Yes, that's right. It is winter in August here in Lima, Peru. The sky here is white all day long, and it is chilly enough that I need a jacket and real shoes and socks. I have not dealt with that in a long time. But it is kind of fun. And the cool temperatures are easier to deal with when hiking or just walking around the city proper. One does not get all hot and sweaty.
Lima is HUGE. It reminds me of LA the way it is spread out. We are staying in the Miraflores area, which is like the La Jolla of Lima. I wanted to stay in the city center, but we were dissuaded and this is actually ok. The room is comfortable, and since we are only here for three days, it really doesn't matter. It is more expensive here than in Ecuador, but still affordable.
I like Peru. The people are friendly, and the food is to die for. We have not had even an average meal since getting here. I have eaten goat and I must tell everyone it is absolutely delicious. If you like lamb, you will love goat. I thought it would be stronger or gamier than lamb, but it has a milder flavor. I have no idea why it is not more popular in the US. I am going to miss it when I can't have it anymore. The ceviche here is also amazing, with some different twists to it. I love the stuff, so finding new varieties is a treat. They also serve something called lomo saltado, which I thought must have something to do with salted meat, but again, not so. Lomo saltado is sort of like stir fried beef and vegetables, served over rice. (By the way, they eat tons of rice down here. It is served at almost every meal.) It was wonderful - although I saw what I thought was a slice of red bell pepper and popped the whole thing in my mouth. It was not a bell - it was a really hot pepper. My mouth was on fire! I have never seen a pepper so big be so hot. Usually (at least in my obviously limited experience) the bigger the pepper the milder the taste. Mike loved it.
We are here in Peru because we are on our way to Bolivia. We spent a couple days in Guayaquil, Ecuador, then caught a bus out of Ecuador to a place called Chiclayo. It is not really a tourist spot, but there were a few interesting things to see, one of which was a section of the public market dedicated to herbalists, and to the supernatural. It is apparently not unusual for Peruvians of all walks of life to consult with curanderas or shamans. They sold all sorts of strange things, and one of my favorite parts of it was the scent - it smelled like herbs. Although I love those public markets, they usually do not smell very good. This was a real change. They sell this cactus called San Pedro cactus which is related to mescaline. I have not tried it. It is legal down here. The shamans use and administer it.
They have several archeological sites right here close by and we have been to see them. While in some ways not as impressive at first blush as Tikal or some of the big Maya sites, they are still incredible in that everything is so well preserved. The Lima area is the driest capital but for Cairo. They measure their rainfall here in millimeters per year, not inches. The structures are all built from adobe bricks, and everything buried within pretty well stays there intact unless and until it is uncovered. The pottery, metal work, and textiles are amazingly intact. The quality of the weaving was astounding. These are earlier cultures than the Inca, who did not come into their own until the 1400s, about one hundred years before the Spanish arrived. But what they accomplished in that short time is nothing short of miraculous. I could go on and on, and Mike took a ton of pictures that at some point I will include here. But right now they are still in the camera.
Tonight at nine pm we are catching a bus for a city here in Peru called Arequipa. We are stopping there primarily to break up the bus ride (it would be over 30 hours from here to La Paz) but it sounds like a great place in itself. We will spend a few days there, then head on. It takes a while to get from Ecuador to Bolivia unless one wants to fly, and it is pretty expensive, almost as expensive as it was to fly to the states from Ecuador. It seems as though flights within a country are reasonable, but as soon as a border is crossed it gets expensive. And since we spend way more than we had anticipated spending when we were in the US, we need to be a little more conservative with our money than we might usually be. So buses it is, and it is not really too bad. They have these buses called cama buses, which have seats that fold down flat so you can sleep. It makes for a nice overnight trip - they give you a little dinner (usually chicken and rice) and play movies. After a couple of hours, it is nice to curl up and go to sleep. Since it is nighttime, you can't see out the windows anyway, so it is perfect. Even in the semi-cama buses, which only fold down 160 degrees instead of 180 degrees, it is quite comfortable for sleeping. They give you blankets and pillows. The movies they play tend to be action movies, which are pretty easy to follow even when they are dubbed into Spanish. Sometimes we get lucky and they are also subtitled in English. We are talking about American movies made in English, dubbed into Spanish, after which English subtitles were added. But I have noticed one thing about watching movies in Spanish with English subtitles. I find it very distracting and I have a hard time concentrating on one or the other. I find myself listening to the Spanish and then trying to read the English. It is hard to explain. I never have that problem if the movies are in French or some other language, just Spanish. Interesting.
They have these dogs down here - special dogs, called Peruvian Hairless. They are bigger than the hairless dogs in Mexico, and have been here for thousands of years. They are sort of odd looking, but seem to have very outgoing personalities. They are considered sort of a national treasure here, and the people are very proud of them. I personally think they are wonderful and would not mind having one. But then again I love all dogs, even the funny looking ones.
So it is fun to be on the road. We have three backpacks - two big ones and a day pack. It is easy to carry all out stuff, and there is room for anything I might want to buy. I am trying to restrain myself until I get to Bolivia, or else I will spend all of my allotted turista money too early in the trip. It is hard, though. They sell beautiful things made from llama and alpaca wool, and it is just too bad I have no place to wear stuff like that. It is too warm all the places I go, and we have no intention of sailing to cold places. Call me a weather wimp, so be it.
All and all I am doing fine, as is Mike. I feel so lucky to be seeing all these amazing things and meeting wonderful people, both the local people and visitors from all over the world. We met two guys from Finland. There were two men at breakfast this morning who sounded like they were speaking Russian. There are lots of people from France and Germany. Everyone is friendly and there is a good sense of camaraderie among all the travelers, which makes for many interesting conversations.
So far we have not been in the high mountains, so I have yet to see what altitude does to me. I think the highest I have been for any length of time was about 10,000 feet, when I went skiing in the Tahoe area. I did not notice anything then, but we will be going much higher than that (La Paz, Bolivia is the highest capital in the world at about 3660 meters, which is just over 12,000 feet, I think) and all the guide books talk about the importance of taking it slow and acclimating before becoming too active. So we shall see. I plan to follow all the guidelines so I can enjoy things, and not get laid low by altitude sickness symptoms, like headaches. All I really remember that was different being higher up in Tahoe was finding myself getting winded a lot faster than at sea level. And I am no athlete, ask anyone that knows me. One good thing about the trip so far - I am losing the weight I put on while in the US. I can never move back there or I will be as big as a house before I know it.
On that note, I will end today's entry.
"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow." (Anita Desai)
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