We arrived in Lima at about 1:30 am. They are only a 3 hour difference from the West Coast so that isn’t too bad…just a very long flight. Neither of us slept much. It took the luggage a long time to appear.
Once we were outside, we quickly found our guide, Maria, and
driver…and we headed towards our hotel.
Unfortunately, our drive took us along the beach drive (too dark to see
anything) and at some point they had closed the road. So, then it was wandering the streets to get
to the other route. Upon arrival at Casa
Andrina we had a problem…no reservation.
Turns out we were at another Casa Andrina a couple blocks away.
We didn’t hit the bed until 3:30AM. We both slept well but not long enough. We were up in time for a late breakfast and
then met Maria in the lobby at 12:00 for a short day of sightseeing.
Parts of Lima are pretty uninteresting but we did drive through a couple of very pretty older areas. We were also rather surprised to see that tuk tuks (which one sees all over Asia) are in widespread use in Peru.
We ended up in a massive backup at a toll plaza. Just like the Oakland-Bay Bridge on a bad commute day. But with an added twist of many vendors wandering through the cars selling beach toys (the road heads to a nearby beach), beach mats, sun glasses, snacks, ice cream bars and many other items.
and someone was hawking some rather realistic looking toy rats. Ugh.
On the drive out of town we got glimpses of some neighborhoods climbing the hills around Lima. The hills were packed.
The hour drive took us to the Pachacamac, an archaeological complex dating back to the civilizations before the Incas, around 200 AD. The god Pachacamac was known as the “Maker of the Earth”. The area covers almost 1500 acres.
History Lesson for today - Ancient Cultures.
Words can't describe how much I learn from my travels.
I have always loved history...so much so that I seriously considered being a history major in college. As I've started traveling extensively I've come to realize just how abysmal and narrow the lessons, taught as "World History", were when I was in high school. It was called "World History" but it was really the history of Western Civilization...i.e. the history of the world as seen through the eyes of Europeans, their colonization (subjugation) of much of the rest of the world, and their descendants. Admittedly that class was taken way too many years ago but still...
When it came to Central/South American History we learned about the Spanish and the Portuguese conquests of the Incas and the Mayans and the Aztecs. And then it was how eventually the people of Central and South America threw off the yokes of Spain and Portugal.
Did you know that there were highly-advanced civilizations all over South America that far predated the Incas? The Caral civilization of Peru developed more than 5000 years ago, in parallel with those in Egypt, China and Mesopotamia.
Then it was the Mochica, Lima and Nazca civilizations in Peru and the Mayans in Central America that flourished while Europe was being invaded by the barbarians. And the Imperio and Huari ruled Peru while Western Europe languished during the Dark Ages.
I'd never heard of those older civilizations until coming to Peru. They have such a huge history that vastly predates the arrival of the Europeans. What else did we never learn about in school? So much rich and fascinating history that we never learned.
So these photos are of Pachacamac, the Temple of the Sun) and dedicated to Pacha Kamaq, the Creator of the World. The complex dates from around 200AD, was built by the Lima Culture, later came under the Huari Culture ,and eventually was folded into the Inca religion as a major pilgrimage site and center of religion and power. When the Spanish arrived they learned of the power and influent of the city of Pachacamac so they plundered the site (of course), destroyed all the religious objects…destroyed buildings, plundered and forced the population to convert to Catholicism.
The area is now under extensive archaeological excavation. And visitor's like us get to see and learn so much. I do so love travel. 😍✈️
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More Pachacamac
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Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time (the site closed at 3:00 pm and we had advocated for a late start so we could get some sleep) so we focused on touring the site and did not visit the museum.
We ate dinner in the bar of the hotel…bar food. They didn’t have much of a menu. Shortly after dinner we hit the bed. Needed a pretty early night as we were both
very jetlagged.
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