Sat June 15th Lima Peru and Pachacamac

 

We slept well and had a nice breakfast at our hotel.   At about 9:15am we were picked up for a tour to Lima.  Most of the tour was from a minibus, with four people from Maryland, a woman from Australia, the three of us and our guide.   the traffic continues to be incredible.   Lima has a population of almost 9 million people, and yet the only public transportation is one rail line and one new bus route.  There only appears to be one express road.  Thus the traffic is truly amazing, it actually seemed worse than Cairo.

Somehow they have an unauthorized statue of Nancy and I here (photo).   We also saw a ceremony for the upcoming solstice.

 

 

The highlight of our morning tour was the Cathedral.  It had a library that was right out of Harry Potter, and catacombs that contain over 25,000 skeletons.  We could not take pictures inside, so the last two photos were pulled off the web.

 

 

We had a buffet lunch at Dama Juana, which was delicious with a broad variety of food including some wonderful toasted corn, great entrees, and a scrumptious rice pudding with black corn sauce.

After lunch we drove out about 25 miles to Pachacamac, which was a huge temple complex that dates back to 200 AD through the arrival of the Incas in the 1400s, with 18 pyramid structures.  the most significant structure, the "Temple el Sol" was constructed on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and dedicated to their sun god Inti. The amazing temple is built with stones and adobe blocks.

We then were driven back to the hotel to arrive at 5pm.   At 6pm we went out for dinner, ending up at Tanta, a casual restaurant owned by the internationally known chef Gaston Acurio.  Nancy and I had Lomo Saltado and Ryan had Mediterranean spaghetti.  Lomo Saltado is a Peruvian dish that has Asian influences consisting of strips of sirloin marinated in vinegar, soy sauce and spices, then stir fried with red onions, parsley and tomatoes. It was served with white rice with homemade French fries that look more like potato wedges.

It’s 8:30pm and we are in for the night…  Next update tomorrow.