Lima, Peru - Day 2

Today Matt and I went to the big (by South American standards) Museo Larco, one of the largest collections of pre Colombian art, which houses over 45,000 Peruvian pottery and clay figures. As such the majority of the pictures in today’s photo album will be the really unique pottery and vases shaped into different animals and peoples.

Lima, Peru - Day 2

The museum also has an erotic section of pottery. This album of photos may not be appropriate for young children.

Lima, Peru - Erotic Musuem - Day 2

Lima, Peru - Day 1

Today we arrived in Lima after an early morning flight from Cusco. We dropped our bags off and set off to explore the old section of town. Our first stop was Covento y Museo de San Francisco, a spectacular colonial area church with a catacomb connecting other churches below grounds and housing large open burial grounds with hundreds of skeletons. The church also has a world renowned library with ancient manuscripts and wonderful leather bound books in transcribed in Latin.

We made a brief pit stop for some Anticuchos de Corazon or beef hearts on a skewer which were surprisingly tender and amazingly flavorful. I’ve converted another traveler to the wonders of organ meats!

After a brief stop at the inquisition museum where there were numerous artifacts of torture, we walked over to the Lima Chinatown. Apparently there is a large Chinese population in Lima. Actually there are Chinese people everywhere that I went in South America. Very few places did not have one or two Chifas (Chinese restaurants) providing some variety to the local cuisine. Chifa is a play on the mandarin chi fan or eat rice / meal. The best way that I can describe them as fusion restaurants taking the Chinese style of cooking and incorporating local ingredients, but in reality they are about as close to authentic Chinese food as your local crappy take out place.

Although Lima had the largest Chinatown outside of possibly Sao Paulo, Brazil’s Japan / Korea / Chinatown, I didn’t really notice a lot of Chinese people there. There were blocks and blocks of restaurants and stores run by Chinese, but the customers were all Peruvians and no Chinese were in sight eating in the restaurants or shopping in the stores. Perhaps this is a Chinatown akin to the one in San Francisco where tourists and non Asians flock to while local Asians look for more authentic and non-touristic establishments.

Lima, Peru - Day 1

Cusco, Peru - Day 7

Today is our last day in Cusco and we would be sad to leave. We’ve spent over a week in Cusco, the sacred valley, and Machu Picchu and have enjoyed our time in this cultural utopia. We decided to embark on a trip to the weekly Sunday market in Pisaq, a city about an hour away from Cusco. I managed to persuade Matt to take the local bus which costs less than a dollar each way. Not so much to save money as a tax ride would be less than 15 dollars, but more so to get an authentic experience, to travel as locals travel, and to experience the trials and tribulations of a crowded bus with people standing and holding overloaded packages. Exposing oneself to local customs whether it be food, modes of transportation, or living accommodations builds a broader perspective and forces one outside their comfort zone; in my opinion, two of the main benefits of traveling.

I’m glad that Matt is game to try most new things, so he readily agreed to take on this mini challenge. We found the bus station, a empty parking lot in the middle of a rather nondescript block, with a line of people looping around the lot and out to the street. Vendors selling food and drinks, and locals toting screaming children and large packages all added to the atmosphere. After waiting for about half an hour we were the first couple to get on the next bus and we secured a seat for the ride to Pisaq. Others were not as lucky as they crowded the aisles and loading area in the front of the bus. I half expected the bus driver to pull a ladder out for people to climb up to the roof as they do in other third world countries.

The Pisaq Sunday market is a quite an assorted vivid overload of colors, smells, sounds and unique sights. Multi-colored corn ranging from the typical yellow to the exotic brown and purple flanked exotic fruits and rainbow-like color assortment of spices and dyes.

One of the more interesting items was little penthouses built into the building’s facade which housed multiple guinea pigs in a plethora of rooms. Next to the housing complex was an oven which resembled a brick oven pizza oven in the states. It was round with a small hole in the front and a long wooden pole with a broad flat end used to transport foods in and out of the oven. On top of a big metal pan that was just recently pulled out were a couple roasted guinea pigs hanging out.

Cusco, Peru - Day 7

Cusco, Peru - Day 6

So one thing you realize after traveling for an extended period of time is that there are quite a number of other travelers who travel on the same gringo route. The pooling of travelers seems to grow exponentially when you visit the unique monolithic tourist attractions. Since Cusco and Machu Picchu are some of the undoubted highlights of South America, over the week period, we ran into three sets of Brazilian and Argentinean friends that I had met previously in Argentina and Chile. I even ran into middle aged French couple that was on my Solar de Uyuni tour in Bolivia over a month prior.

But the group that we easily ran into the most is this mix group of Argentineans from Cordoba. I met them on a tour of Tiwanaka in Bolivia. After parting ways I didn’t expect to run into them again. But on a boat trip to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca about 4 hours from La Paz, Marcus tapped me on the shoulder. On a tour in Cusco of the outlining temples and structures, Matt and I ran into the two girls in the market place. Then in Machu Picchu, then on top of Waynu Picchu, then at a restaurant, and finally watching a 12 piece traveling band perform in the Cusco town square. It’s a small world after all.

Cusco, Peru - Day 6