Around the World in 106 Days with

Ray & Claire!!

Part 31– Lima

In brown here, you see Peru, and also on the west coast of South

America we find Ecuador in blue.

Peru has a population of around 30 million and the capital of Lima has around 8 million inhabitants.

To set the scene, here is an aerial view of the central part of Lima and the suburb called

Miraflores. As you can see, most of the city is situated on a plateau overlooking the Pacific

Ocean. Due to the shallow waters, Lima never had a

city port and Callao (where we docked) is about a 30 minute drive from the City when traffic is

clear. Callao is the main port area and so all ships

with passengers and goods for Lima use Callao.

The American highway runs along the waterfront and as this country is situated in the “Pacific Ring of Fire” (see earlier presentation)

there is a real threat of tsunamis washing onto the shores. No wonder then that the city is

elevated over the ocean and many of the slip roads leading from the

waterfront up to higher ground are actually marked as “Emergency

Tsunami Roads”

This is the view from our balcony when we docked at Callao – we have no idea what they were exporting but suspect that it was either Alpaca wool or

grain

And on the dockside – plenty of

stalls were there selling

local goods

Including a “Pratt-Hat” for you know who

An Alpaca Cape A leather handbag

A Grouco Hat .....and an Australian!

....but enough of this – its time for a tour of the

Lima for you two!

There used to be some trains for transporting goods from Ship to Shore and vice verca – but these are no longer used and this is the last remaining one

(located just inside the Port gates)

Callao was founded by the Spanish colonialists in 1537 and Lima in 1535. Both cities were severely damaged by the earthquake in 1746. There was another earthquake in 1940, which

destroyed most of Lima, but Callao was spared from the worst at that time. However, even if there is more old architecture to be seen in Callao, we were advised not to go to this City as it has a problem of a very high crime rate and on previous calls here, a number of

Fred Olsen passengers coming back to the ship reporting that they had been robbed or assaulted

(Scribes Note shades of Trinidad!)

So, we didn't stop there – and made our way to Lima itself!

As mentioned previously, the 1940 earthquake pretty much flattened all of Lima and most of the architecture we saw in the town is post 1940 – except for the main square

One thing that we immediately noticed, however, was that all the roofs of the houses were flat and appeared to be used as addition open-air rooms! We discovered that the reason for this was that Lima has not had rain for more

than 30 years. It does however have the very occasional “two minute shower” which totals less than 3 inches per year. The daily humidity level is

is around 80% rising to 100% during the summer

Lima is situated on the foothills of the Andes and they get their water from the main rivers that flow from these hills and from nearby springs

In order to keep pigeons off their flat roofs, the people put empty glass bottles around the roof and

on the protuberances to reflect the sun and the moon and thereby

frighten them away

As you can see it all looks very clean and tidy

We were warned to beware of pickpockets and muggers around

the Port area, but as we travelled from the Port in coaches and were always

accompanied by a guide, this didn't bother us

The local security was very evident however, with armed

Police at virtually every corner – in addition to those on motor cycles and army/police cars

....and the traffic (which

was horrendous) was tightly

controlled

Lima was originally built on farmland when there were very few cars.

Nowadays thousands of second-hand

Japanese cars are being imported BUT the roads have not been

widened and so consequently

during the rush hour, the traffic is

almost at a standstill (shades

of Trinidad!)

This is a pepper tree

A bag lady

The busses are run by private individuals and they are both

spasmodic and apparently “interesting”!

This is the main cemetery in Lima

The bodies are cremated and their ashes are stored in containers and then put in one of these chambers

The Chinese do a similar thing in Hong Kong and they take out the bones of

their ancestors and turn and polish them once a year

We are unsure whether they do the same thing in Lima but one wonders (if

they do) how they get to their ancestor in

the middle of this little lot?!

The Peruvians are, apparently, inveterate gamblers and here are

hundreds of casinos spread around Lima

and its outskirts

The Peruvians also seem to love Chinese

food as well as the normal Spanish

cuisine.

The Chinese Restaurants are called

“Chifas”. This word was used by the

immigrant Chinese to call their children in for a meal and the locals thought that

Chifa meant food and the name stuck

There are about 30 Universities in Lima and this one is devoted to Art

The City was very clean compared to some of

the other countries that we had visited and

there were teams of cleaners and gardeners

This is a private museum which has a wonderful collection of Inca gold and AD1500 Spanish artefacts – as well as

an enormous collection of armour, swords, knives , pistols and rifles plus

all sorts of decorated trappings for horses

One thing that surprised us was that the Inca gold was not solid 18 or 22ct gold, but a mixture of alloys. This was because the Incas were primarily

interested in having lots of shiny “clothing” , jewellery and signs of wealth. This thoroughly confused the Spanish Conquistadors - and, unfortunately, from an archaeological point of view – they melted down these alloys so as to extract the gold and in so doing, they destroyed the Inca works of art

We were not permitted to take any photographs inside the Museum (which was probably

fortunate as otherwise a certain cameraperson

would have added a few hundred more shots to the thousands that we gave already collected

this trip!) but by devious means, we were able to get our hands on a few

photographs to give you an idea.Scribes Note

Probably a Google for “Museo Oro del Peru” or simply “Oro

del Peru” or even “Miguel Mujica Gallo” might produce some useful information and

photos?

We are unable to check this out owing to the slowness of the Ships internet connection

via Satellite

Miguel Mujica Gallo was a Peruvian diplomat who in his lifetime amassed one of the biggest collections of Inca gold and pre-Hispanic gold artefacts in the world

The thirst for gold was one of the driving forces behind the Spanish

colonization of Peru and most of the gold was

melted down and a very big part of the Peruvian heritage was lost as a

result.......

.....thus, the pieces that remain are all the more valuable and important,

today

As well as the gold artefacts there are also fabrics and some pottery

As you can just make out, this is a Shanty Town built on the side of a hill on

the outskirts of

Lima

There were monuments and statues all over the place to heroes of the Revolution and

past Peruvian glories

We were told that even though these cliffs looked a bit dangerous, because of the lack of

rain there was no chance of them disintegrating

A lot of land reclamation was going on alongside the sea and rock was being extracted from the

nearby cliffs

Nevertheless (and even though we

were told the houses built on

top of these cliffs had enormous concrete piles sunk into the

ground to support them) we wouldn't want to live in one like the one shown

here thank you very much!

Some of Claire’s “famou

s” Sunset shots

Scribes Note

With her new

found expertise as a

watercolour

painter – she has

even threaten

ed to paint

this one for the 2012

Christmas Card!!

Or perhaps it was this one?

Lima by night

Casa Garcia Alvarado in Miraflores

Come on

Raymond I

need to eat

This evening we had a dinner at the Casa

Garcia Alvarado.

This is an original family house that is

located in the Miraflores

residential district and which has now been turned into charitable trust.

It still retains all the furniture and fittings dating back to the

origins of the house and has been left

exactly as it would have looked in 1990

when the present owner moved to a

nearby cottage

(as it was in 1912)

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Lima’s upper class began to move their homes away from downtown Lima to Miraflores which was one of the first residential districts to be

established at that time

This house was remodelled in 1932 which gave it its present look. It was fashioned after Lima's Presidential Palace which was also restored at the same time. The house has a large inside

garden surrounded by a Spanish-style corridor and is decorated with tiles brought from Seville, Spain

We had free access to all of the rooms and were allowed to wander around and to as many pictures as we liked

(which, as usual, was far tooooooo many!)

Some people really go crackers when they get near a bar!

I’m watching

you Ray!!

It’s Ok, Mrs

Wembley thinks

that this is only the one

It was a lovely setting for a lovely Peruvian dinner

Hang on a minute Claire – I will see if I can get you on the

City Tour that is just going

out....................

Yulp!

(Scribes Note –

Australian for “Yes”)

I have two spare seats for you

During their

colonisation of Peru,

the Spaniards built some

lovely houses in

LIma

This particular square had five identical blue

houses for a merchan’s five

children

...and in the Plaza Majoy were some even better examples(Which is listed by UNESCO list as a prime example of Spanish colonial

architecture)

The Presidential Palace

The Archbishop’s Palace

The Cathedral

The Organ

The Archbishop's Throne

Lima is very prone to earthquakes and so they have had to build their

houses in a different way.

Instead of stone on stone (or brick on brick) they have

used good foundations with a layer of brick (or stone)

then bamboo (which apparently doesn't rot!?)

and plaster .

This is then followed by another layer of stone and

bamboo and then the remainder of the building is

built on top of that

It certainly seems to have worked as the Cathedral

(from where this picture was taken) has not suffered any damage for earthquake in

its total lifetime

This was originally Lima’s main railway goods station

The station has now moved to the City’s

outskirts and the building is used as Lima’s local Library

The main street leading down to the

Monastery

The windows have been dressed for Holy Week

The Monastery

...and it’s associated

Church

The catacombs of the monastery were something else, however!There where hundreds skeletons in burial chambers and pits where the poor peoples bodies

were entombed. In one of them (as you can see above) the sculls and bones had been laid out

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the San Francisco Monastery but on the walls of one of the many courtyards were thousands of decorated tiles (that had been donated by a Spanish Princess in 1200 and something) and dozens of very ancient and very large pictures that had been painted of

“Saintly Scenes”

Our last stop was at Miraflores

This was the site of an ancient

“Pyramid”

Miraflores is the seafront area of Lima that has the cleanest streets and the best views

Itis the safest area of the City and it has a lot of shops, parks, restaurants and hotels.

Victor Delfin is the artist behind the sculpture called “El Beso” in the “Park of Love”.

This sculpture is supposed to depict the artist and one of his wives (although he has cleverly disguised the features of the female so that no one

can tell who he is actually kissing – clever man!

“Why are you

looking at me like

that?”

The area does resemble the Guell park in Barcelona, so the inspiration is certainly from Gaudi although I do not think he had any further involvement in the project.

This is certainly a surfers paradise and where a lot of Ozzies come to...but the water is freezing for most of the year due to the

Humboldt current

..and there she is, waiting for us as usual.

So now, once more, Time to Buckle Up for our next Port of call in three days time which

will be Manta in Ecuador

But during these sea days, there will be the

usual non stop activities (Choir,

Painting, Dancing, Quoits etc (not

forgetting Bingo!) to enjoy as well as a local Dance Troup and our latest batch of on-board entertainers

Don't worry

Ray – I’m going to get it all on film for you!