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CITIES
LIMA
- Lima
- Pantanos de Villa
- Lomas de Lachay
- The Temples of Metropolitan Lima
- The Pachacamac Oracle
- Lima: Lordly Bearing and Tradition
- Callao
- The Real Felipe Fort: A Bastion of Liberty
- Gastronomy
The territory of Lima, capital of Peru
and of the department of Lima, was inhabited by civilizations
that had gauged its wealth and strategic location centuries
before it was founded as the City of Kings. Proof of
that can be seen in the countless huacas or temples
that dotted the valley, particularly the Pachacamac
shrine, a major pilgrimage center during the Inca empire.
This spurred Spanish Conqueror Francisco Pizarro to
chose the Rimac River Valley for the capital in 1535
as its location by the sea provided a link with sailing
routes.
Lima, the main gateway to Perú,
is a major city bustling with living history and movement.
It is an ethnic melting pot, featuring pre-Hispanic,
colonial and modern elements. The metropolis is also
surrounded by every aspect of Nature: the sea, islands,
mountains, desert and plantlife. Its various quarters
feature a city of more than 8 millions souls with an
active nightlife and well-endowed cultural scene, as
well as plentiful public transport and non-stop activities.
The visitor should map out a route before exploring
Lima. The old city center harbors churches and mansions
brimming with colonial and religious art, including
such superb architectural examples as The Casa Aliaga
or Palacio Torre Tagle mansions. Colonial Lima also
features many fine churches and convents such as Santo
Domingo, San Agustín, San Francisco and La Merced.
PANTANOS
DE VILLA
The Pantanos de Villa, a natural
wetlands area lies further south and has been declarated
a reserved zone and haven for more than 150 bird species.
The Pachacamac complex is however found even further
south from Lima. The Lunahuana valley, a hotspot for
adventure sports lies in the Cañete highlands,
180 km (111 miles) from Lima.
LOMAS DE LACHAY
 The
Lomas de Lachay, a national reserve in the foothills
is 105 km ( 65 miles) from Lima to the north and features,
a unique mist-fed eco-system of wild plant and animal
species. Paramonga is a little further north and features
pre hispanic archaelogical sites.
The climate is dryer and sunnier
in the Andean foothills east up the Central highway.
The road heads up the province of Huarochirí
until it reaches the town of San Pedro de Casta where
one can see the Marcahuasi plateau. The area, is the
site of huge natural formations eroded into the shape
of animals and people by the climate.
THE TEMPLES
OF METROPOLITAN LIMA
A huaca was the term given to a
river, tree or mountain in ancient Peru, attributed
with magical powers if the spot was inhabited by a deity
or an ancestor. The same term was given to stepped pyramid
shaped temples along the coast.
Lima has left untouched dozens of
ancient temples archaeological sites which stand out
against the bustling metropolis, thanks to the efforts
of archaeologists and crusades launched by residents.
The Huallamarca complex stands in
the heart of the leafy district of San Isidro. Hualla
means uneven, and marca means town in the ancient quechua
language. The name stems from the fact that the early
remains of the structure showed remains of spiral ramps.
In 1999 archaeologists found clay goblets dating back
to Inca times. The fact they were buried there possibility
points to the presence of the tomb of an important figure
from the era.
What links the most important temples
in Lima is the fact young archaeologists continue to
work on them and integrate them into the community.
One examples is the Huaca Pucllana in the Miraflores
neighborhood, which is a historical and cultural park
today.This complex was a ceremonial and administrative
center run by the Lima culture (400 AD), which controlled
the Lima Valley. There is evidence of religious ceremonies,
rites and sacrifices in honor of their deities, and
the possibly of this being the place where the high
priests lived. The Pucllana Historical Park features
an on-site museum and areas of research, conservation
and restoration, as well as cultural promotion. The
museum is working to integrate the site into the community,
starting with schoolchildren. This will hopefully create
an awareness of the importance of Peru’s archaeological
and natural heritage.
THE PACHACAMAC
ORACLE
The Pachacamac deity, which originated
along the central coast, survived the Inca and Spanish
Conquests. Inca mythology relates that the ancient deity
was the god of fire and the offspring of the sun deity,
the fountain of youth whose strength was linked to the
earthquakes. With the arrival of Christianity, it was
later bound up with the Christ of Pachacamilla, the
painting known as the Lord of Miracles.
The area was first settled in 200
BC, but the shrine’s construction did not get
underway until rise of the Lima culture (300-400 AD),
where the Urpiwachak temple was built in the western
sector and the Adobitos Complex, a set of large-scale
constructions featuring complex architectural techniques.
Four hundred years before the Incas,
the Ishmay culture developed a major ceremonial center,
featuring streets, dozens of temples fitted with ramps
and the Painted Temple, evidence of their sense of religious
urbanism. When the Incas overran the valley in the fourteenth
century, they adapted the existing constructions to
their administrative needs, stripping the citadel of
its sacred status and banishing the oracle to oblivion.
The Incas built the Temples of the Sun, the Acllahuasi
(House of the Virgins of the Sun), the Pilgrims’
Plaza and other palaces whose painstaking reconstruction
gives visitors an idea of what the site looked like
500 years ego
Today the Pachacamac shrine is an
archaeological zone in the department of Lima, doted
with an on-site museum and natural protected areas,
such as the carob forest and lake. A tour of the site
takes you back in time through the history of the Lurin
River Valley and the central coast, the burial sites
and temples. Visitors can admire the age-old ability
of the ancient Peruvians to live alongside nature.
LIMA: LORDLY
BEARING AND TRADITION
Like its inhabitants, Lima the city
of kings, is a rare and exciting mix of nationalities,
styles and forms.
The urban landscape of Lima maintains
the age-old texture of its rich tradition while other
major cities in the Americas and around the world strive
for modernity.
The streets of Lima have preserved the venerable beauty
of the city’s original colonial architecture,
and tour through old Lima is a chance to delve into
more than four centuries of living history, peeking
through the doorways of gracious manors and striding
through sunlit patios and Baroque balconies.
The original city center, the old
quarter of the city originally mapped out by Spanish
Conqueror Francisco Pizarro, called el damero de Pizarro
due to the classic geometric form found in other old
Spanish colonial cities is today a UNESCO Mankind Heritage
Site.
The city founded in 1535 by Pizarro,
features a series of buildings that boast an incalculable
architectural and historical value, which fringe the
main square, the Plaza Mayor and the line nearby streets.
Lima's Cathedral, built in 1625 in a Renaissance-Baroque
style, with splendid Churriguerra altars, is definitely
the first stop on the tour.
Other buildings are also not to be
missed, like the San Francisco church, whose cloisters
and patios are decorated with Seville mosaic tiles which
the ideal picture frame for the religious art kept there.
There is also the convent of Santo Domingo, which saw
the founding of San Marcos University, the oldest university
in the Americas in 1551.
The old Palacio de Torre Tagle, built
in 1730, is one of the finest examples of colonial architecture
in Lima, fitted with carved wooden balconies and its
Baroque stone gateway. The Riva Aguero and Aliaga mansions,
the traditional Acho bullring, and the revamped riverside
promenades overlooking the Rimac River round off the
traditional Lima landscape which, without a doubt, is
one of the most interesting circuits of its kind in
Latin America.
CALLAO
Peru’s foremost port, Callao
has long enjoyed historical and commercial importance,
having been founded in 1537, originally as a port of
embarkation for merchandise to be shipped to Spain.
Located 14 km (9 miles) from downtown Lima, Callao still
features venerable wooden colonial mansions lined with
long and elaborately carved balconies. Visitors can
take in sights such as the Plaza Gálvez and Plaza
Grau squares and the Iglesia Matriz church.
At the end of Saenz Peña Avenue
stands the Real Felipe Fortress, a vast construction
dating back to 1747; it was built to defend the port
from pirates such as Drake, who sacked the city in the
sixteenth century. The Real Felipe also played an important
role in Peru’s war of independence. One can also
visit Chucuito, a small fishermen’s cove lined
with Gothic and neo-Renaissance houses, as well as typical
wooden homes painted in bright colors nearby.
The tour continues on through La
Punta, a traditional district which forms part of Callao
and is ideal for walking and taking in the tangy sea
breeze. This old quarter, once the home if Lima’s
aristocracy, features a superb Oceanside promenade,
pebble beaches and stately homes dating back to the
early days of the Republic at the start of the nineteenth
century, as well as others from the 1930s-50s. Out to
sea lie the islands of El Camotal, San Lorenzo, El Frontón
Cavinzas and Palomino, which can be visited in tours
arranged by the Callao Town Hall. Tours set out from
the Plaza Grau square, near the Real Felipe.
During the tour, visitors will take
the boat in islands such as El Camotal, rich in scallops
and according to history linked to Callao until the
1746 earthquake, then the boat skirts San Lorenzo, Peru’s
largest island where religious ceremonies were performed
in pre-hispanic times. The island was later studied
by Charles Darwin. To the north one can spot El Cabezo,
an ideal beach for fishing, and the island of El Fronton,
once a prison which housed the country’s most
dangerous criminals. The Cavinzas Isles are a haven
for sea birds, some of them migratory, and with the
Palomino isles form, a set of islands which are a refuge
for species such as sea lions.
THE REAL
FELIPE FORT: A BASTION OF LIBERTY
In 1747, Viceroy Conde de Superunda,
tired of continual looting by some of the most famous
corsairs of the era, ordered the construction of an
impregnable fort in the port of Callao, near the city
of Lima. The fort was to be the bastion that would defend
the Vice-regency of Peru from pirates and other invaders.
It marked the creation of the Real Felipe fort, which
has witnessed some of the most important events in Peruvian
history. The fort offers visitors the chance to roam
its ramparts on a trip into a past filled with adventures
and glory. The fort’s solid walls, which have
resisted storms and battles for centuries, have served
as a refuge for Spanish viceroys, Independence leaders
and Republican paladins.
GASTRONOMY
Lima is the gastronomic heart of
the country.There are excellent restaurants in the city,serving
peruvian food from every region of the country.
FIRST COURSES
Cebiche: Bite-size
pieces of raw fish marinated in lemon juice, onion and
aji chilli pepper, garnished with corn on the cob and
sweet potato.
Escabeche: A cold
dish of fried fish or chicken marinated in vinegar and
then steamed with generous servings of onion.
Causa limeña rellena:
A cold dish of thickly mashed yellow potatoes seasoned
with aji chilli pepper and lemon, and then stuffed with
tunafish, chicken or vegetables.
SOUPS
Parihuela: A concentrated
broth of fish and shellfish.
MAIN DISHES
Lomo saltado: Sliced
beef sauteed with onion and tomato, mixed in with fried
potatoes, and served with rice.
Aji de gallina:
Diced chicken in a thick sauce of milk, cheese, aji
chilli pepper and nuts, also served with white rice.
DESSERTS
Mazamorra Morada:
Sweet purple maize jelly stewed with fresh and dried
fruits.
Suspiro a la Limeña:
Rich milk and vanilla cream topped with meringue.
Picarones: Fried
donut shapes made from sweet potato and squash and drenched
with carob-fruit syrup.
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