Mate de coca, chicha morada y mas in Lima, Peru

South America is huge.  We flew 2 1/2 hours to Santiago and then another 4 up to Lima, arriving just an hour before Karen landed.  Miguel was waiting for us and soon we whisked away back to their home in Lima.  Miguel and Balvi are the parents of Mark's brother's wife Amarilis who lives in Berlin with Frank and their three children.  On our first day, we had a delightful breakfast with them before tackling the historic center of Lima.  Lima is a bustling capital of about 9 million people.  It experienced a massive population influx in the 1900's (only 630,000 people lived in the city 70 years ago) and a turbulent past at times but now seems to be thriving.  We started at Plaza San Martin where the central monument pays homage to Juan de San Martin, the Argentine who liberated Peru from the Spanish in 1821.  Under San Martin is a special statue of Madre Patria.  It was commissioned in Spain under instructions to sculpt 'a women of liberty with a crown of flames'.  Turns out one of the words for 'flames' also means llama and so sits a cute little llama on top her head.  I think someone may have lost their day job over this mistake.

We strolled along the old aristocratic pedestrian street to the Plaza de Armas.  We've seen a few on our travels but this plaza is by far the most attractive!  The central bronze fountain was erected in 1650 and it is surrounded by the Cathedral, Archbishop's Palace and Palacio de Gobierno (the presidential home).

A young girl was possibly taking photos for her fiesta de quince

We toured the Cathedral which was actually quite interesting and contained artwork and massive woodwork pieces dating back centuries.  It also includes the crypt of Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Inca empire in the early 1500's.  He died in battle but his remains were lost for centuries and only found in 1977 in a lead box beneath the cathedral.  Not surprisingly, he is not viewed favorably by indigenous populations.  

Lunch was a long-standing (since 1905) cafeteria next to the President's house that claims to be the favorite eatery of every president.  We drank chicha morada, the corn juice made from blue corn, and ate a side of tacu tacu (fried rice and bean cake).

We returned to la casa for a descansar (rest) before treating Miguel and Balvi to dinner nearby.  It's been fun to see their old photo albums of their three children (Amarilis, Vanessa and Irasema) and their six grandchildren who all live in Germany.

Learning the intricacies of pisco

Our second day was a culinary delight!  But first, we returned to the plaza to view the changing of the guards ceremony in front of the presidential palace.  It was quite a show with music and dozens of guards marching.  

Karen and I also explored the Monastery of San Francisco which dates back to the 1600's and includes a library with 25,000 historical texts (many of which were just sitting on a shelf in disrepair unfortunately) and catacombs where over 70,000 bones (but only the long bones and skulls just to keep it extra creepy) are stacked in symmetrical patterns in deep wells.

School kids lined up all in a row

Yup creepy.  But so many were buried here because they thought being buried below/near the church would be a straight ticket to heaven.

We returned for a delicious lunch of pisco sours, palta relleno (stuffed avocado), lomo saltado (steak and vegetable stir-fry) and lemcru (a local fruit that tastes like maple and sweet potato) ice cream.

Miguel presenting the pisco sours!  Delicious!

 After a few hours of wonderful conversation, we meandered to the ritzier Miraflores and Barranco neighborhoods to walk off our great meal.  Lima is situated on these big cliffs overlooking the Pacific and it's quite a dramatic view, even at night.  We eventually shared a dessert of picadores (pumpkin fried bread and syrup) before returning home.  What a lovely day!