Lima for the second time: still full of surprises

We happened to have a few days of layover in Lima and the luck to enjoy the hospitality of Vane and her family again. We have been invited to the fiesta de la negraria, which is a celebration held yearly, and the main spectacular is the men dancing around ringing a bell with one hand, wearing devil-like black masks. Of course, we didn’t miss the opportunity to participate a bit:)

We have also visited the grandiose fountain park of Lima (Circuito magico del agua) and we didn’t stay dry at all:)

Culinary speaking we have tried the best anticucho (cow-heart) of the country in the Panchita restaurant, the best ceviche in the “El Rey” cevicheria in the market, and the best Lomo saltado in Hikari. We have also discovered the cremolada, which is a mix of different fruits and ice, something like the acai in Brazil, but more variety.

The last night we also made a huge Peruvian-Hungarian-French dinner, with causa, crepes, tres leches, goulash and more crepes. All drained down with home made chicha morada and Chilean wine. Needless to say we were already full after the appetizers:)

Oh, and by the way, I had my hair cut:)

Ica: home of the pisco and sandboarding

So after Cuzco we had a few days to spend in Lima and around. We decided to take a 4 hour bus ride to the south to land in the city of Ica. We managed to score a last minute couch (thanks Ricardo) in a little room where the walls were all decorated by previous couchsurfers, so we left our mark too:)

Next day we headed for Huacca China, which is famous as being a little oasis in the middle of a desert, where one can do sandbuggy ride and sandboarding combined. And so did we:)

To cool off, we took a dip in the pool of one of the many hostels of the oasis, then headed for some pisco distillery visit. A funny Dutch guy was trying to sell us the visit at inflated prices, but as soon as we sat in a taxi by ourselves, the prices got 50% cheaper:)

Careful! Pisco is strong!:)

Cuzco: capital of the Incas

Cuzco (also spelled as Cusco, Qusqu or Qosqo) is the entry point for millions of tourists per year to discover the ruins of Machu Picchu. As such, the city center is pretty much Gringolandia: a number of bars, restaurants, hotels, massage parlors, jewellery shops and discotecas cater for the wealthy Americans or western Europeans. The shops are so tuned to the visitors of the ruins, that you can even get a polar filter for your camera in almost every second shop. Funnily enough, in Lima a polar filter is impossible to find, people haven't even heard of it!

Despite the mass number of tourists, Cuzco managed to keep a lot of its charm. When the Spanish conquistadors entered the city, they did a good job in destroying all the rich heritage of the Incas, whenever they could not, they were erecting buildings on top of it. Thus there are a number of buildings in the city which are built on the original Inca walls: stones fit so close together that not even a sheet of paper can pass through between them. A skill of masonry that is unfortunately never been learnt by the Spanish, thus lost forever.

Just a little bit outside the city center, near the San Pedro station one can also face the real Cuzco, as the locals experience it: dirty but vivid market life, people in traditional dresses offering sweets, fruits, or different kind of meat (strictly without refrigeration accompanied by happy flies), some shops specialized in selling cuy (guinee pig, a local delicacy), others are offering a daily menu for as little as 2 soles (around 50 eurocents).
Most other restaurants in the city are also offering 3-course menus starting from 8 soles (2 euros). Pollo a la plancha and lomo saltado is the “default” in every menu, and our all time favorite lucuma and maracuya juices are also easy to find.

Apart from the Inca walls in the city, there are other things to see nearby. On the hill above, lay the ruins of Sacsayhuaman with its gigantic stone walls, the purpose of which we know little.

Walking around in Cuzco one can also observe a number of places with Hebrew sings. Since then we have learnt that South America is full of travellers from Israel. After their military service they all fly out and apparently this continent is attracting them, a lot. At the moment of writing this post, I am sitting in a hostel in Ushuaia, and there are around 15 people around me talking in Hebrew. A phenomenon one have to get used to.

After all not only we visited Machu Picchu from here, but we also did some volunteering work in Cuzco. We have written earlier about this experience. Even though finally we left one day later than we planned (thanks to the great service of StarPeru), we felt like it is a place we could have stayed more. Thumbs up for Cuzco.

 

Music: Flor de Huaraz y Gringo Karl

This is so bad/funny that I just couldn’t help putting it on the blog:) This is 10 times worse than Speak the Hungarian rapper:)

Lima: culinary heaven

Our first impression of Lima was very good. Probably because we arrived at night:) The streets looked cleaner, the roads better, the air less polluted than in Bogota or Santa Marta, and hell yeah, they have street names, not just numbers! And what the heck, the street names are indicated on the corners of the streets? Amazing!:)

The very first night we got introduced to Cusquena and pisco sour, which was a very pleasant encounter after the tasteless beers of Colombia. The following days we got all through the local delicacies. Ceviche has nothing to do with the Colombian ceviche. It has many forms, but the most traditional one is slices of raw fish with onion and lemon and some kind of spicy sauce. Lomo saltado is a traditional beef dish, served all around Peru. Aji de gallina is chicken with some delicious sauce. Lucuma is a fruit only present in Peru and the juice and ice cream made of it are fantastic. Chicha morada is the traditional drink of the Inkas, it is made of dark corn and it is not alcoholic as one would expect. Inca kola is the local favorite of all ages. It is so popular that when Coca Cola was unable to compete with it, it decided to buy into the company instead. Other dishes include causa, sopa criolla, sopa de zapallo, etc. All pleasant dishes, for really low prices. The number of Chinese immigrants also brought and developed their own dishes, that’s what is called “chifa” all around Peru. The local burger chain is called Bembo’s. The locals love it but it is not that great.

The first few days we visited a number of pre-inka ruins and learnt that Lima is not only Miraflores and Barranco. We saw a number of shantytowns and apparent poverty in contrast of some rich neighborhoods.

The driving in Lima and in whole Peru is crazier than that we experienced in Colombia. Any driver is ready to sound his horn at any time. In fact, sounding your horn is a warning, meaning “I am coming, don’t even dare to cut in front of me”. The lanes painted on the pavement are purely guidelines, most of the time the locals judge there is space enough for 3 cars on a two-lane street. In peak traffic times getting from point A to point B in the city can be tricky and painfully long. I will never forget all the tricks my taxi driver was applying in order to get me to my destination: he had a normal horn in the center of the steering wheel, plus an additional one on top of the gear shift. Nevertheless he must have been realized at some point that in the noise of a dozen or more horns, he needs something unique, so around his neck he was wearing a kind of whistle that the local police is using, and he was not hesitating to set his lungs free, while leaning out the window with almost full body. In the midst of all this sound cavalcade and anxiety, the relaxing tunes of Chopin’s Waltz in A minor piano play was gently oozing from the radio.
The bus system is similar to that of Colombia, except that the buses are slightly better. The driving habits of the bus drivers are not different from that of the car drivers though. In the race to pick up passengers first, they can easily crash into one another.

The hospitality of Peruvian people is amazing, we have met great people in Lima, Cuzco and Ica. Some funny facts that we observed or found out later about the people:

• In Peru the median age of the population is 26 years
• Nearly half of the population is English teacher or at some point of his/her career has been an English teacher. The other half is working in tourism….some of them are also English teachers though:)
• In Peru all girls are single:)