Lima Peru

July 2nd, 2009
Mariel Hotel, Mira Flores District.

A friend of mine called Lima the “Armpit of South America”. A bit harsh? Let me explain. Lima is a desert city on the Pacific Coast. It never rains. The mist from the ocean and the pollution of the city form a layer of cloud cover that almost never leaves. Sunshine - almost never. So the Armpit of South America, certainly not an indication of the people, architecture or the food, but rather just a general gloom that exists because of the lack of sun. I’m also told that Lima has the dubious distinction of highest per capita suicides in all of South America. I don’t know? To me, it’s on the coast. Show me the ocean and I’m happy.

Lima is home to 9 million people, a third of the population of Peru, a giant sprawling maze. The buildings are a mixture of modern and colonial Spanish architecture. The traffic and the thought of actually driving in this city - brutal. And yet, there seems to be this casual calm atmosphere. Consider our bus driver, who thinks nothing of taking a right hand turn from the centre lane (3 lanes in). No stress, on his part anyway, I along with the other non locals in the bus were a wee bit anxious. To him it’s just another day in traffic. Even the other drivers in cars all around us were totally calm. This must happen all the time. And there you have the general feel of the city, laid back, casual. Man, if I drove like that back in Vancouver there would be major fallout.

A Small tour of the city:

First stop, Parkue de Amor, “Lovers Park “situated on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the park is dedicated to the old Peruvian custom of courting in public gardens. Lovers Park has a statue of a “kissing couple” by sculptor Victor Delfin. If I lived in Lima I would come here to hang out, look at the phenomenal views of the ocean, sit on the Guadi inspired mosaic benches, and take in the atmosphere. It’s a nice place except, that really, it’s a tourist trap. Bus after bus pull up, tourist stream out, walk around the small park, take pictures of the “kissing couple” and the mosaic benches, look at the pacific and then get back into their buses and drive away, just to make room for the next bus. I know, I was one of those tourists. Still, a very nice place.
Plaza Major

This is the spot where Lima was founded. Currently the oldest feature in the plaza is the bronze fountain in the centre dating to 1651. At one end of the Plaza is the “Palacio de Gabierro” the president’s palace. Someone important lives there, I can tell, by the military presence.

Kitty corner to the presidents’ palace is the Palcio Arzdsispal, (great Moorish styled carved balconies) home of the Archbishop of Lima. Nice to see church and state are separated by at least a road.

A few blocks from the Palaza Major is the Church and Convent of San Francisco. I’ve visited a ton of churches in my travels. It’s almost always the same thing, over the top design and decoration, overt decadence. They really tend to go for the wow factor and back in the day guess who had all the money? This place had a lot of that as well but it also had some truly unique and interesting things:

I loved the Guinea Pig Last Supper painting by Marcos Zapata, 1656. (sorry I couldn't sneak a picture).This is a take on the Da Vinci Last Supper with a few local alterations. Inca cups on the table for Chicha (Inca corn beer) and for the main course; a cuy chatactado (roast guinea pig – the local delicacy). Also for dinner, papaya and hot peppers. The original last supper painting, you may remember, is a portrait of Jesus and the apostles sitting at a long table. Here, Marcos has added a few people. It seems that in order to curry favour with the church, to make sure you gain access to heaven, it was advisable to fund religious works such as this. However, since I’m funding the thing, I might as well be in it as well - right? Hey Marcos, my left side is my good side. Priceless.

The Catacombs. Under the church there are mazes of interconnecting Catacombs. Used as a cemetery during colonial times it is unknown how many people have actually been buried down here. Somebody, well probably a few people, tried to count and that’s why the majority of bones are separated a stacked. Femurs, tibias, skulls all neatly pilled high. The best estimate so far is 70 000 corpses lay buried here. Check out the artistic design on the round sinkhole, 60 meters deep. How’s that for the wow factor.

The Covenant Library dating from the 17th century, houses 20 000 rare books from the 15th to 18th century. This place was gorgeous. (Sorry I could not sneak a photo). This library makes me think though. Yes, I want a beautiful place for all of my books, but you know what? I think I’ll go out a burn all the Inca ones. Yup, that makes sense.

The food in Lima is world renowned especially the seafood.
The best part of traveling for me is often the local cuisine. The problem on tours like the one I was on is that you never know if you are going somewhere good or somewhere were the guide gets a kickback. The answer to this question, although not answered today, was none the less all good.
Lunch: Las Tegas.
Just a small local restaurant serving fresh local food. I love that.

Cebiche de Pescado (Fish ceviche): Phenomenal. Looking back, I don’t think I had a bad Cebiche anywhere in Peru and I ordered it anytime I saw it on the menu.
Chupe de Camarones, river shellfish in a deep seafood broth. Totally great.
Check out a review of Las Tegas on the Fodors website:

www.fodors.com/world/south-america/peru/lima/review-144193.html

Dinner: Café Café at Marina del Larco
This place feels like a chain restaurant. Maybe it was the local or the Tony Romas and Hooters in the same complex. No worries though the food quality was far from chain restaurant crap. The food here, or at least what I had, was outstanding and worthy of any high end seafood restaurant I’ve visited.

Grilled Octopus with roasted potatoes. The octopus was a bit chewy, but the sauce made up for it, heat from chili’s and a citrus twang.
Mixed Seafood Cebiche: Like I mentioned before, the Cebiche rocks, great heat from the Chilis and just enough acid from the citrus. I can never replicate Cebiche at home. It never has the depth of flavor I’ve experienced here.
I purchased a Peruvian cookbook: The Art of Peruvian Cuisine. This is an outstanding cookbook.
Visit: http://www.artperucuisine.com/ all the recipes are online.

How to make a pisco sour, (from the Art of Peruvian Cuisine), we drank a ton of these :

Ingredients:
To make the sugar syrup:
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 tbsp water
For the drink:
• 7 ½ oz (225 ml) Pisco
• 2 ½ oz (75 ml) key lime juice
• 1 egg white
• Ice
To serve:
Angostura Bitters


Preparation
To prepare the sugar syrup:
Put ½ cup of sugar in a small saucepan with 3 tablespoons of water, just enough to moisten the sugar. Bring the mixture to a slow boil and while stirring, cook until all the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

To make the sour:
Pour the key lime juice and the Pisco into the warm sugar syrup and stir thoroughly to blend the ingredients completely. Pour the mix into a blender jar and add just enough ice to double the volume of liquid in the glass. Blend on high for an additional 30 seconds to crush the ice. Add one egg white and blend on high for one minute. Transfer to a pitcher and serve immediately in either old-fashioned or white wine glasses. Traditionally, a drop of Angostura Bitters is placed in the middle of the foam in each glass.

The essential mix is 3 parts Pisco to 1 part key lime juice and 1 part sugar syrup: you can use this proportion to increase the recipe to produce any number of drinks.

Tip: A fourth measure of pisco may be added for a stronger drink. If you like, the “edge” can be taken off this stronger version by adding a touch more sugar syrup.

That’s it from Lima. Off to Cuzco.