Lima, Peru

Last weekend I was in Lima, Peru for work. We flew in on Friday afternoon and back out again on Monday! It was a very quick trip, but I did have time get a quick glimpse of Lima.

The Peruvians are still closely tied to their Incan ancestors. For this reason, corn is different here. They say that it is most closely related to the type of corn the Incas ate due to the fact that they have not done as much scientific alterations to corn in Peru as they have in places like the US. One interesting variation is a type of black corn that they have. Our waiter brought us some to look at. It looks rotten, but it's not! It's just black or purplish in color. They use it for a typical drink and other dishes.

Our hotel was very close to the Pacific coast of Lima. Here is a shot of it at night.

Lima is actually a desert. So, the air is very dry. However, they have a lot of green parks and beautiful spaces filled with flowers. They keep these places green by watering them using large tanker trucks full of water.

A lot of the architecture in Lima goes back to colonial times. So there are a lot of beautiful churches and squares - especially in down town Lima. There are two squares in particular that are large and surrounded by colonial style  buildings on all sides.

Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor is what I like to call the yellow square. This is home to the large cathedral, the governor's palace, and the municipal palace...to name a few.

The other large plaza or square was Plaza San Martin - or the white square as I liked to call it. This square was built in 1921 to mark the 100th anniversary of  the proclamation of independence in Peru.

Both squares were beautiful and full on people milling about on a Sunday afternoon. As you can see, the weather was a little hazy. Apparently, it is typically pretty cloudy in Lima, but it never rains! (Again, the whole desert thing...)

While wandering the streets, I saw this lady on her balcony above a busy street doing her laundry. The interesting thing about this lady, who was doing something so normal, was that moments after this photo was taken, she went inside and reemerged naked to pick up another piece of laundry. Just naked, on her balcony, on a busy street, on a lovely Sunday afternoon...

Llamas are big in Peru! A lot of the artisan crafts sold involve llama wool - hand knit clothes and scarves, pillow cases, tapestries, etc. I met this llama and he seemed so cool that I had to be a dorky tourist and have my photo taken with him.

 And that was Peru! On to Venezuela next weekend!

-Amber