LIMA - PERU

2nd - 7th Jun 2011

El flago de Peru

Peru, the land of the Incas. Actually that is a bit misleading because the old, pre-colonial, nation in this part of the world were called, and to a degree still are, the Quechua. They spoke Quechuan and their present day decendants are the predominant and proud people in the mountains who still speak Quechuan, wear funny hats, keep llamas, grow potatoes and play flute music. Their word for 'king', when they had one, was 'Inca'. ie Inca Henry V111, you get my drift? The Quechuan nation only gained major power and influence under Inca Pachacutec in 1438, and their empire in what is now Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, plus some of Argentina, Brasil and Chile only lasted about 100 years until 1533 when the greedy Spic tourists arrived, under the banner of Francisco Pizarro, and proceded to conquer the Quechua, vandalise their beautiful buildings and nick all their gold. They didn't need oil then. Typical behaviour for major powers in those days, and maybe even now someplaces? However, due to popular demand, the whole of this ancient, once great, nation tend to be referred to collectively as Incas, so maybe we should stick with that to avoid confusion.

Left: A popular local soft drink. I think it must be an aquired taste for those with a sweet tooth.

I hadn't realised that Lima was such a big sprawling dusty city, enclosed by sea to the south-west and mountains elsewhere, made up of many districts, some smarter than others. It's population is 8 million out of a total Peruvian population of 30 million.
When I arrived the country was in the throws of a Presidential election. This had at least one dire consequence; no alcohol was permitted to be sold or consumed in public for two days before and two days after election day ( 5th June ). How intensly irritating! If I was a Peruvian I would vote for any candidate who promised to do away with this ridiculous anti-social draconian law. I hope the idea doesn't catch on anywhere else ( don't mention it to our nanny politicians in UK for heaven's sake! )


I was well entertained nevertheless, hence a bit of catching up to do with blogs. On wandering Lima my only serious complaints ( apart from the lack of alcohol ) were their lack of good city transport, resulting traffic jams and profusion of rubbish and dirt in the non-residential areas. Actually they have just instituted a fast bus service which links south to north and are building, slowly, a sort of over-head metro system. Maybe the new president will speed things up there and institute a better rubbish collection service.

Right: Plaza de Armas, the main square, surrounded by the Presidential Palace, cathedral ( of course ), government buildings etc. It, and the Plaza St Martin nearby, were very elegant.
 I have discovered that most towns and cities in Peru have a Plaza de Armas. If you don't know where to go just tell the taxi driver to go to the Plaza del Armas.

Left: The main cathedral. There were several more dotted around the city, all very ornate and imposing.

I wonder how many cathedrals there are in Latin America? I can't even begin to guess. In my humble opinion they have rather too many. They definitely outnumber the MacDonald and Starbucks establishments which don't supply decent drink either.

 

Right: The Presidential Palace. They perform a 'changing of the guard' ceremony every day at 12.00pm. I watched this one ( right ). There were a few drawbacks. 1) The whole shebang was semi-concealed from us gawping tourists by heavy railings 2) The music was dirge like and tuneless and the marching 'guard' did a slow and ponderous drill involving silly exaggerated goose-steps. 3) The drill was utterly shambolic ( another sight to bring tears to the eyes of any self-respecting Drill-Sergeant ). 4) We, the small crowd, were held back a long way from the action by aggressive looking riot police! Frankly, my advice would be 'shape up or ship out'!
I walked the streets of the shopping area. I have never seen so many shoe shops in one place. Every other shop sold shoes, it appeared. The remainder sold clothes or, occasionally, jewellry. It would be a close call between which is greatest, the number of cathedrals in Latin America or shoe shops in Lima. Another street, Calle Emancipation, consisted almost entirely of shops selling medical and dental apparatus and associated clothing!... 'Buy this year's GT super-triple-action reclining dental chair with all the latest add-ons plus bespoke dental gown to match...free scalpel included... Weird. The Saville Row of the Peruvian medical profession, no doubt.
I had a good lunch, sans alcohol of course ( the food in Peru is good and much more varied than Central America ), at the renowned Gran Hotel Bolivar in Plaza St Martin. This old hotel is renowned for it's 'Pisco Sour' cocktails which, naturally, due to elections, I wasn't allowed. You will be hearing more about Pisco Sours; brace yourself.

Left: Plenty of time for a few games of tennis at Pepe's Club for retired policemen. We had a marvellous 'ball-boy' who could not have been a day under 70. He knew exactly what to do but took quite a long time doing it! It was a terrific place with good clay courts, swimming pool etc. and an excellent restaurant ( still no alcohol, dammit ). I was introduced to a Peruvian delicacy here called 'ceviche' which is raw white fish marinated in lemon juice plus onions and other spices. We drank Inca Cola.........!

Right: A restaurant by the sea in the smart Miraflores district at which I was entertained, teetotally, by the redoubtable Pepe and his family. This table was occupied by previous Peruvian presidents, except the chap standing up. He is/was a journalist. I am sure you recognise them. The one, bottom left, is now in jail.
I mention the sea-front which is a long one ( maybe 6 miles ) and has some big waves. The weather was pretty grey and dismal while I was there but there were many surfers out. We had a chat with a German lady surfer called Helga. I was told that the current women's surfing champion is Peruvian. If you hadn't read this you would probably never have known that. The weather, as said, was coolish and overcast. This is the winter season ( southern hemisphere ) here and the weather is greatly influenced by the Andes. Up high it is hot and sunny during the day, and over the other side it is, in the Amazon basin, sweltering.

I visited a fascinating museum. It was called the Museo del Oro y Armes del Mundo and had been the private collection of some extremely wealthy Peruvian. It consisted of two themes; Pre-colonial, many gold, artefacts and a vast collection of weapons from all over the world. The weapon collection was so big that, unfortunately, much of it was just stacked up and unlabelled. It would need a building twice the size and much more work to categorise and exhibit properly all the weaponry. Maybe this will be done. Photography was strictly forbidden so I couldn't take all the photos I wanted to due to a pesky security guard who kept appearing at inopportune moments, and glaring at me. I got a few. Above is a pic of an original American Civil War Gatling gun. It looked in remarkably good condition. The pre-colonial artefact exhibits downstairs was OK with plenty of gold dingle-dangles and cobwebby old mummies ( some looked as if they might only just scrape through a Vietnam Airlines pilot's medical ) but I was much more fascinated by the weapons upstairs.

They were from everywhere; Japanese Samurai stuff, European mediaeval armour, Arabian, Indian, American, Chinese, you name it! There was a vast collection of Mexican spurs, the roundels of some were dinner plate sized in diameter with spokes like six-inch stillettos. They would have killed the horse if used anywhere near vigorously! They would most certainly not have been approved by the British Horseracing Authority, or whatever it's called nowadays. Also an enormous quantity of presentation weapons between government and military leaders. The photo, ( above), is of the Walther pistol with a beautifully embossed gold swastika once belonging to Field Marshall Von Runstedt.

Left: Two swordsticks presented to General Juan Velasco by Mao Tse Tung. Useful things, swordsticks.

There were so many interesting and stacked exhibits it would have taken a few days to see them all. Heavens knows where the mysterious private collector kept all this stuff, or how he got hold of most of it for that matter. 

I was taken to the Waterpark near the centre of the city. It was quite fascinating with many very original 'interactive' type features which, if you were brave enough to 'interact' with them, could get you very wet indeed.

They also put on a spectacular and clever liquid Son et Lumiere performance, see bad photo right, and there was also an extraordinary fountain which at times sent a spout of water about 200 feet up! You wouldn't want that sort of pump in your bathrooom.

Left: My host Pepe and family after the girls had got quite wet, or maybe about to.

Off next to Nasca, by bus. The start of my Rock Round Peru tour. Get your maps out.
As I write this a new Peruvian President has, thankfully, been elected and consequently a normal bar service has been resumed countrywide. Hopefully this will result in a normal blog service again. I haven't drunk so little for so long as I can remember. It can't be healthy. Vamos vamos!