Travel Journal
PERU: A World Within Worlds
Part I
May 2021
By Sandra Bertrand
If I lived three hundred years, I could not expect to find greater surprises and mysteries to the human spirit than those I found in Peru.
From Colonial urban splendors to the Pacific’s marine preserves, from dry coastal deserts with their mummified remains blowing in the winds to the pampas with their gigantic alien-like Nazca drawings carved into the sands, we stood awe-struck. From the remarkable dynasties of the Incas and their lost city of Machu Picchu -- more far-reaching at its apex than the Romans -- to the 16,000-foot plateau in the Andes where we hungered for air, watching condors sail from nearby rocks into the blue ether, our senses were dazzled beyond belief. And we promised each other to never forget what we had seen.
Lima
In July of 2013, leaving from JFK to Ft. Lauderdale with a transfer flight of five hours, we arrived in Lima’s winter season. (My partner Joanne’s teaching schedule makes mid-summer our most practical option for extended trips.)
From Colonial urban splendors to the Pacific’s marine preserves, from dry coastal deserts with their mummified remains blowing in the winds to the pampas with their gigantic alien-like Nazca drawings carved into the sands, we stood awe-struck. From the remarkable dynasties of the Incas and their lost city of Machu Picchu -- more far-reaching at its apex than the Romans -- to the 16,000-foot plateau in the Andes where we hungered for air, watching condors sail from nearby rocks into the blue ether, our senses were dazzled beyond belief. And we promised each other to never forget what we had seen.
Lima
In July of 2013, leaving from JFK to Ft. Lauderdale with a transfer flight of five hours, we arrived in Lima’s winter season. (My partner Joanne’s teaching schedule makes mid-summer our most practical option for extended trips.)
|
|
Lima is a sprawling, largely reconstructed metropolis due to a devastating earthquake in 1746. Founded as La Ciudad de los Reyes (The City of Kings) in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro, it is primarily distinguished in current times by its Limeño cuisine - a fusion of spicy creole, both European and Afro-influenced, with a decidedly Asian slant. Bleary-eyed from our late-night check-in at a local B&B but resolute as ever, we were anxious to embark on our first day’s enterprise: art and food - in other words, life’s essentials.
It was an out of character sunny morning for fog-laden Lima as we headed straight for Museo-Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera. Senor Larco amassed the world’s largest collection of pre-Columbian art from the Moche dynasty (200-700 A.D.). Housed in an 18th century mansion, its grounds clustered with bougainvillea at every turn, the collection makes for a jaw-dropping experience. Gold and silver funerary ensembles with their jeweled face masks and the Paracas mantle is a weaving of exquisite beauty, but the standout feature is the Sala Erotica, a separately housed collection of Moche porno ceramics, kinky enough to be off-limits for the younger set. |
|
The Café del Museo provided our first taste of Peruvian fine dining: Ceviche with octopus and seabass, sweet potato and corn (the large kernels are in a class by themselves), preceded by a dish of lightly salted corn nuts teased our tastebuds. Grilled duck on a bed of plantains for Joanne with a lamb dish for me, smothered in mushrooms and lentils, served as our main course, finished off with a Suspiro Limeño dessert, a concoction of caramel custard with a meringue topping.
Realizing it may be some time before haute cuisine was first on our bucket list, we added two more dining adventures to rival our luncheon. That night we headed for Huaca Pucilana in the trendy Miraflores district, a beautiful restaurant that borders the ruins of a 5th century sacred pyramid of the same name. While we waited for our table, we settled into a small corner bar for our first Pisco sour, the national cocktail of Peru. A grape brandy distilled in bodegas along the southern coastline, it didn’t disappoint! While we happily sipped, white shirted waiters lit a row of braziers lining the outside terrace, and we were all enmeshed in a golden glow. Paiche, an Amazon river fish featured, completed the evening. |
Huaca Pucilana
|
Dessert at Amor a Mar
|
The next afternoon Peter, our congenial Dutch B&B host, took us wine sampling, where we tried a South American vintage he recommended. A bit of chitchat with the proprietor followed, until we were ready to move on. The National Archaeological Museum is a treasure of artifacts from the Nasca, Paracas, Moche, and Chimu cultures, represented here in all their unabashed glory. Dodging a band of schoolchildren in the labyrinth hallways, we encountered the monolithic Tello Obelisk, a granite column of ancient fanged gods and other hieroglyphics to daze any museum visitor.
A quick taxi ride landed us in the Barranca neighborhood for a late open-air lunch at Amor a Mar, nestled in a former Colonial mansion. There’s an upscale Biergarten feel to the whole affair, with Lima’s “ladies who lunch” in attendance. Grilled scallops in a “drunken butter sauce” (a concoction of butter, dark beer, chilis and lime) was the standout. Served in the shell, with a tiny pink tail peering out, they were as succulent as one could ever hope for. A complimentary dessert tray with a chocolate truffle, one macaroon and a cream wafer completed this adventure. It was time for a walk! Winding our way past a popcorn vendor and a street sweeper with a carload of brooms for sale, we reached the mirador, a stretch of bluffs with great sea views. Cactus, morning glories, and a dogwalker with a spotted terrier in a Superman coat in tow lined our path. A chilly breeze blew at our heels as if to say it was time to say “hasta luego,” to Lima until the next time. |
Islas Ballestas and Nazca
|
The maritime sanctuary Reserva Nacional de Paracas comprises Peru’s largest section of protected coastline. With its Ballesta Islands compared to Ecuador’s Galapagos, we knew this was the perfect starting point. At sunrise, we boarded the Cruz del Sol bus for Paracas. A little over three hours south, we were prepared for a bit of a jostle. Instead, a sweetly efficient stewardess presented us with coffee, a cheese and salami sandwich, and a tasty nectarine. We settled into our assigned seats with enough legroom for a Knicks basketball star.
After a layover in the nearby village of Pisco and a hasty dinner of causa, mashed potatoes stuffed with chicken, we headed back to our hotel, serenaded to sleep by boomboxes, cats in heat, and firecrackers wafting up from the plaza below. But all was quickly forgotten the next morning when we boarded an open boat for the Islas. About thirty of us were agog with the cormorants, seals, and a confetti-like conflagration of birds in our wake. Luis, our jovial guide, was willing to take us as close to the slippery rocks as our hearts desired, feasting our spray-filled eyes on the endangered Humboldt penguins flocking to the rock ledges to greet us. There are no human visitors allowed, only a guano collector every decade to clean the bird droppings coating the surface. |
|
Grave Site Cemeterio de Chauchilla
|
Back on dry land, we headed for The Museo de Sitio Julio C. Tello, a small repository for the Paracas culture. Experts at mummifying their dead, there are several skulls on display that show evidence of cranial deformation and brain surgery by drilling a series of holes in patient skulls. A few miles down the road, the Paracas Necropolis, is the oldest burial site (100 B.C to 300 A.D.) in the region.
Roaming the desert floor, we peered into one open grave after another, some mummies in their infancy, others curled in customary fetal position, exiting this world as they entered it. A scrap of cloth from one of the open crypts blew like an errant tumbleweed across the expanse. We felt a shiver run down our spines. How can such a site, after numerous grave robbers pillaged the rich contents, still be intact? Easy: One of the most bone-dry landscapes on the planet, it rains only 20 inches a year. |
|
That same climate has allowed the Nazca lines to survive. Carved into the landscape between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D., these geoglyphs covering almost 361 square miles remain one of the earth’s most intriguing mysteries. One popular theory is that since many of the drawings can only be seen by means of aviation, they were engineered by extraterrestrials as landing strips for their visits. If you prefer, the early populace were amateur astrologers, finding answers in the stars. Avoiding the dips and dives of a small aircraft, we opted for a view of three of the figures - four-fingered and five-fingered hands, lizard, and tree - accessible from an observation tower beside the Pan-American Highway. It isn’t the climate alone that explains the survival of the lines. Maria Reiche (1903-1998), a German-born mathematician, made the mapping and protection of these drawings her life’s work. We visited the spartan home of this “Dame of the Desert” that same afternoon, fascinated to discover this remarkable woman’s works. |
|
A brief night’s stay in Nazca at a local B&B allowed for a visit to the local library, which was hosting an astronomy lecture that night with complimentary peeks at Jupiter through the instructor’s telescope. I think I was more fixated on the clear night skies overhead, wondering about Nazca’s long-ago visitors.
Arequipa and Colca Canyon
Aptly named the White City, Arequipa is constructed almost entirely of sillar (porous volcanic stone). Ringed by three volcanoes - El Misti, Chachani and Pichu Pichu - it is the jewel of southern Peru. The sillar at its core was its saving grace, when it was hit by an 8.1 earthquake in 2001.
Arequipa and Colca Canyon
Aptly named the White City, Arequipa is constructed almost entirely of sillar (porous volcanic stone). Ringed by three volcanoes - El Misti, Chachani and Pichu Pichu - it is the jewel of southern Peru. The sillar at its core was its saving grace, when it was hit by an 8.1 earthquake in 2001.
|
|
Its loveliest attraction is the Convento de Santa Catalina, a monastery founded in 1579 by the Dominicans and a painter’s dream. Labyrinth plant-lined passageways of sunburnt orange, cobalt blue and brick red beckon one ever further into its interiors. Emerging into the daylight, we headed for the Plaza de Armas, a grandiose throwback to Old Spain. Its Catedral, grillwork and fountains attract a wealth of bench sitters, from a wizened elder with a manual typewriter in his lap to a trio of young girls lapping happily at their ice cream cones. If the romantic surroundings didn’t beckon us to dinner at Chicha, our rumbling stomachs surely did. Housed in a lavish Colonial home, it is one more of Gaston Acurio’s inspired creations. His reputation is firmly secured in Peru’s echelon of great chefs, and his spicy stuffed peppers made us fans. |
|
Early the following morning, Elfar, our Colca Valley tour guide, arrived at our hostel not a minute late. With his large eyes, black framed glasses and jet-black hair, he looked ready to sell the most expensive car in Arequipa. A consummate actor but a true phony, I had no doubt he believed his babble. His acuity was our good fortune as we careened around every bend of the canyon, eyes and ears rapt. “There, at ten o’clock, the vicuna, and at one o’clock over there, a suspension bridge!” he shouted as we looked over that green expanse of terraced gardens and dizzying valleys at every turn. The increasing altitude was a factor we had largely ignored. Now, as we pulled into the courtyard of La Casa de Mama Yacchi, the country inn Elfar had booked for our small band of adventurers, we felt a little off balance, our leg muscles soft as jelly. (At the highest point in our drive, we stared into the bottomless canyons from a height of 16,110 feet.) |
|
|
|
We woke from our afternoon nap just in time to enjoy a rustic buffet, then once again retreat to our quarters. Tea from the Coca leaves, a harmless cocaine derivative available in every hotel, stimulates the nerves and oxygen tanks are often available from the concierge. (After an unpleasant experience on an earlier jaunt chewing the leaves like a seasoned native, I strongly recommend the tea to start your day.) A little after 7:30 p.m., we were shaken in our bed by a decided temblor. As a California native familiar to such tremors, I stayed in the room, while Joanne quickly dressed and headed for the front lobby, just in time to see a resident llama pushing its head against the glass of the front door. The night receptionist advised this was the second quake she’d experienced that day, which managed to unsettle a curious British gent who paced back and forth in total disbelief. |
|
Not to be deterred, we headed out at dawn for the condor viewing. Magnificent birds, with a wingspan up to 11 feet, they gracefully soared over the gorge before us. So immense they cannot lift off from the ground, they rely on their cliff perches, catching the wind in search of prey. While we were mesmerized at the sight, a stream of boulders was unleashed from the nearby rock walls, freshly unhinged from last night’s quake.
When we returned to the autobus, giant rocks were blocking our roadway and our driver made a quick turnaround, navigating us through a smoke-filled tunnel. With hearts in our throats, there was little to do but dig our nails into the seatback and pray we would see a blue sky at the tunnel’s end. |
Condor in Flight (Colca Valley)
|
In Part II, we will journey to Ollantaytambo, the last Inca stronghold, the bustling metropolis of Cusco, and the nearby fabled lost city of Machu Picchu, among other sites.
|
LIMA Places of Interest LIMA Museo Arqueologico Rafael Larco Herrera Avenida Bolivar 1515, Pueblo Libre 01/461-1312 Café del Museo 01/462-4757 Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Anthropologia e Historia Plaza Bolivar s/n, Pueblo Libre 01/463-5070 Restaurant Huaca Pucilana General Borgono cdra 8 s/n (at Tarapaca) 01/445-4402 Amor a Mar Garcia y Garcia 175, Barranca 01/651-1111 |
PISCO & NAZCA Places of Interest Reserva Nacional de Paracas Y Islas Ballestas Zarcillo Connections Jr. Callao 137 056/536-636 Museo de Sitio Julio C. Tello Central Pisco Puerto San Martin Km 27, Paracas 056/620-436 Alegria Tours Jr. Lima 168 Nazca 056/523-431 |
AREQUIPA & COLCA VALLEY Places of Interest Arequipa Convento de Santa Catalina Santa Catalina 301 054/608-282 Chicha Santa Catalina 210 (courtyard) 054/287-360 Colca Valley La Casa de Mama Yacchi (Right Bank) 054/241-206 |
Sandra Bertrand is an award-winning playwright and painter. She is Chief Art Critic for Highbrow Magazine and a contributing writer for GALO Magazine. Sandra was Sanctuary's Featured Artist in May 2019 and is also Sanctuary's columnist for "Travel Journal."
