Peru - Days 1 and 2 (Lima and Cusco)
Aug. 5th, 2018 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninianeAnyway, just returned from a very quick trip to Peru! I was able to see Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu (very fast, obviously!), which was awesome since...Peru! I rather want to go back with more time sometime in the future to see the Nazca lines and Lake Titicaca. (Although this obviously will be saved for sometime in the future.) But I would highly recommend the country. The food is delicious (supposedly Lima has some of the best food in the world - I could believe it!), the people are friendly, and the scenery is spectacular!
Anyhow, I started by getting my complementary pisco sour at the hotel. (These are tiny, BTW! Most were large, though.) Pisco is a grape brandy and a pisco sour is just...brandy with sour mix (usually very tart) and some egg white whipped on the top that incorporated the alcohol and sour. They were pretty tasty! (And some were entirely whipped up, which was fun...it was kind of like eating a sour-sweet alcoholic meringue.) Peruvians also liked mixing pisco with ginger beer and can drink it straight. (On my last day, I bought a bottle at a fancy grocery store where the woman in the liquor department very sternly told me NOT to mix it with anything as this was GOOD pisco.)
My parents, brother, and sister-in-law (along with me!) outside the church.
The next day, I headed out with my family for a super fast tour of Lima. We went to the main plaza first and admired the gorgeous colonial architecture. The main church (the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco) was awe inspiring, with intricately carved wooden ceilings, rich decorations (including a monstrance made out of pure gold and studded with gems, vestments embroidered with gold and silver thread and studded with huge emeralds, etc.), and catacombs holding lots and lots of skills and thigh bones. (Most of the rest had disintegrated.)
I wish that I could have gotten more pictures, but they were prohibited. :( The tour guide was fun, though. We had one very bubbly woman who at one time asked me my religion (I said Catholic...I'm not observant, but I guess it's as close as anything else) and she gave this sad bit about how she *wished* she could share more about religion, but people found it too preachy or whatever. A young monk also followed our group along, explaining the tour in Spanish, which was fun.
The main plaza.
By the time we'd finished the tour, most of the downtown was being cordoned off as it was the day after National Day and the president was coming through. So...I just got a quick picture of the central plaza.
In the afternoon, we headed off to the Larco Museum (Larco being an archaeologist who determined a lot of periods of Peruvian history/settlement). It had a phenomenal amount of gold items as well as so much pottery. It was really cool!
Some gold and turquoise ornaments.
This guy was blinged out.
Human head pot. There were a TON of these and a lot were super lifelike, such as this one.
One of the more "infamous" wings was the one of pornographic pottery which was...explicit to say the least.
It's...art!
She looks...uncomfortable.
Nightmare fuel.
Something to cleanse the nightmares.
And that was day one!
The next day, we flew to Cusco, known for its gorgeous architecture and very high altitude (11,000 ft.)
High altitude means silly advertisements, no? I feel this is *peak* Peru - llamas, coca, and high altitude.
Coca in particular is used to treat altitude sickness (which my brother who is a pharmacist said was "probably somewhat effective"), so we all had coca tea, which is quite pleasant. In tea, it's a mild stimulant, on par with tea. (I never felt any effect from the candies whatsoever.)
Anyway, we got a brief tour around town, which had been built on the old Inca/Quechua (Incas technically are kings so the proper term is Quechua, but w/e) capital.
The old Sun Temple now a monastery because, y'know, it's best to remind people which God won out.
The plaza de armas with the dueling churches. Apparently the Jesuits and Dominicans both built their own church because...yeah, y'know, the two orders don't particularly like each other. The Dominicans won and got their church deemed a cathedral and you just *know* they've never let the Jesuits forget it.
Incidentally, I went into the Dominican church which is *spectacular*. It had a lot of paintings done in the "Cusco style" (including infamous Jesus-eating-guinea-pig-at-last-supper paintings) as well as an alter made of silver (1,250 kgs) and a TON of gold leaf. It's...pretty snazzy.
Once we'd toured around the city proper, we went on a van ride up into the mountains surrounding the city.
The main plaza from above.
Looking down on Cusco. It's made heavily of adobe with tile roofs still, which is kind of amazing. (Amazing in that the adobe doesn't all melt.)
Imperial Inca stone work. This stuff is truly amazing (and all of the main buildings in Cuzco are built on it). It doesn't use mortar as the stones fit together *that well*. They are held together by carvings on the stone that fit together like legos in some pieces, or bars (often of gold and silver) that hold the stones together. It's gorgeous.
More imperial Inca stone work at Sacsayhuaman. It's...really something.
A more modern "wonder" was the White Jesus (he's out of white stone) over looking the city who was a gift from Christian Palestinians who found refuge in Peru after WWII. Next to him were three very well decorated crosses. (I'm assuming to represent the crosses at Calvary?)
There were dazzlingly beautiful mountains all around. So, um, Cusco is well guarded by mountain spirits, I guess? (Or Apus?) It's a very impressive valley, regardless!
Stair cases to nowhere at Qenko. There was a lot of this, including a stair case that was upside down. They were Escher before Escher lived.
Our final stop of the day was at Qenko, probably a site of worship of Pachamama, the ancient Quechua earth goddess. I was pleased to see that she'd been left offerings in a shrine (flowers and fruit). Apparently she's still given offerings from time to time, even though Peruvians are devoutly Catholic. I suppose it helps to cover all your bases...
So lots to see! Amazing history! Gorgeous religious sites! Good food!
But if that isn't enough, well...one woman outside Christo Blanco (white Jesus) knew what tourists *really* wanted and brought along a 4 month old alpaca and a 3 day old lamb...
So, yeah, of *course* I paid her a few soles (maybe the equivalent of a dollar?) to get pictures of them...
I mean...they're both wearing hats. HATS!
...Just look at that face.
It was so tiny it could barely walk!
(Speaking of sheep, alpacas and llamas apparently like it to live waaaay up in the mountains, so most of the non-tourist animals we saw were sheep. According to a weaver, their wool tends to be better, anyway (more durable) and they do better at lower elevations. But, y'know, alpacas...)
The sacred valley, Machu Picchu, and more Lima coming up soon!
Anyhow, I started by getting my complementary pisco sour at the hotel. (These are tiny, BTW! Most were large, though.) Pisco is a grape brandy and a pisco sour is just...brandy with sour mix (usually very tart) and some egg white whipped on the top that incorporated the alcohol and sour. They were pretty tasty! (And some were entirely whipped up, which was fun...it was kind of like eating a sour-sweet alcoholic meringue.) Peruvians also liked mixing pisco with ginger beer and can drink it straight. (On my last day, I bought a bottle at a fancy grocery store where the woman in the liquor department very sternly told me NOT to mix it with anything as this was GOOD pisco.)
My parents, brother, and sister-in-law (along with me!) outside the church.
The next day, I headed out with my family for a super fast tour of Lima. We went to the main plaza first and admired the gorgeous colonial architecture. The main church (the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco) was awe inspiring, with intricately carved wooden ceilings, rich decorations (including a monstrance made out of pure gold and studded with gems, vestments embroidered with gold and silver thread and studded with huge emeralds, etc.), and catacombs holding lots and lots of skills and thigh bones. (Most of the rest had disintegrated.)
I wish that I could have gotten more pictures, but they were prohibited. :( The tour guide was fun, though. We had one very bubbly woman who at one time asked me my religion (I said Catholic...I'm not observant, but I guess it's as close as anything else) and she gave this sad bit about how she *wished* she could share more about religion, but people found it too preachy or whatever. A young monk also followed our group along, explaining the tour in Spanish, which was fun.
The main plaza.
By the time we'd finished the tour, most of the downtown was being cordoned off as it was the day after National Day and the president was coming through. So...I just got a quick picture of the central plaza.
In the afternoon, we headed off to the Larco Museum (Larco being an archaeologist who determined a lot of periods of Peruvian history/settlement). It had a phenomenal amount of gold items as well as so much pottery. It was really cool!
Some gold and turquoise ornaments.
This guy was blinged out.
Human head pot. There were a TON of these and a lot were super lifelike, such as this one.
One of the more "infamous" wings was the one of pornographic pottery which was...explicit to say the least.
It's...art!
She looks...uncomfortable.
Nightmare fuel.
Something to cleanse the nightmares.
And that was day one!
The next day, we flew to Cusco, known for its gorgeous architecture and very high altitude (11,000 ft.)
High altitude means silly advertisements, no? I feel this is *peak* Peru - llamas, coca, and high altitude.
Coca in particular is used to treat altitude sickness (which my brother who is a pharmacist said was "probably somewhat effective"), so we all had coca tea, which is quite pleasant. In tea, it's a mild stimulant, on par with tea. (I never felt any effect from the candies whatsoever.)
Anyway, we got a brief tour around town, which had been built on the old Inca/Quechua (Incas technically are kings so the proper term is Quechua, but w/e) capital.
The old Sun Temple now a monastery because, y'know, it's best to remind people which God won out.
The plaza de armas with the dueling churches. Apparently the Jesuits and Dominicans both built their own church because...yeah, y'know, the two orders don't particularly like each other. The Dominicans won and got their church deemed a cathedral and you just *know* they've never let the Jesuits forget it.
Incidentally, I went into the Dominican church which is *spectacular*. It had a lot of paintings done in the "Cusco style" (including infamous Jesus-eating-guinea-pig-at-last-supper paintings) as well as an alter made of silver (1,250 kgs) and a TON of gold leaf. It's...pretty snazzy.
Once we'd toured around the city proper, we went on a van ride up into the mountains surrounding the city.
The main plaza from above.
Looking down on Cusco. It's made heavily of adobe with tile roofs still, which is kind of amazing. (Amazing in that the adobe doesn't all melt.)
Imperial Inca stone work. This stuff is truly amazing (and all of the main buildings in Cuzco are built on it). It doesn't use mortar as the stones fit together *that well*. They are held together by carvings on the stone that fit together like legos in some pieces, or bars (often of gold and silver) that hold the stones together. It's gorgeous.
More imperial Inca stone work at Sacsayhuaman. It's...really something.
A more modern "wonder" was the White Jesus (he's out of white stone) over looking the city who was a gift from Christian Palestinians who found refuge in Peru after WWII. Next to him were three very well decorated crosses. (I'm assuming to represent the crosses at Calvary?)
There were dazzlingly beautiful mountains all around. So, um, Cusco is well guarded by mountain spirits, I guess? (Or Apus?) It's a very impressive valley, regardless!
Stair cases to nowhere at Qenko. There was a lot of this, including a stair case that was upside down. They were Escher before Escher lived.
Our final stop of the day was at Qenko, probably a site of worship of Pachamama, the ancient Quechua earth goddess. I was pleased to see that she'd been left offerings in a shrine (flowers and fruit). Apparently she's still given offerings from time to time, even though Peruvians are devoutly Catholic. I suppose it helps to cover all your bases...
So lots to see! Amazing history! Gorgeous religious sites! Good food!
But if that isn't enough, well...one woman outside Christo Blanco (white Jesus) knew what tourists *really* wanted and brought along a 4 month old alpaca and a 3 day old lamb...
So, yeah, of *course* I paid her a few soles (maybe the equivalent of a dollar?) to get pictures of them...
I mean...they're both wearing hats. HATS!
...Just look at that face.
It was so tiny it could barely walk!
(Speaking of sheep, alpacas and llamas apparently like it to live waaaay up in the mountains, so most of the non-tourist animals we saw were sheep. According to a weaver, their wool tends to be better, anyway (more durable) and they do better at lower elevations. But, y'know, alpacas...)
The sacred valley, Machu Picchu, and more Lima coming up soon!
