Saturday, July 1, "Private" Tour of Downtown Lima

We didn't wake up today until about 7:30 AM -- wow, over ten hours of sleep. We had another wonderful breakfast at the hotel's 11th floor Observatorio restaurant, seated outdoors, which was nice. The weather in Lima was again overcast, typical of a winter day. Victor had told us yesterday that the local people call this weather "donkey belly," presumably due to the color of the clouds and sky.

Our plan today was to return to central Lima area, but to see it on foot rather than through the window of a bus, as we had done with our tour group. We consulted the hotel concierge who recommended that we hire a driver for the day. This was not what we had in mind, but maybe a good idea? So we hired driver Jose Matute who happened to be waiting outside the hotel for just this opportunity with a very nice Toyota Corolla and a nice business suit. We told him what we were interested in, and then we were off.

Our first stop was the Parque de la Exposicion. This park dates back to 1872, when an original city wall of Lima was demolished and an exposition was held to celebrate 50 years of Peruvian independence and also to encourage foreign investment in Peru. Here we admired a fountain that was a gift from China to mark the occasion of Peru's 100 years of independence.

There was also a Moorish pavilion in the park that had been designed by Gustav Eiffel (better known for a certain tower in Paris).

The park was lively and is also the home of Lima's art museum, which includes over 3,000 years of art. We entered the museum called MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima) and proceeded upstairs to view the permanent collection, which is displayed in chronological order.

Thus, the first displays were ancient pre-Inca artifacts similar to what we had seen in the Larco Museum. Then we saw some metal work. The paintings that followed were more interesting to us, however. While religious paintings can sometimes be a little dry (many versions of Madonna and child), these are more interesting since they have a New World twist. The native painters had been trained in European style painting techniques and subjects. The color palettes are very rich and vibrant. As a result, the paintings are quite unique and beautiful. As we looked at the artist information posted with each painting, we realized that the painter for all of them is "anonymous." This is a little sad to know that the names are forgotten and probably never recorded to begin with.

A centerpiece of the museum is a large painting depicting the death of Inca ruler Atahualpa, which seems clearly historically inaccurate.

We also enjoyed a room devoted to the artist Carlos Baca-Flor. We had not heard of him, but his paintings are lovely, kind of impressionistic. The artist had spent part of his life in Europe, and this is reflected in his work.

The whole collection was definitely worth the visit, and Rob took many pictures, while I did not. We concluded our tour with a piece of cake in the museum cafe!

We returned to the parking area to meet Jose.  He then drove us to Plaza San Martin, which we had only previously seen through the window of a bus. We had been told that it was too far to walk there from the park and also that it might not be safe. Jose drove past the French Building again, and he provided some new information about it: the roof is adorned with replicas of chess pieces. Jose let us out at the Plaza and we enjoyed walking around. The plaza was created to celebrate Peru's 100 years of independence. In the 1920's it was the height of fashion, and then became run-down. The area is now making a comeback. We entered the Hotel Bolivar, built in 1924. The lobby has an impressive dome, but the hotel seems like it has seen better days.
 

Departing the plaza we proceeded along the pedestrian shopping area, Union Street. It was lively today with many street performers (mostly acting as "statues"). The first few blocks were a little rough, but the stores got nicer as we went along. We stopped to admire three buildings: the Merced church, the O'Higgins residence (O'Higgins was a former president of Chile; the residence now houses a university), and the Fotographia building -- lovely art nouveau architecture. It is painted green, but Jose later told us that it had been yellow.

The end of the street let us out at Lima's central plaza (Plaza de Armas), where we stopped to admire the architecture again: the cathedral, the presidential palace, the municipal building, the Union Club, and other offices. We entered the cathedral where we were able to view a side chapel; the main cathedral was closed today. We then walked to the old train station, turned left and proceeded past all of the tourist shops to the San Francisco church, where Jose re-met us. We photographed the exterior of the church but elected not to go inside to see the catacombs for which it is famous.

Jose also took us through the Bar Cordano, where he said many government officials would dine/drink. It has been open for over 100 years and all of Peru's presidents have eaten there.

Jose guided us to the river (Rimac), were we saw a statue of Pizarro. Jose joked that to this day no one is certain whether the statue is of Pizarro or Cortez. We also saw the ruins of the old city wall build by the river and what is left of some house's foundation. We stopped in to look at another site where a house was being excavated. Having seen what we wanted to see in central Lima, we walked with Jose back to his car. At our request, he drove us to Lima's Chinatown -- what a madhouse! It was total chaos with people everywhere; stores set up on sidewalks, motorized fruit carts with loud megaphones, and traffic that absolutely did not move. Obviously it took a while for us to traverse this, but we were enjoying the show. When we reached the main street (Capon), we quickly decided we'd had enough and did not need to get out and walk around (maybe would have been mugged anyway). It was time to return to the hotel anyway -- it was about 4:30 PM. Jose told us that Chinatown is like this every day!

We thanked Jose -- who was great with a good sense of humor. He had told us a funny story about a prominent woman in Lima who was not well liked. Her wealthy benefactor had bestowed the nickname, "Paris Jolie," on her, which he thought reflected a French sophistication and beauty. However, the people altered her nickname to the similar sounding "Parra Chola."  Parra means female dog in Spanish, and Chola is a region in Peru known for its ignorant people. So when she was called "Paris Jolie" everyone mentally translated that in their heads to "Parra Chola," which means ignorant bitch.

Back at the hotel, we relaxed for a bit in the hotel lobby and then walked to the Larcomar Mall for dinner. We passed a group of Americans in a wedding party, which seemed odd. We ate at a Peruvian restaurant called Tanta, which Renzo at the hotel had recommended. Tanta was okay, but not great. We had chicken croquettes to start, then Pollito Nikkei, which was grilled chicken breast served over stir fried rice with vegetables. After we had eaten, we spotted a nice looking Italian restaurant in the mall where we wished we had eaten. Then it was back to the hotel to wait for our transfer to the airport. There was lots of wedding activity at this hotel as well. At 8:15 PM, Julio arrived to take us to the airport. He was again very friendly and talkative, but we were tired. Everything went better than smoothly. By 9:20 PM, we were all checked in and settled in the airport's VIP lounge with a glass of sauvignon blanc.

No trouble getting home. Flying on United Airlines, we changed planes in Houston with very short immigration lines. Then a limo brought us home (driving poorly) from the San Francisco airport.