A very cool and very old adobe pyramid

There was some time for culture amongst all the drinking and eating in Lima. A stone's throw away from our hostel was this incredibly old pre-Incan adobe pyramid. It's still being excavated and they expect what they uncover to be more impressive than what they have found so far as it's the section of the pyramid which faces the sea, which was one of their gods.

My friends were decidedly underwhelmed but I thought that it was fantastic. The strange forms of all the ancient adobe bricks sprawling together irregularly but with perfect geometric form. For me it made a nice change from all the Inca stone ruins we'd been seeing.

We had a great guide, incisive, jokey, knowledgeable, a real gem. Most of all the amazing stuff he told us has gone in one ear and out the other but I'm keen to revisit Lima in a few years to see how the excavation of the sight has progressed, I love the fact that it's still being discovered. Not that long ago it was a dirt-bike track. It's quite amazing the way it rises out of a residential area of the city all these modern building make for an interesting backdrop.

As expected they practised sacrifice and we were shown some tombs. Why so bloodthirsty? Some very strong superstition. The tombs had been raided by other tribes, it was eerie to look at such old offerings. Human remains.

The adobe pyramid gets my vote! If you're in Lima, it's definitely worth taking time out from the hostel drinks and post or pre Inca trail breather and walking over to this historic marvel.

Contrast

Geometry

Me! Haha the first ever 'reveal'

Where the excavation starts and stops

What the Limas might have looked like

The restaurant next door we were encouraged to eat in, to help fund the excavation project

The Sea

La Lucha

Ok so I confess, Lima seemed to have two common themes. Drinking. Eating. Two vices I had been neglecting in the Andes thanks to the high altitude affecting my ability to tolerate alcohol and my stomach issues affecting my ability to tolerate food. Everything changed once I got back to sea level and I really over indulged.

Tried some ceviche - leche de tigre. Yum.

Watched my friends eat guinea pig. Not for me thanks.

Went to La Lucha, a sandwich and juice place in Miraflores that is always always busy.

And a place called La Maquina for some coffee.

And got very very very drunk on something called the vodka slushy. Aptly renamed the vodka slutty. Frozen vodka, some flavouring, too easy to drink, very drunk very fast.

Mischief.

Old Lima

A trip to see old Lima. I like Old Lima, it seems strange to me that it's somewhat out on a limb from the rest of the city. Big main square, colonial buildings, you know how it works. President's palace, massive cathedral. Fountain in the middle of the square, plenty of pigeons, lots of tourists.

We went to see the monastery of San Francisco and the catacombs which was pretty impressive - very old. The library was my favourite part. Our guide was a bit of a strange woman. We were accompanied by quite a camp and extremely grumpy guy who aptly described the interior of the monastery as 'macabre.'

We ate an enormous buffet lunch in Chinatown and looked around the markets at all the endless Asian cheap gadgets and plastic tack. A scary indoor market (the butchers section, I'm very squeamish, but really I think it's the smell of meat that I can't bear, the smell of carcass). It seems strange to me that all you need to do is cross the road and you go from Spanish Imperial wealth to bargain basement markets. Pre Fujimori this part of town was plagued by terrorist attacks and pretty much a no go zone, so I guess it makes sense.

On another occasion I met a girl who lives in Lima who I had travelled with in Brazil and we had a mega feed and a walk around another of the large squares. The architecture was decidedly French, grassy square, people having drinks, she and I sharing tales of bad romance and career ambition. Smell of fresh grass, the rising water from the fountain and the stars above, exploring a new city which a friend and having a touching personal conversation was a nice sensation of familiar and foreign, enchanting. This is what I love about travelling. Those moments.

Years ago when I first came to Peru, the family I stayed with bought me to Old Lima and we walked around an artisan market, failed to find it this time around. Left the big open spaces and big colonial buildings of old Lima to go back to flirt with the bar man in the hostel. Very nice blue eyes....

Very much into Peruvian balconies

Beautiful Bohemian Barranco

We had an epically long walk which took us all the way from the centre of Miraflores right down to Barranco. Barranco is a small district in Lima known to be the Bohemian, arty quarter.

The last time I was here I had a late night walk with a local guy around some parts of the city and when we hit Barranco I had the sense that we had travelled back in time. Barranco has real colonial, time warp character you can't help but day dream as you walk around. It's charmingly trapped in time, quaint yet imposing at the same, a little bit creepy (haunted house vibe). Probably why I felt like I was walking around a novel. My pictures don't do it justice, it was a haphazard walk with a hostel friend who worked in I.T. and didn't seem to share my lost in literature vibe that day. He was keen to go back to Miraflores to drink and be merry, I would have happily stayed and have some wine and carry on with my Bohemian time travel daydreams.

We bumped into some other friends who were having a cliff top picnic, drinking beers and watching the sun went down over the Pacific.

The hazy light under the clouds in Lima is great, it's as if the sky has been soaked in sunlight, it's always bright but never fierce. Lima is always cloudy but it never rains. It's basically the desert, the last leg of the bus journey from Cusco was a never ending panorama of dry dusty hills, cliffs and stretches of infinite shore, giving out to an infinite ocean. The Pacific is huge, I can't help but picture the globe my dad gave me as a child. Sat on his knee, he used to test my Geography knowledge, the only place I recall ever really recognising was Madagascar. Now in Peru with my backpack, my parents stuck at home worried about me, I wonder if it was him and those days long passed that sowed the first seeds of my wanderlust, who knows). I still have the globe, the Pacific Ocean engulfs whole side of planet earth. Difficult to imagine what lurks in its depths as waves hammer down on this stretch of Peruvian shore.

We got back to Miraflores for some hostal roof top Pisco Sours and I got my ass kicked at pool. 

I want this house! Renovation project!