South America Part 5

Days 11–13 (June 6–8) | Lima

6/6

We got up at around 3 am for our early flight, which was around 6:30. After getting ready quickly, we took a cab to the La Paz airport. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but this was our last time seeing the enormous amount of political graffiti we had seen in Bolivia. Having neglected to talk about that until now, I will offer a brief description.

Most of the graffiti we saw in Bolivia focused around the contentious election of Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of the country. Everywhere we saw the word “Si” in public places, indicating support for the leftist president. Much of the time, the word “No” could be seen nearby, which was sometimes countered by turning it into an “Evo.” The sheer magnitude of these graffiti wars was enormous, and very interesting to us.

Anyway, we eventually made it to the airport, where we quickly got through security. The most difficult part was the narcotics search, where the Officers opened our luggage. We sleepily waited for our flight, and eventually boarded the plane. If my memory serves me correctly, we all fell asleep immediately on that flight.

The sun was up by the time we landed in Lima. We took a cab to our hostel, which was called Kaclla: the Healing Dog Hostel. It was named after the kaclla breed of hairless Peruvian dogs. The best part was that the hostel actually had a dog named Pisco, a big hairless beast with mostly black skin. I was taken aback by Pisco’s appearance at first, but he was very friendly. He liked to jump up and put his paws on my arm so that he could chew on my flannel shirt.

Our room was not yet ready, so we left our things at the hostel and went to the first thing on our list to see: an archaeological site within walking distance from the hostel. Unfortunately, we got lost trying to find it, and had to turn back to search for food, as we were all very hungry.

However, we proved to be out of luck again: it was before noon, and none of the restaurants were open for lunch. We ended up going to a cafe that had some sandwiches and very good coffee, which I tried.

After this modest meal, we tried again to find the archaeological site, which was called Huaca Pucllana. We found it this time, spotting a massive pyramid made of billions of adobe bricks that rose above the surrounding area. This was one part of the larger site, and we joined a tour that had just started.

Our guide told us about the temple complex that had existed at this site, and about the various peoples that had used it over the centuries. Some engaged in human sacrifice; others sacrificed frogs to pray for rain. There were examples of local flora and fauna (like the lucuma fruit and guinea pigs) that were part of history in Peru as well. The main pyramid was indeed made of billions of adobe bricks hand-made by the indigenous people, and had once been painted completely yellow, though it was now a sandy color.

After exploring this site, we took a cab to the colonial center of Lima, an area of churches, squares, and European-style buildings. One church in particular was very interesting. We got a tour of the church, first going through the beautiful above-ground component. The best part, however, were the catacombs beneath the church, which we also got to see. We saw the bones of hundreds of people out of the approximately 25,000 that had been buried there over the church’s 300-year history as a burial ground. Many of the bones had been arranged by archaeologists into patterns, like in a circular pit where femurs radiated out from a pile of skulls in the middle.

To finish our exploration for the day, we took a cab to the Larco Museum, a gorgeously well-curated museum with many indigenous artifacts. We went through the exhibit on indigenous cultures first, which was extraordinary. We were also amazed by the massive collection of pottery in another area of the museum. There were several rooms with shelves upon shelves of different styles of pottery from various points in Peru’s long history.

After this, it was time for dinner. Vikas went back to the hotel to rest, while the rest of us went to a place called Punto Azul. It was a delicious meal, and a great introduction to Peruvian cuisine. I had a duck dish that I very much enjoyed, and the four of us split three tasty deserts at the end. There were also some dried, salted corn kernels we had at the beginning of the meal, which made for a delicious snack. We went to bed right after getting back. We had another very early start the next morning.

6/7

We woke up in time to catch a cab at around 3 am, which took us to a bus terminal. There, we transferred to a bus that would be taking us south along the coast to Paracas. We slept soundly on the long drive, helped by the fully reclining seats of the bus.

At Paracas, we got into a car that drove us to the sea. We ate a quick breakfast and then embarked on a small boat with some other tourists. The boat moved quickly, rising up and slamming down as it went over the waves. As we moved past a peninsula, our guide pointed out the shape of a large candelabra dug into a sandy hillside. Its origins are unknown, but it was very interesting. The boat sped over the waves once again, and we eventually arrived at our destination: a cluster of islands near the coast.

These islands, known as the Ballestra Islands, are home to probably millions of birds. There were huge pelicans, boobies, comorants, and even some penguins. The rocks of the islands were covered in guano, which was collected every now and then and used in fertilizer, making the birds economically valuable. We also saw some sea lions lounging on rocks close to the water. They were very regal as they soaked up the warm sun.

Once the boat got back to shore, our next stop was an airport in Paracas. Here, we would be boarding a plane to take us over the Nazca Lines. It was a very small airport, but we still had to go through some small security. Our guide explained how people had created the Nazca lines by moving rocks in the desert to reveal the light dust underneath, creating enormous images of animals.

We boarded a 12-person Cessna plane. It took us a few thousand feet into the air, and we could see the dry land stretching inland. We went this way, flying over a landscape of desert and mountains. After less than an hour in the air, we were over the Nazca area. The pilots explained that we were about to see the outline of the first example of the lines in the desert, a whale. The plane pitched steeply to the side and dropped abruptly in altitude to get a better view.

This continued for a while. The continual pitching and turning of the plane was a little hard on the stomach, and several people on the plane had pretty bad motion sickness. I managed to keep down my breakfast and got pictures of all the lines we saw. There were hummingbirds, a heron, a dog, an “astronaut,” and others making 12 in total. The views from the plane were truly stunning.

Once the plane landed, we were brought in 2 cars to an area along the coast. It almost never rained here and the landscape seemed to be completely lifeless. Our guide explained that the area used to be sea floor, and had been raised above the water. In the distance we could see some red mountains, which had been formed by volcanic activity.

After this, we went to eat lunch at a restaurant by the sea. I had some delicious fish, which was prepared with a garlic sauce. Our guide took us to some cliffs near the restaurant that overlooked a beach with red sand. The cliffs were the same yellow color as the desert from before lunch, while the red sand was from the volcanic rock we had seen in the desert mountains.

After this, we had a long bus ride back to Lima. I played a few games on the bus’ entertainment system, and then watched a movie called “No Escape,” in which Owen Wilson had to get his family out of a Southeast Asian country in the midst of a violent anti-American revolution.

When we finally made it back to the hostel, Melissa had to leave to catch a flight home for her brother’s graduation. This left the four guys in the group in Lima. We realized that we had forgotten to boon a hostel for that night, and fortunately managed to get a room from the same place for another night, which also meant more quality time with Pisco the dog.

The four of us decided to go to a Peruvian-Italian fusion place called Rigoletto. I had a pesto pasta with alpaca meat. Jimmy ordered guinea pig, which I also tasted. I also had a dark Cusqueña beer, which is a kind of local beer from Cuzco. I also tried a pisco sour, a popular cocktail that uses pisco, a hard alcohol made in Peru. The friendly dog at the hostel was named after the drink.

We went to bed that night exhausted after two nights of waking up in the middle of the night. We decided to sleep in now that Melissa was gone. While she planned excellent things to do, the pace of adventure had worn us out. The four of us slept very soundly that night.

6/8

We woke up later in the morning than we had during quite possibly the whole of our travels, and helped ourselves to the complementary breakfast from the hostel. This breakfast came in a small burlap bag, and had some cereal and bread. There was also yogurt and spreads available in the kitchen, as well as oranges for making juice.

We checked out, stored our luggage, and then went on a walk around the waterfront of Miraflores, the neighborhood in which we were staying. There was a lovely park overlooking the Pacific that extended quite far along the coast. It was very well-maintained, with palm trees, flowers, and sculptures everywhere. It was at the top of some cliffs, below which were a coastal highway, a rocky beach, and the sea. There were some surfers out in the ocean. We walked a ways along the coast, and then turned back to the hostel to get our bags.

From there, we took a cab to the airport, and quickly got through security. We realized only after doing so that most of the restaurant options were located before security, limiting us to eating quickly at a cafe, where I got a sandwich. We then caught our plane to Arequipa.

Since Melissa would not be present for Arequipa, it had fallen to me to do the planning. I had booked a downhill biking tour, but we were otherwise going to be spontaneous for the next leg of our adventure.

The plane landed in the Arequipa after flying close to the mountains that surrounded the city. We got a cab to our next hostel, the Honey House Hostel. The owner was a sweet woman who got us quickly checked into our 4-bed room. We were all hungry by this point, so we Went out into the town to do some exploration and get food.

Arequipa has a relatively small historic center, which we were very close to. We walked by the main square, which was bordered on one side by a beautiful cathedral that was lit up as night fell. We continued to a street that comprised a major commercial section of the city.

Our target was a place called Chifa Mandarin. It had become clear to us in Lima that Chifa was a Peruvian style of Chinese food, and we wanted to see if it was any good (especially Jimmy). We found the restaurant and proceeded to have a very mediocre, though generously portioned, meal of what was very similar to American Chinese food.

Thus filled, we went back to the hostel. We decided to book a tour for our third day in Arequipa to the Colca Canyon. Having done that, we went to bed for another night of restful sleep.