ever in Peru was a wonderful experience. We spent only a few hours in Lima on arrival before being whisked away to the north of Lima, to various archaeological sites that were being opened up to tourism. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism had put together a 5-day visit to some of the most important sites in the north of the country, including Trujillo, Huaraz and Cajamarca. In Trujillo, the visit included a tour of Chan Chan, the world’s largest pre-hispanic mud-brick citadel, while in Cajamarca, our first destination, we toured the Ventanillas de Otuzco. This site, approximately 10 kilometres from the city, was a pre-Inca cemetery, with hundreds of galleries and niches carved into the rocks.
Niches carved into rocks, used initially for burial, later for grain storage.
As the Inca empire gained ascendancy, it is believed that they cleared out the niches and used them as grain storerooms. Having visited this area of the country, I decided to move straight to Lima, and focus on exploring the regions south of Lima, as I had missed out on a trip to Macchu Pichu all those years ago.
Chan Chan, the largest city of the pre-Columbian era in South America, now an archaeological site near Trujillo, Peru.
It’s expensive in Lima
Lima has changed. The first time arriving in this city, the airport had been an obstacle course, and it took me some time to sort out how I was going to meet my contact. Like all airports in the world, touts were everywhere, and they all offered various rates to get me from the airport to whatever area of the city I wanted. Luckily, on that occasion, I was being met at the airport. On this second occasion, however, I had to make my own way into the city. I had been given the address of my host in Lima, and been warned to take a registered taxi from a service counter in the airport. It was then I found out just how expensive the country had become. Of all the countries in South America, Peru must be the most expensive after Brazil. Where other capital cities had cost between 8 to 15 dollars for cab rides, the same distance in Lima easily cost twice as much. It was already late in the afternoon when I arrived and we made our way along the ocean drive to the Miraflores area of the city. This area of the city is by far the most affluent, and has the best views of the Pacific ocean. Arriving at my host’s home, I took a few moments to settle in before venturing out again for dinner and a quick jaunt to a nearby shopping mall and the necessary sim card purchase.
One of the many beautiful artifacts of pre-Columbian Peru.
Joining a walking tour…
As in several other major cities in South America, Lima has a bus rapid transit system that runs for approximately 32 kilometres right through the centre of the city, and I made full use of the system the during the day. As I was leaving home in the morning, I consulted my map, and selected a place for breakfast. Quietly seated at a small table, enjoying my morning coffee, I designed my day’s plan. Exploration of the old city centre. It would require buying a bus ticket, then trying to figure out how and where to get on the bus, and then where to get off. Having finished my breakfast, I decided to walk the first part of the journey, taking me along some major streets and toward a few parks. I noticed a sign at the entrance to one park promoting a walking tour of the city that seemed promising, and would also solve the problem of having to figure out how to use the bus system, as joining this group would mean having a guide who would lead the way. I was joined by several other travelers, and our group soon swelled to 8. An enthusiastic guide showed up, and we set off on our way to the bus station and the old city centre.
A wall mural at a train-station-turned-library in Lima, Peru.
and being fortified by Pisco
For the next two and a half hours we meandered through streets and alleys, our attention being directed to this or that building and informed of its particular history and importance. Unfortunately, the tour did not take us inside any of these places, and in a way I felt that perhaps a little more detail and a visit to one or two places might have been a good addition to the tour. As it was, after two or three buildings, we would be led to a market area, where we would be left to spend 15 to 20 minutes to ‘learn’ about Peruvian art and handicrafts. When the time was up, we would go to a different area, see a few more buildings, then end up in a different artisan market. The last market area where we stopped was home to a shop that sold its own brand of Pisco, a traditional brandy brewed in Peru and Chile. Peruvian Pisco can officially only be brewed in five designated regions of the country, and up to 35% of Peru’s Pisco is exported to Chile – it really is the best Pisco in the world, and the flavours and mixes we were allowed to taste after our long tour on foot were well worth the arduous trek through the historic part of the city. Feeling a little less pain after five or six shots or more….. the tour ended, and we were left to our own devices and plans. For me that meant a return to several of the buildings we had passed by and a closer look at their interiors and the treasures or ghastly objects they sheltered.
