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City Tours - Chinatown, Chifra & Chicha Morada
Jump to - Day 3 - Part 2 - Lima -
Fountains of the Magic Water Circuit
Day three and time to acclimatise into Peruvian culture and to see a bit of Lima which wasn't covered by the main tour which started 2 days later.
Miche and her coffee; Lucuma ice cream for me - the usual food group split between us...
What service was
this shop offering?
Biscuit temptations at
the hotel...
My first Inca Kola, Peru's national non-alcoholic drink. Lurid in
colour and tasting of bubblegum, I liked it...
City Tour
We joined Jimmy from Haku (Quechan for "Let's go") for a tour of the city.
It's fair to say it didn't tour the places we expected, but it was very enjoyable all the same.
We started in the Plaza de San Martin, which celebrates the liberation of Peru from Spanish rule in 1821...
We joined Jimmy from Haku (Quechan for "Let's go") for a tour of the city.
It's fair to say it didn't tour the places we expected, but it was very enjoyable all the same.
We started in the Plaza de San Martin, which celebrates the liberation of Peru from Spanish rule in 1821...
Peru's Liberty statue -
it was allegedly meant to resemble New York's Statue of Liberty, but a few
details were lost in the design process as the sculptor had never seen the
New York version. I did like the
Llama on the head...
Panoramic view
from the top of San Cristobal Hill
If I'm honest, the dirty cloud and endless urban sprawl through to the fringing shanty towns scaling the sides of the hills gave it a dystopian look - so at odds with the natural beauty that we'd see in wild and rural Peru...
If I'm honest, the dirty cloud and endless urban sprawl through to the fringing shanty towns scaling the sides of the hills gave it a dystopian look - so at odds with the natural beauty that we'd see in wild and rural Peru...
City bull ring...
Covering the hills...
Main cemetery...
Wider expanse of
the old and new cemeteries as seen from San Cristobal...
Cross on the top
of the hill.
Like much of what we saw and heard of Peruvian religion, here was a marriage of convenience between Catholicism and resurgent Inca faith - across from this cross, a shaman was performing an Inca ceremony with burning offerings...
Like much of what we saw and heard of Peruvian religion, here was a marriage of convenience between Catholicism and resurgent Inca faith - across from this cross, a shaman was performing an Inca ceremony with burning offerings...
Standing in front of the cross and shrine
dedicated to Saint Christopher - there were covered trays here for
brightly-coloured candles to be lit and left by the faithful...
Government
guards...
Picarones - similar in nature to a small doughnut ring, only steeped in
cinnamon - yum! I'd also tried anticuchos; a sort of spicy offal, but
which tasted very good, even if it was a little chewy...
Central Food Market
Chicken section...
Chicken section...
Granadilla
- a passion fruit relative, absolutely delicious. It breaks open like a hard
boiled egg and is pretty non-messy to slurp out...
The avocado stall had a
wide variety of avocados, but also a common fusion of good luck mascots -
including a tooled-up ape with wads of fake bills...
Chinatown
Miche, myself and our guide were all from the Year of the Monkey - alas we are '68 and he was '92... feeling old...
Miche, myself and our guide were all from the Year of the Monkey - alas we are '68 and he was '92... feeling old...
Our new guide
Jordan was very keen for us to experience Chifra - the fusion of Chinese &
Peruvian cuisine - it was very similar to egg-fried rice or Singapore
noodles.
Chifra Aeropuerto and our first glass of Chicha Morada - a lightly spiced non-alcoholic drink made from purple corn...
Chifra Aeropuerto and our first glass of Chicha Morada - a lightly spiced non-alcoholic drink made from purple corn...
Jesuit church...
Lima has many balconies
- some at risk of falling into disrepair as it's very common for first floor
downtown buildings to be unoccupied.
Many others like these ones are highly ornate...
Many others like these ones are highly ornate...
