Into the North!

As promised, a brief description of my four day trip into the north.  (Yes, it was mysterious for me as it sounds - I had never been north of Lima before this trip.)

Mount Huascaran!

To get to Chavin de Huantar, you have to take a bus from Lima to Huaraz and then a bus/car from Huaraz to Chavin.  The bus ride takes eight hours, and the car ride can be three hours.  In other words, Chavin is in the middle of nowhere.  After arriving in Huaraz at 6am, I jumped into a car headed for Chavin.  While the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, with gorgeous views of Mount Huascaran, the tallest mountain in Peru, the road was anything but smooth.

The main facade of the principal temple of Chavin.

After 1.5 hours (or the last half of the car ride) of traveling over crumbling pavement and sharp curves, the town of Chavin was a welcome sight.  The site of Chavin de Huantar is a 10-15 minute walk from the center of the town.  It dates to the first millenia BCE and has numerous galleries and canals that served both a practical and ceremonial purpose; there is evidence that the sound of rushing water was timed with certain parts of the ceremonies that were practiced at this temple complex.  The galleries are tunnels that make up a labyrinth and are big enough for people to travel through.  At the end (or middle?) of some of these galleries, there are chambers in which ceramics and other fine artifacts were found.  Needless to say, walking through these galleries that were open to tourists was surreal.  After spending three days exploring this site and the town (including attending a mass on Sunday), I traveled back to Huaraz.

One of the galleries that I walked through.  Without the artificial light, I could not see a thing. This is seriously the most Indiana Jones-esque thing that I have seen in Peru.

The unfinished cathedral in the central part of
Huaraz.  It is as beautiful as it looks.

I had seven hours to explore Huaraz before catching my bus back to Lima.  A friend of a friend showed me around, but it was definitely not enough time.  We hiked up to a site dating to the 16th or 17th century that hasn't been studied before (future PhD project perhaps?) and saw a beautiful park with a Greek amphitheater outside of the city.  Of course, we hung out in the Plaza de Armas and feasted on pollo a la brasa (baked chicken with fries and a salad).

Manjar Blanco - one of the most sugary,
unhealthy yet best tasting spreads in existence.

Since Peruvian gastronomy is one of the loves of my life, I am obligated to include an incredibly brief description of food in the North.  Huaraz and its surrounding areas is famous for its manjar blanco, a sweet white milky spread.  Not only did they have the best manjar blanco in all of Peru, but they had different flavors (lucuma, orange, among others).  Naturally, I had to contribute to the local economy by purchasing some of this stuff.

MK, enough about the North.  Blog post about my first week in Cusco coming soon...

Lima!

I am finally in Peru!  (OK, this entry was written earlier, but I am finally getting to posting it now.)  Before going to Cuzco to start my research, I will be staying in Lima for a couple of days getting used to Spanish and meeting with friends and others here AND watching a couple of movies in a local movie theater.  Included in the next couple of days is a trip to Chavin de Huantar, a ceremonial site dating back to the first millennia BCE, and Huaraz, home of the nearby Mt. Huascaran, the tallest and probably one of the most beautiful mountains in Peru.

The official logo of the Dallas Restaurant
in San Borja, Lima.

In Lima, I spend most of my time in Miraflores, one of many (43) districts in Lima and one of the safest.  Everything here is very far apart - Miraflores is like its own city with its own mayor and central square.  Imagine coordinating 40-some people from different political parties and you can see why it is so difficult for Lima as a whole to agree on policies and actions.  The city has also definitely been influenced by Western culture; chains such as Starbucks, Pinkberry and the ever ubiquitous McDonalds are here along with a plethora of bookstores, Western music, and English speakers.  (There is even a restaurant in a local part of Lima called "Dallas," and it serves ribs, steak, and other American influenced types of meat.  It is funny to see what other people think about American food.)

Cerviche!

Of course, Lima is one of the centers of Peruvian gastronomy.  I have already had lomo saltado (beef, potatoes, tomatoes, onions and rice in a sweet brown sauce) and am planning on having cerviche (raw fish bathed in lemon sauce) before very long.




Off to the Archaeology Museum and then an evening with Captain America at Larcomar!  Post about Chavin/Huaraz/Cusco coming soon...

A blurry picture of Larcomar - an incredibly touristy (but safe) shopping mall overlooking the ocean.  The big deal?  It has a movie theater!