Mirachifa!

The moment we got to our hostel we headed out to find dinner. Since Peru has a large population of Chinese (most seem to be 4th or more generation), we went to find a Chinese restaurant. At the suggestion of a family friend we went to Wa Lok, which was convenienly above a casino,and ordered one of Ching Jen's favorite dishes: lightly battered fish with cream corn. She was very happy indeed.

The next morning we went to downtown Lima and saw two beautiful churches. One dated back to the 1500 and gave a tour of the catacombs.  Literally bones and skulls were piled up; Jon thought they were awesome and Ching Jen thought it was a little creepy.  We both thought downtown was great with the mix of historic buildings amongst the current ones. For lunch we found a great Peruvian restaurant that all the businessmen went to. One of the plaza in downtown has a statute representing the Mother of Patriotism. When it was being sculpted a ring of fire was to be her crown, however the person requesting the crown of fire forgot the double meaning of the Spanish word for fire and instead the statute has a small llama animal squatting on her head.

Near dusk we went to a large shopping center located at the edge of the cliff that overlooks the ocean. We were comforted by the sound of the ocean that reminded us of home. We found a place for drinks were Jon had a pisco sour-a classic drink of Lima while staring out into the ocean. 


Day two in Lima took us to the top of a Huaca in the middle of the city.  It was very cool.  The huaca, a 1500 year old step pyramid is constructed out of handmade adobe brick.  The top is a flat top and actually the overall construction is not predetermined.  With each period of human and object sacrifice the Lima culture people added additional layers and the dimension of the pyramid grew in both height and diameter. The adobe bricks laid vertically in trapezoidal sections to withstand earthquakes. It's an active archaeological site and there were super lucky architects drawing the location and features of each individual brick. The Arcadian goats were calling to me.

After this we went on a quest for ceviche form lunch, but we don't know what was with our luck.  Each restaurant we found qnd had recommendations for was closed.  Hawaii has delicious ceviche and sashimi and poke, but no ceviche in Lima we felt like we might be missing out.  Eventually we found and it was actually only okay.  In the afternoon we took a cab out to the history museum.  We've become pretty adept at haggling for a cab and price.  For dinner we splurged again, when in Lima!  The food here is a fusion of Spanish, african, indigenous and Asian flavors.