Sunday, April 5, 2009
My house in Lima
Saturday (in Cusco)
In the morning we took a group tour of the Catedral on the Plaza de Armas. It is one of the richest churches in South America, and with its intricate carvings and paintings, abundant gold-leaf, and an alter with several hundred pounds of silver on it, I can see why. Many of the painting adorning the walls of the cathedral were painted by indigenous people, and it was interesting seeing the local influences in the artwork; for instance, a Last Supper painting featured local fruit and cuy del horno (guinea pig dish) as the main dishes and Judas was actually painted in the likeness of Francisco Pizarro (the Spanish conquistador who defeated the Incans) holding a bag of gold.
We took another tour with Edi at the Iglesia de San Domingo. It was formerly the Incan Temple of the Sun because the walls were completely plated with gold. Surprisingly, a lot of the original Incan structure was kept intact within the church and it gave great insight into the religious life of the Incan culture. I was once again impressed by the Incan architecture as we examined their piping system – they could carved pipes in the middle of the stonework, including perfectly curved elbows that was smaller at one end to pressurize the water.
Before the flight back to Lima, I sat in the Plaza de los Hijos, which was frequented by many locals, before exploring a nearby local marketplace stocked with every sort of raw food, lunch stall, and souvenir stand. I was overwhelmed with smells (some better than others), sights, and sounds, as I witnessed women chopping up raw meats (even a whole pig’s head that seemed to lazily look back at me with its lolling tongue hanging out) and measuring grains. Others were preparing huge portions of food for locals crowded around their counters for lunch. Life is at such a different pace here, it’s hard to find any sort of clock or person wearing a watch (which almost made me late for our bus to the airport).
Later that night back in Lima, Lucia (she works for ISA but is my age) invited us to go to the VIP section of a discoteca to celebrate her brother’s birthday. It was a blast, with a great mix of music, balloons being throwing everywhere, and a large dancing cuy (?!?).
Sunday
At night, we met at Parque Kennedy in Miraflores. It’s a popular place for people to meet up and has a beautiful church in front of a huge park. Since today was Palm Sunday, there were a lot of people selling intricate creations out of palm leaves. From the park, we left for a city tour on a Mirabus Double Decker sight-seeing bus, driving throughout Miraflores (past Larco Mar and the Parque del Amor), San Isidrio (where I live), and el Centro (city center, where the main government buildings and historic churches are). We stopped at the Magic Fountains, which was this huge park filled with different high-tech water fountains, it was absolutely gorgeous. We also stopped at the historic and grand Hotel Bolívar in one of the main plazas in the city center for some refreshments. I saw so many stunningly gorgeous buildings and places tonight, Lima definitely deserves a better reputation for all its beauty in my opinion.
Looking forward to the next two months in this city! Coli
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