Lima, Huacachina, and Last Days of South America Trip

The nigh back from Manu National park was my last night in Cusco. It has been a great experience traveling around this historic city. I celebrated my success trip with a delicious a pisco sour, a piece of Alpaca steak, and a night of drinking with my travel companions.

Alpaca steak and pisco! Yum!

Similar to the last few times, I went on exploring the city on 5 hours of sleep. Items on my list for the day were Barranco, Larcomar, Museum Larco, and food!! Lima was named the food capital of South America. The Peruvian capital is home to some of the world’s most famous chefs and restaurants. This is also the place that has the most world’s best restaurant even more than NYC. Other than some of the Peruvian food, Lima has the world’s best restaurants for any seafood, ceviche, and a style of cooking that mixes Asian and Peruvian cuisine (including Nikkei and Chifa cuisine). Hungry for some lunch, I set off to find my first Ceviche and Chaufa (a famous Peruvian style fried rice loved by the locals). The truth is, I have always hated eating the American ceviche because of bad heart burns. But this was different. The flavor of the good ceviche here was much more balanced, not too sour. Coupled with corn, sweet potato, and a piece of lettuce, you can eat the entire big plate by itself for a meal.

Ceviche

Seafood Chaufa!

After the fulfilling lunch, I set off walking from Miraflores to Barranco. Barranco is an area of the greater Lima area just south of the famous Miraflores. Famous for its art studios, graffiti, and trendy coffee shops, Barranco is a must visit for first timers to Lima.

Raisin bread from one the trendy shops in Barranco

Coming back to my hostel in Miraflores, I passed by the upscale Larcomar mall to have a look at the beach. Some of the paragliders were just flying through the air with the hawks. They must have a really good view from up there.

Paragliding with hawks

An upscale ice cream bought from an upscale mall

Last stop of the day was Larco Museum, arguably one of the prettiest museums I have visited. The museum showcased a fascinating collection of Peruvian ceramic, textiles, and metal works dating 10000 years. Differs from many other museums, the Larco Museum allows visitors to see the storage room where thousands of other Peruvian artifacts live. But what really set Larco Museum apart was the historic building of the museum itself and the permanent erotic collection from the pre-Columbian period. The erotic collection contains everything you can think of: sexual positions, sex after death, and STDs all in the form of pottery. (Pictures not PG. The museum has some online collection that you can go see them for yourself.)

An archaeologists’ dream, the museum storage.

Visting this museum can really help you piece together all the information you got from various tour guides in Peru. I started to understand more of the Chakana symbol that Javier talked about and extreme measures native Peruvians took to protect the mummies when the Spanish arrived. The native Peruvians pre-Columbian time certainly treated death to the extent that we cannot fully comprehend. Illustration in Larco Museum summarized it well: we live in a culture of the living so we cannot understand the culture of the dead. My own life philosophy has always focused on living my life to the fullest, I wondered if the Incas would highly disagree with such way of life in the old times.

The world’s most complete collection of the gold jewelry burial set. Arguably the most prized piece of the museum.

The day after, I decided to go to Huacachina. It was sort of a last minute decision. Luckily for me, they had bus tickets. Jumping out of my bed at 5:30, I grabbed all of my things but decided not to bring my passport for fear of bus robbery. Big mistake. All of the Cruz del Sol buses required the actual passport to board, not copies, not driver’s licenses. I tried to plead but to no avail. I bought another bus ticket and took a taxi back to grab my passport. Then I made the second mistake of the day, I underestimated the Lima traffic on a Saturday morning. Consequently, I missed my second bus due to the horrible traffic on the road. Determined to visit the sand dunes, I bought my third ticket and waited at the station for my bus. Four and half hours later after I got up, I finally got on the bus to Ica, the city right next to the Huacachina oasis.

Huacachina oasis and dunes at night.

I am glad I bought my third bus ticket. The sand dunes were an amazing sight to behold. A quick reminder why I tried so hard to come here. The buggy ride and the sandboarding following were exhilarating. Between the “woos” and the “ahhhhs,” my heart pumped fast but my face never lost the smile.

Launching yourself from top of the dunes.

The activities perfectly fed my adventurous side, but it was sunset before we knew it. I have seen many sunsets in many different places, but desert sunset is something different. The vastness of the desert dunes and the openness of the sky really make you think about all experiences you have had so far. For me, this has been an awesome month. I climbed to the closest point to the sun on earth, and I got to visit one of the seven wonders of the world. I got to know the locals and the tourists. Tomorrow I will say goodbye to South America. But there is no goodbye, only see you later.

In deep thoughts..

Buggy and sunset

LAST DAY IN SOUTH AMERICA

After a very leisure morning, I spent the first part of my last day in Peru with a tour of the Lima city center. Lima was chosen by the Spanish as the capital for the convenience of escape by ship should they needed it. Over time, many Peruvian in the surrounding communities moved to Lima for jobs. Even though the city is situated in a dry valley, the Rimac river running through Lima provided enough water during the rain season. Because of this river, many of the important buildings were located near the river. One of which was the presidential palace which has a ceremony of the changing of the guards every Saturday and Sunday. The free walking tour took us around the main attractions of the historical center. And for a complete flavor of Lima, we capped the tour with a street churro and some free pisco.

Changing of the guards in front of the Presidential Palace.

I needed to end my last day in South America with a bang. Meeting up with a fellow traveler from the Amazonia trip, we set off to go visit La Mar, the world’s most famous cevicheria. Even though there is a bit of wait to get a seat, everyone seemed to be in a great mood. A gentleman even got up to sing for the entire restaurant hear his jubilation. The food did not disappoint, the seafood was fresh and the flavors were strong but balanced. La Mar is truly deserving of Peru’s best place to indulge your seafood cravings.

THE best ceviche!

Walking through Miraflores after the delicious late lunch, we sat down to watch the sunset before reaching Larcormar on a busy Saturday night. Well, it’s time to finish off the day and this trip a Pisco. I raised my cup and said the Peruvian toast “Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa’ dentro!”

Farewell and see you soon South America.

Sunset in Lima on a typical hazy day.