Settled in Lima (Miraflores area)

After thinking that we had completed what we wanted to do in southern Peru, and since it was raining too much, we decided we would pack our bags and move.

So for the last 5 weeks of our time in Peru, we have a new home.  We are settled in a section of Lima, Peru known as Miraflores (meaning "view the flowers" -- and there are a lot of them to view).   We are in the process of exploring this upscale community, and we realize we are receiving a skewed look at a city of nine million people, but we are happy where we are.  It is safe 24 hours a day for one thing, and that's one of many reasons it is a tourist hotspot.  And the weather has been great;  Lima is in a coastal desert and we hear that "it never rains" - "it may be cloudy, but it never rains."  We are located short walks from the cliffs overlooking the Pacific and from Parque Kennedy (central area of Miraflores).  In and around these areas, we have many options for shops and restaurants and any other activity one could want.

The left image is looking left from our 12th floor apartment and the right image is looking right.  We are on Avenida Jose Pardo which has a tree-lined dividing median, but is a major traffic arterry in Miraflores. The traffic noise is real, but we do not mind it.

Kitty corner from our building is the Brazilian Embassy (the foreground trees in the picture).  In the background below the large LED sign is a KFC and Pizza Hut. We have observed that the two businesses seem to be paired together in other locations and seem to be busy.

Our Kitchen area and living room area. As is customary in this part of the world, the building does not have a heating or cooling system. It's not necessary!

Our Dining and bedroom areas. Internet service has been good.

On the 15th floor of our building we have a sun area, small pool, an exercise room, and a great view of the ocean.

The view to the southeast from the top of the building.

Four short blocks and we are on the heights overlooking the Pacific at Parque Antonio Raimondi.  From this park we have a view of Parque El Faro.

In the afternoon the parks on the heights above the Pacific are occupied. The parks contain exercise equipment and we observed them being used.

Taking a walk along the parks is a fun thing to do.

A necessity is a place to buy food and here is Julie inspecting produce at the store called Vivanda, just two blocks from our apartment.  

So we are settled! Lima will be our "home" for the remaining time in Peru.  We have plans to do touring in northern Peru (around the city of Trujillo and Chiclayo -- pre-Inca ruins at both places) and to Machu Picchu. Stay tuned!

Arequipa restaurants -- YUMMY

Those of you who know us well know we love to go to restaurants – the more, the merrier.  One of the things we are starting to love about Arequipa is that it has a plethora of great restaurants.  Here are a few of our top picks, in no particular order:

Zig-Zag:  The claim to fame for this restaurant is that the cooking is done on volcanic rocks and is brought to your table on the rocks, still cooking.  We aren’t sure if this is typical Peruvian cooking, but we did note that one of the small towns we visited also advertised cooking on volcanic rocks.  At Zig-Zag, the ambiance is great, and so is the food.  On our first trip there, Harold had alpaca, while Julie had a “triple pescado” – three kinds of fish, and one of our companions had the “triple carne,” including alpaca, ostrich, and beef.  We were all provided with bibs because the cooking food does tend to splatter a bit.  Additionally, I had “the best” quinoa I have ever had (that was for you, Juleen).  Oh – and one more claim to fame:  the spiral iron staircase was designed by Gustav Eiffel.

The Eiffel-designed staircase -- iron, as one might expect

The Zig-Zag meat trio:  ostrich, alpaca, and beef

Etsuko -- our Spanish-language school friend.  She is a Japanese chef and will be working with 3 Japanese restaurants in Mexico.  We've been going to a lot of the good restaurants with her.  She knows her stuff!

Anna, another Spanish-school friend hailing from Naples, FL, but originally from Germany. 

Harold -- get that bib on!

Julie showing off her bib.  Notice that all the bibs are different.

Crepisimo:  This little French crepe place is owned by Zig-Zag and is located in the little courtyard of the Alliance Francaise.  There is a nice outdoor eating section in the courtyard and upstairs, there are couches and all kinds of comfortable chairs to have a coffee or a beer or a fruit juice and chat with friends.  Oh – the crepes were good too, and if you sit inside downstairs in the main eating area, you can watch them being made.

ChiCha -- this is the local drink speciality make from purple corn.  It's a delicious drink and comes either alcoholic or non-alcoholic.

El Montonero:  This restaurant is sort-of three restaurants in one – (1)  an Argentinian Grill, (2)  El Montonero (more high-class dining), and (3)  an Arquipeno local favorite restaurant.  The eating area, however, is all combined (as apparently is the kitchen).  There are three distinct aspects of the menu though.  It apparently is the place to go for odobo, the local weekend favorite which takes 3 days to prepare, but it is only served on Sundays and holidays. Julie had the triple: Rocoto Relleno, Chicharrón de Chancho y Sarza de Patitas.  The doble and the triple are common on menus in Arequipa.
Oh – they often also have live, local music, both singing and dancing.  The food was okay. 

The facade of El Montenero

The outdoor eating area -- in use during the day

one of 2 or 3 inside eating areas

Las Conchitas:  We were taken to this little cevicherie by a local, and it apparently is where many of the locals eat their ceviche; the owner of our apartment was surprised we had been there and he indicated that’s where he goes to have ceviche also.  While we aren’t ceviche experts, we do know that Max (the cook at the B&B) served us ceviche that was excellent, and he said his was the best in the city.  Well, the ceviche at Las Conchitas was just as good.  

Unimposing, set between two streets -- Las Conchitas

Peruvian restauants typically offer a free appetizer -- "Chinchas," a roasted, salted corn, and Las Conchitas was not an exception.  It's delicious. 

Chi Cha:  This restaurant has a famous chef – Gaston Acurio, and it, too, is one of Arequipa’s finest fusion restaurants with white tablecloths and, in my mind, a rather sterile atmosphere.  The wine was really expensive.  I had the famous Ariqupen~a favorite odobo – which apparently takes 3 days to make.  Basically, it was one huge chunk of really fatty pork in a broth (mostly fat, not edible for a health-conscious person).  You dip bread into the broth.  The broth was good, but it wasn’t filling and wasn’t worth the price.   We had wine, a shared appetizer (a large one) and entrees.  We each paid 100 soles, a fair amount in Arequipa -- about $37.  

the outside entrance, but you need to get into the courtyard to enter

and you enter the little courtyard and there you are!

Restaurante La Italiana: We have been to two of the locations:  one close to the Plaza de Armas and one in Cayma.  Both are good places to eat – not knock-your-socks off good, but they do just fine.  We sat outside on the sidewalk at the one on San Francisco Avenue, and it was quite pleasant.  The one on Cayma is on a second story (above a casino), and the view and atmosphere is pleasant.  Italian food is always good.

This is the one downtown.  We were there on a gorgeous day and ate at a little table on the sidewalk.

La Trattoria del Monasterio:  This restaurant is quaint and special because it is located in the Santa Catalina Monastery.  We were there for a light lunch -- pizza and an entree.  Both were good.  And hey -- this is a monestary where you can get alcohol too.

The entrance.  Notice how the door is embedded in the wall of the monastery.

There are several small rooms in which one can eat.  This is one of the rooms.  They all have walls that are 3 to 4 feet thick.

Harold's lunch was as good as it was attractive.

Sol de Mayo:  We liked this restaurant.  We had a pleasant lunch on the interior patio, listened to good, live Andean music, and ate heartily.  One of the guidebooks indicated that the food portions are ample, so we ordered one entrée and one appetizer.  It was still way too much.  We chowed down though, and dined on a Southern Peru staple:  lomo de saltado.  

a partially eaten "lomo de saltado" -- a Peruvian staple

The band that played the day we were there;  we bought one of their CDs

LA ZINGARO:   Another superb evening at this restaurant.  Nice atmosphere, attentive servers, good food.  Good wine menu, but not many wines are available by the glass.  They do have some half bottles though.  I had rocoto relleno, a Peruvian standard, made with the very spicy Peruvian rocoto pepper, which has to be boiled at least twice to get some of the spicy taste out of the pepper.  Mine was stuffed with alpaca, but you could have it stuffed with shrimp also. Harold had quinoa taboule.  Etsuko braved it and had alpaca carpaccio.  I can attest that her carpaccio was good, and I did not get sick from the one bite I had.  Portions were not huge, but okay.

We had wine, entrees, and a shared dessert.  The meal came to 60 soles, about $22 per person, which included a generous tip.  

We sat upstairs, but after a trip to the bano, we were wishing we had sat downstairs because you could see the chefs cooking behind the glass.  Lots of flames and tossing of food in pans, etc. 

Julie's half-eaten rocoto relleno.  If you look closely, you can see one of the pepper stems sticking out toward the lower right corner.  The meal also came with a cheesy, creamy potato dish, quite popular in Peru, which is basically scalloped potatoes.

The good news is that we had several wonderful dinners and lunches in Arequipa.  Southern Peru is known for its fine cuisine with good reason.  The bad news is that we simply didn't have the time to get to every place.  There are at least as many other restaurants as we have posted here.  If you get to Arequipa, be sure you are hungry when you arrive.

Ever wanted to live on a house boat? Well, how about living on floating reeds in the middle of a lake?

In the midst of Lake Titicaca, we had the fortune to see a lifestyle that is truly amazing–Islas de los Uros.   The Uros people, who originally perhaps fled from the Spanish who forced the indigenous people to work in the silver mines, live on floating reeds anchored to the lake bottom.  We kid you not!  They now live together in small family units (about 5 or 6 families per island), and there about 50 islands on which these small community units are living. 

the island we visited

the women on the island we visited

 Here is the process that they go through to build their own island:

(1)  they go to a location close to where they live in a shallow area of Lake Titicaca.  There, they cut off large pieces of congealed earth which they then pull over to their chosen island location. They tie them together and anchor them securely to the lake bottom.  These floating pieces of earth act like a cork to form the base of their island. 

a small cross section of the floating cork-like base of each island

(2)  Once the base has been established, they lay pieces of tortora reeds in one direction, then the other until they have a reed depth of about 2 feet.  This is the base of their island.

a small example of the way the reeds are laid on top of the "cork"

(3)  Once they have the island, they begin building reed houses (bedrooms), a reed kitchen, reed boats, and everything one would need to live, including a small trout farm pond in the middle of some of the islands and potato patches built up from the reeds in a raised garden.

the bedroom huts

a trout pond in the middle of one of the islands

(4)  Soft spots on the reed base occur every year or so, and when a soft spot appears, they cut off that section and redo the entire process (get a new “cork” base, place new reeds, etc.)

On each island, about 5 or 6 families live together in their bedroom huts with doors facing each other.   Each island has a leader, and there is also an overall leader of all of the islands.  If families on a particular island do not get along, they begin by placing the doors of the reed huts on the opposite sides so they aren’t looking at each other all the time.  If that doesn’t work, the island leader will decide what to do, and often the island is cut apart (literally, with a saw) and the belligerent family will have to move and connect itself it another reed island and another small community.  

There is no running water, but they do have solar panels, and some families have small TVs.  There is a school on one of the islands, a bank (complete with an ATM), a post office, and even a 7^th Day Adventist Church.  They go into Puno once a week to trade and buy the other necessities they need for living.   They sell fish and birds that they trap, and sea weeds are a part of their diet, but they mostly make their living through the tourist industry.

a bird which they have caught and dried

and they build these kinds of boats, using the same reeds and plastic bottles (inside the runners) for buoyancy.  They use these reed boats for inter-island transportation, to get to the mainland, and to give tourists rides from one island to the next. 

The young adults cannot intermarry within the same island (they know about in-breeding and genetics).  Once a couple gets married from two different islands, the couple moves to the island of the male partner.  

Walking around is squishy and damp (I was amazed that they were mostly barefoot, and my feet were freezing), and there is a distinct moldy smell permeating the atmosphere.  Those negatives asides, the islands and the lifestyle of the Uros truly are amazing.

Harold and Julie as temporary members of the Uros culture

the Litchys and the Rodakowskis having a good time on the reed islands

Quick Trip Report

We have returned from a trip to Colca Canyon and Lake Titicaca and feel the need to make a quick report on the trip.  We made this trip with friends, Bill and Pat, and had a great time. However, we cannot report on any depth on the six-day trip and all the things we saw and experienced, so this report is a picture review - no depth but some things we saw.  

We had been experiencing high rain, so our original plan to approach Colca Canyon from the west and go east was thwarted by mud and rock slides. Plan B was to go over a route that Julie and Harold had traveled before - i.e. traveling to Chivay and entering the canyon from the east.  This may sound somewhat disheartening, but we experienced good weather throughout our trip and the touring was excellent.  

We had the assistance of our driver Edgar and guidance from our English-speaking guide Lizzie - so here are some pics!

We spent the first day visiting sites in Arequipa - the Cathedral, Santa Catalina Convent, the Jesuit Church, and the Juanita Mummy Museum. Some shopping was done and a break was needed.  During that break, Bill visited with El Ekeko at a local bistro.

A trip around the city of Arequipa along with a visit to the Mansion of the Founder and the colonial era water mill preceded the trip to Colca Canyon. On the way to Colca Canyon, we passed through the National Reserve and we saw huge herds of llamas and alpacas.  Note the water!

Arrival at Cabanaconde and the start of Carnaval was in progress. Julie and Bill joined in.

A view or the mountains from our Cabanaconde hotel Kuntur Wassi.

Up and ready to go after a hearty breakfast at Kuntur Wassi.

Julie and Harold at the San Miguel Mirador (view point) with the Canyon as a drop back.

Bill takes a break and admires the view.  We all suffered a bit from the altitude and had to do things with some ease.

The terracing that has been done was a never-ending source of amazement. Our guide told us that about 15% of the terracing is being used today.  This terracing was built prior to the Incas.

A cliff cemetery that we viewed at Mirador Choquetico.  The Collagua culture (pre-Inca) lived at the top of the prominences and buried their dead on the cliff sides.

In the village of Maca, Julie and Pat met a Black-Chested Buzzard Eagle and became instant friends.

The Collague culture used these cliff side granaries to store their seeds.  These granaries supplied the right temperature and humidity, and they were safe!

The current farmers were picking peas - by hand.  Here was a result of their handwork waiting to be picked up by the cooperative truck.

The taxis waiting in Yanque.  These are motorcycles with two wheels and seats in the back. They seemed usable and economical.

The local weekly market in Chivay was visited, and here we saw freeze dried potatoes that are said to be good for 25 years. No mechanical refrigerators are used as high altitude drying and cooling is available.

We stopped at 16,000 feet at the pass over the mountains on the way to Puno, the town on Lake Titicaca.

Yareta is plant that from a distance appears to be a moss growing on some rock. The plant is an evergreen perennial, has pinkish flowers, grows very slowly, and some of the plants are over 3000 years old. It grows close to the earth to conserve heat and at altitudes of 14,000 feet.  Our guide said that the locals use yareta to aid in diabetes treatment.

The vizcacha is to the right of the two plants and in front of the boulder.  This rodent is the ecological equivalent of the rabbit in North America. It looks like a rabbit but has a long bushy tail and is related to the chinchilla.

One of the reed boats (actually aided with plastic bottles for more bouyancy) by the Uros people who live on the reed islands on Lake Titicaca (altitude of about 12,500 feet).  More on these islands in an up-coming blog posting.

A reed house sitting on a reed island.  The islands are made on "peat moss slabs" about six feet in thickness that are floating in the water (somewhat anchored) and are covered with reeds.  The islands last about 25 years, but the reeds need to be replenished periodically.

After a boat ride of about two hours on Lake Titicaca, we visited the Island of Taquile, and we had lunch at this gentleman's restaurant/house.  Among a variety of things, he demonstrated a natural soap used to clean sheep's wool.

After our visit on the Island of Taquile, we walked down to the harbor to meet our boat.

The stone tombs at Silllustani were first constructed by leading families/clans of a pre-Inca culture. The tombs had a small entrance placed at the bottom so good spirits could exit and enter.  When the Inca followed, they continued the practice but with improved stone work.  The stone tombs, known as chulpas, were positioned over looking Lago Umayo, because the area was deemed sacred. The remains of a temple to the sun and moon have been found on the flat island in the lake.  It was good to be interred on sacred ground.

The "farmsteads" in the area around Sillustani seem to be well built and unique.  The pottery bulls are meant to give thanks to nature and to seek good luck for the family.

Farming has challenges in the high plateau (Altiplano), and in this case, the challenges of excess water and low temperatures are addressed with broad ditches with the water giving off heat when the temperatures lower significantly at night.

It was a great week with Bill/Pat.  We were so glad they could come.