A Taste of Peru: Discover Lima, Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu Day 5

Sunday, October 9th, 2022

This morning we met our Road Scholar group leader Victor. There were 18 of us travelers in our group. We already knew Kathy (from Colorado) that we got to know on our Galápagos Island tour with Road Scholar and Roseanna (from Minnesota) that we got to know on our Road Scholar New Zealand/Australia trip. It was great that we could meet up and travel together in Peru. The fourteen others in our group were great and our group got along well.

After our introductions, we had a speaker, Ricardo Bohl Pazos, who was a geographer. His lecture was “An Overview of Peru”. In the region of Lima, there were 50 districts and 50 mayors. Peru has over 300 volcanoes and 4 are active. He was very interesting.

Our next activity was to board a bus for a tour of the city with our local guide Claudia.

We visited a local fish market and walked out on the pier in Chorrillos, which is another district of Lima.

Our tour also stopped at the archaelogical site that we toured yesterday, Hauca Pucllana! Claudia led us through the site but it was a quick overview. We were very glad we took the tour yesterday where we climbed to the top and also visited the entire area. After our quick tour we ate lunch at the restaurant that looks over the site. The Huaca Pucllana Restaurant served us a Pisco Sour, the classic Peruvian cocktail. As an appetizer we had ceviche which was a traditional dish in Peru. The main course was beef tips, fries, and rice. We learned that most Peruvian meals are served with two starches! This was true almost everywhere we ate local food. The dessert was caramel cheesecake but when you must eat gluten free, my dessert was ice cream.

After lunch we rode the bus to the historic downtown area of Lima. We walked to the Plaza de Armas which was Lima’s main square. Off of this square was the presidential palace, the cathedral, the municipal palace and private colonial buildings. This square dates to the 16th century.

We visited the Cathedral of Lima that was on the square. It was a Roman Catholic cathedral and it was built between 1602 and 1797. Francisco Pizarro founded Lima and set aside land for the church. The current cathedral was the third built on this site.

In the late 1800s the remains of Francisco Pizarro were moved to the cathedral and placed in one of the chapels in the church.

We got to visit one of the mansions in the historic area of Lima. The Aliaga family owned this beautiful home since the 16th century! It was the oldest dwelling in the Americas that has been home to the same family for 17 generations! Earthquakes have caused the family to do some rebuilding over the years. This mansion was gorgeous.

The home also had secret passageways.

As we walked around the town, we came across a Picarones stand. Some of our group wanted to try these. They said they were very good. The Picarones looked like doughnuts. The main ingredients were squash and sweet potato. They are fried in oil and served with syrup made from charcaca (an unrefined sugar base).

Sites as we walked through downtown Lima.

Santo Domingo was a Dominican convent with a pink bell tower. It was an historic religious site that we toured. It had a large courtyard that was lined with Baroque paintings and vintage Spanish tiles (from the 17th century). The monastery was well preserved.

The Chapter house was where the friars gathered to solve their problems and choose their authorities. It also was the place where the University of San Marcos which was the first Peruvian university and the oldest university in the Americas! It was founded in 1551.

We also visited the monastery’s library. It contained over 25,000 antique texts.

In the library in a case was a book written on the 6th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death. He was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher who died in 1321! He was best known for La Commedia or The Divine Comedy!

This evening we had dinner at a local restaurant called La Tiendecita Blanca. The bartender demonstrated how to make the Peruvian Pisco Sour which was also served to us!

It was a busy day of seeing Lima.

A Taste of Peru: Discover Lima, Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu Day 4

Saturday, October 8th, 2022

This morning we began our day walking to the Huaca Pucllana. Today we took a tour of the area with our guide Percy.

The tour lasted about an hour and a half. Our guide was very knowledgeable. This temple was built before the Incas. It was a Lima civilization temple, dating from around 500 AD. The clay/mud blocks were placed vertically with space in between because of earthquakes. It was made up of million of these adobe bricks. It once served as an administrative center and a pre-Inca ceremonial site.

We were amazed at the advanced engineering techniques used so long ago! Peru sits on the “Ring of Fire”, an area where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes happen, so tremors occur constantly but many you don’t even notice.

This area was mainly forgotten. You could still see the dirt hill that covered the site before excavation began.

The beginning of restration, investigation, and preservation began in 1981 by Dr. Isabel Flores Espinoza and her team and in 1984 it became a cultural heritage site. The Peruvian government has made the necessary preservation efforts to keep the Huaca intact for years to come! It was now a third of its original size, only 15 acres. Due to the rapid expansion and urbanization of the area in the 1900’s that is why it was much smaller.

Archeologists were still working! Our visit on day 2 showed them busy working. You can look at that post to see the excavations still being uncovered!

Its pyramid shape was solid not hollow like the pyramids built in Egypt. The Wari culture took over this site around 700 AD and for them it held significance primarily as a burial site for its nobility. Archeologists found an intact tomb in 2008 that held three people, 2 adults wearing masks and a sacrificed child. Below was a replica of the tombs that were found.

Explanation of how the Wari’s buried the individuals.

In the museum on the grounds we saw some original pottery that was found in the area.

We walked over to the Ricardo Palma house museum. He lived in this home for a long time. He was a famous writer who was noted for creating the genre called tradición which is a combination of history and fiction anecdotes. Unfortunately when we arrived the museum was closed for remodeling. We were disappointed but we did find a statue of him.

We walked over to Kennedy Park and looked at all of the art displays by local artists and nearby there were many stalls of various products. We also noticed there were many shoe shine stations. It was popular!

After lunch we walked down by the ocean to Larcomar which was a shopping area for locals and tourists. It was quite busy.

For dinner we walked to a local restaurant called Veda. It was great because the restaurant was a dedicated gluten free establishment.

After our excellent dinner we walked back to our hotel and we read our Road Scholar information sheet because we join the tour tomorrow morning!

A Taste of Peru: Discover Lima, Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu Day 1 & Day 2

Wednesday, October 5th and Thursday, October 6th, 2022

Wednesday, October 5th, 2022, Day 1

This morning we left our home in the middle of the night because of our 6:40 AM flight to Houston, Texas.

Masks were not required on our flights but we chose to be careful and wore them on our full flight! We have our vaccinations and boosters.

We gained an hour in Houston, Texas and had a layover of almost 6 hours. Dave purchased day passes for the United Club. It was worth every penny! We had comfortable chairs with charging stations, food, and any drink we wanted. Our layover was long enough that we ate breakfast when we arrived and had lunch before we needed to go to our gate to board for our flight to Lima, Peru.

We decided to arrive a few days early so we could visit the Humboldt penguins in their natural habitat. We would join our Road Scholar group on Sunday.

Both of our flights were on time and actually landed early! The time in Peru was the same as Houston. We didn’t need to worry about jet lag!

The line wasn’t long to go through Customs so once we had our luggage, we were met by a guide from Holbrook Travel and a driver to take us from the airport to our hotel. With the traffic it was about a 40-45 minute ride.

This picture really doesn’t capture how busy the streets were.

Daniel, our guide, gave us a great narrative about Peru, Lima, and things to do before we join our Road Scholar group on Sunday and Roberto was our driver. At one point we could see the Pacific Ocean as we drove along the highway. When we arrived at out hotel, Daniel made sure we got checked in and had what we needed before he and the driver left. By the time we arrived to our room, we were exhausted and ready to call it a day!

Thursday, October 6th, 2022, Day 2

No alarm was set for today! Although we still woke up early. Today we started exploring the city of Lima. Our first stop was the Park Central de Miraflores. This urban park was named because it is located almost in the center of the city.

We walked through it and then down from it was the Kennedy Park. This park was dedicated to John F. Kennedy. A bust of JFK is located in the park.

These parks are also home to feral cats. The picture below showed just some of the cats!

Next, we walked down to the Pacific Ocean. The ocean water temperature was 59˚ F. We still saw many surfers in the ocean catching waves. Most were wearing wetsuits. Brr! We were told this area is great for the beginning surfers. The waves looked big to us but the best waves weren’t around Lima they were located in the northern part of Peru.

Along the ocean were some beautiful parks. The first one we saw was the Parque del Faro.

The Parque del Amor, was a beautiful park overlooking the ocean with a huge kissing sculpture and beautiful mosaic walls. El Beso, the kissing sculpture, was made by Victor Delfin. It depicted the sculptor and his wife kissing.

After walking along the coast we headed back to our hotel where we had WI-FI to figure out a lunch venue that had gluten free options. We walked to where we thought the restaurant was located. After walking an extra mile and still not finding it, we gave up and ate lunch at a fast food restaurant of all places. We didn’t have WI-FI to search anywhere else! After our “delicious” lunch (insert sarcasm) we walked to the Complejo Arqueológico Huaca Pucllana. It was a huge excavation. It was an ancient adobe and clay pyramid that dates from around 500 AD. It once served as an important ceremonial center for the Lima culture. It was closed today and we plan on taking a tour tomorrow. The restaurant, Huaca Pucllana Restaurant, that looks out over the site was open, so we went in and had a glass of wine.

After walking 8 1/2 miles today we were ready to head back to our hotel and rest our tired legs and feet. For dinner we walked to a local restaurant called Joselo By Rigoletto. The food was delicious.