Lima - on the home stretch

This is Day 31 of our South America Highlights Tour.  Tomorrow is officially our last day.  The group will disperse.  Some will go home while some will continue their adventures elsewhere - surfing in northern Peru, camping in Colombia, seeing the Mayan ruins in Mexico.  I am going to spend 3 extra days in Lima, then go back to New York City to spend time with my family.

I booked a hotel in downtown Lima, reasoning that I want to see the museums and cathedrals more than I want to see the beautiful buildings and condos in Miraflores.  However, after the unpleasant experiences at the last couple of hotels and roughing it on the Inca Trail, I decided that I want to stay at some place nice and comfortable.  I decided to change my hotel reservation to a Doubletree Hilton Hotel in the center of Miraflores.  It turned out to be a wise move because I was able to get some rest, get some good food at the hotel and nearby restaurants, and catch up on my blog.

We flew into Lima from Puerto Maldonado, a flight of about one and a half hours.  A bus was waiting for us and dropped us off at the Hotel Santa Cruz in Miraflores.  That night we had a farewell dinner at the El Parquetito restaurant in the John F. Kennedy park.  After the team dinner a couple of team members left because they have early flights the next day.  The rest of us continued on a walk towards the beach and enjoyed the beautiful view.

The next morning our tour leader, Christian took us downtown to visit the Basilica of San Francisco. We had a guided tour of the 17th century church with its old paintings being restored and underground, a network of catacombs.  A lot of the influential people in the city were buried in these catacombs during the colonial period.  It was a fascinating 2-hour tour, with the guide explaining much of the history behind the church and how the catacombs were designed.

Basilica de San Francisco

Catedral de Lima in the Plaza de Mayor in downtown Lima

Don't know why but there were a lot of police in the downtown area

One of the churches near the main square

Another church

About 2 blocks from the Main Square of Lima is Chinatown.  I was fascinated to learn that there is a Chinatown here but I heard that the Chinese have been here for generations.  The few blocks that comprise Chinatown is a very busy area with all kinds of businesses.  What was interesting to me is how popular Chinese food is here.  As we drive around Lima I see many Chinese restaurants, known locally as Chifa.  In Chinatown there are even more and everyone of them was packed.  The prices are very reasonable but I guess you get what you pay for.  Some restaurants even have Chinese roast duck or pork hanging from the windows.  I even see some selling dim sum snacks.

I had this dish at a clean-looking Chinese restaurant

Chinese roast duck

The gate to Chinatown

A Chinese restaurant menu

A very busy street in Chinatown

Chinese egg-tarts

One of the places that was highly recommended to me is the Larco Museum.  I had to take a taxi there because it's not anywhere near any public transportation.  In fact Lima does not have good public transportation.  I see the Metro (bus) running but the stations are always very crowded.  I saw mini-vans picking up the locals.  Taxis are cheap.  The ride from the hotel to the museum costs 20 solares, about US$6.  The Larco Museum has some of the best pre-Columbian art.  It was founded by (obviously) the Larco family.  It is not a very big museum.  It took me less than 2 hours to see the whole museum but the exhibits were very well done.

Largo Museum Entrance

Story of the Inca Empire

One of the old artifacts

A nice display

There are two Lima's - the poor and the one with money.  The one with money lives in San Isidro and Miraflores.  The poor live in the rest of Lima, especially central Lima.  The contrast is quite stark.  You can tell by looking at the buildings.  In central Lima the buildings are old and rundown.  In Miraflores and San Isidro, high-rise condos line the ocean-front.  The shops and restaurants are nicer and the parks are full of people nicely dressed.

Condos by the ocean in Miraflores

A fruit vendor in the poorer part of Lima

Wong - a high-end supermarket in Miraflores

One of the things I enjoyed a lot traveling in Peru is the food and fruits.  I don't think I remember eating quinoa before until I was in Bolivia and was served quinoa and chicken soup.  South Americans have been eating quinoa for hundreds of years and recently, the West found out about this high-protein grain.  It is usually served in soup or part of a main dish, just like rice or potatoes.  One of my favorites was a dish that used quinoa just like rice, fried with chicken and topped with an omelette.  Simple but tasty.

Quinoa, cooked like fried rice, with omelette on top

A very popular and tasty soup - Caldo de Gallina

Chimoya.  In SE Asia, it's called soursop

Inside of a chimoya, which is sweet.

This is called tuna.  They look like prickly pear cactus, but they are not.

Inside of a tuna when it's cut open.  It's sweet

Inside of a fruit that's similar to a passion fruit

I also had the opportunity to meet a friend of my neighbor.  Jonathan opened a bakery about 7 years ago and now has two restaurants and getting ready to open a pizza restaurant.  His bakery is one of the most popular in Lima, called El Pan de la Chola.

El Pan de la Chola on Av Mariscal la Mar in Miraflores

Jonathan and I at his second restaurant in San Isidro

I am glad I had a chance to relax and enjoy Lima before flying back to the US.  Although the tourist attractions are limited I enjoyed walking around Miraflorest and enjoyed seeing the shops and the restaurants.  The staff of the hotel also treated me very well and I felt safe walking around the area of the hotel.

The Amazon Jungle

Following our tough 4-day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, we had a day off in Cusco.  It's time to do my laundry, including my heavily-trodden muddied shoes, and rest.  I'm glad I am in good shape physically.  In spite of that, my legs were tired.  I used the morning to catch up on social media and my blog.  In the afternoon I visited a museum and the San Pedro market wearing my flip-flops.  Not an elegant way to walk around a beautiful city like Cusco but I did not want to be cooped up in the hotel all day.

The next day we were driven to the airport to fly to Puerto Maldonado to begin our 2-day Amazon Jungle experience.  The flight took less than an hour.  It's the only practical way to get there because driving there would've taken almost an entire day, probably through pretty rough roads.  Puerto Maldonado is a bustling town in this rainforest region, close to the Bolivian border.  We stopped here so that we can leave our luggage and bring only clothes and things necessary for the 2-day stay at the ecoAmazonia lodge.

To get to the lodge we took a one and a half-hour boat ride on the Madre de Dios river.  We had a quick lunch then took a 3-hour walk in the rain through the tropical jungle.  As in any tropical forest or jungle, the vegetation is dense with many insects and animals.  We went to a pond to look for caimans and saw only a small one.  Our guide explained some of the trees and critters.

There were other visitors to the lodge, including a group of high-school kids from Canada.  The size of the lodge indicates that it was built to accommodate very large groups.  The kitchen and dining rooms are big.  The cabins are very nice and the beds comfortable.  Electricity only comes on in the evening between 6 and 10pm and in the morning from 5:30 to 6am.  Each cabin is separate, accommodating 2-4 people, and screened to keep mosquitoes out.  They are built about 5-6 feet off the ground, probably in the event of flooding in the area.

Riding the boat to the lodge

A map showing the area

A welcome sign at the lodge

A peaceful Madre de Dios river

Sunset at the river

Two of the girls on a boat at a nearby lake

A wonderful lunch of pork, plantain and rice

A white flower amidst all the green 

A very lush forest

Tasty dinner wrapped in palm leaves

We took a few hikes and a boat ride in the jungle around the lodge.  For those who have never been in a tropical jungle, it is interesting.  I've been in similar type of vegetation before so it's not as new, although the trees here are much taller.

We returned to Puerto Maldonado after staying 2 nights at the lodge.  Before we head to the airport, our host took us on a tour of the local market.  Vendors sell everything from clothes, produce, medicine, food, etc.  It is an interesting showcase of what the lives of the locals are.  I took interest in some of the fruits here because they grow in similar climate from where I grew up.

A fruit that is related to the passion fruit

Inside is a tasty and sweet fruit

I don't know what this is call but a vendor was selling drinks made from this

Custard apple.  Inside is white and sweet

Star Fruits

Yucca, or tapioca

A fruit seller

I have no idea what this is call or taste like

After the climactic high of hiking the Inca Trail and visiting Machu Picchu, this seems to be a little letdown.  However, it gives us a chance to rest up and seeing a different part of South America that most people don't see.  The Amazon Jungle occupies a large part of South America, encroaching into Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and other countries.  This 2-day trip is just a sampler.  It is definitely one of the highlights of South America.

Puno, Peru

The bus picked us up at our La Paz hotel at about 7:00am and took us to the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.  This is the largest lake in South America and often called the "largest navigable lake in the world."  It is at an elevation of about 3,800m or about 12,000 ft.  We had lunch here before boarding the bus again to the ferry terminal, where we crossed the lake on a ferry while the bus went on a separate ferry.

Bolivian side of the lake

Boarding the ferry to go across the lake

Another look at the Bolivian side

Going through Immigration in Puno, Peru, after crossing the lake

We are in Peru!

It took us a couple of hours to go through Immigration, first for leaving Bolivia, then for entering Peru.  When finished, we drove another couple of hours or so to the town of Puno.

We checked into the Munay Tambo Hotel in Puno.  It is very centrally located, about 20m from a popular pedestrian mall that runs through the town.  The night we arrived, there was a celebration for the end of Lent.  There were parades and dances at the main plaza.  Kids were spraying each other with foam.  I enjoyed watching them do their native dances.

A dance troupe performing and marching down the mall

A couple of smiling and happy dancers

Dancing in the main square

Kids spraying foam (shaving cream) at each other

The next day we drove to Lake Titicaca.  Our plan is to visit two places:  Taquile Island and Uros Island.  Both are very different even though the islanders have been living on this lake for generations.

Map of Lake Titicaca.  By es:Usuario:Haylli, based on map from http://www.aquarius.geomar.de - http://www.aquarius.geomar.de/omc/, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31580

Sign about Lake Titicaca at the lake

We first took about a 2-hour boat ride to Taquile Island.  From the dock it is a very steep climb to the top of the island where the town square is located.  This island depends solely on tourism for its economy.  There are no cars and hotels on the island.  No electricity also.  On the day we were there, many tourists were there as well.  All the men here learn how to weave at a young age.  It is a skill that women consider when marrying a man.  The islanders have a tight self-governing system, where crime and divorces are not tolerated.  The island grows many crops but they are for their own consumption.  On certain day of the month, vendors from the mainland come and sell them meat and produce.  The islanders sell their handicrafts, especially woven souvenirs like hats, towels, etc., to tourists for their income.

A Welcome Sign but please pay your tax

Town Square where the islanders come to sell their stuff

A narrow alley between the buildings

A beautiful mountain side

Our guide Sylvia on the right.  Man on the left is the restaurant owner

Showing off his knitting skills

A tasty trout lunch

Steps to the restaurant

Bathroom with a view of the ocean

Walking through another part of the island

Beautiful view of the farms and ocean

On the way back to Puno we stopped at Uros Islands.  It consists of many small islands built from reeds called totora, a buoyant reed that grows abundantly in the shallows of Lake Titicaca.  These islands float on the water and can be sub-divided when necessary.  Situations like when the island gets too big or there are disputes between some of the residents, they can take a saw and cut off a portion of the island.  They have been growing in numbers and now there are about 100 of them.  Each island houses several families, usually part of an extended family.  Solar panels provide electricity for the families.  These islands have become one of Peru's tourist attractions.

Inside one of the family's "house"

The base of the island is made from compressed reeds mixed with soil

Riding in a reed boat, approaching the "shopping mall"

A little girl who charmed the tourists

A reed boat used for transporting residents and tourists

This was an interesting visit to two islands that I knew nothing about and an important lake that I also have not heard of.  They are very much of Peru's culture and history.  I am glad I had the opportunity to experience this first-hand.

The next morning we take a public bus for a 7-hour journey through the highlands then the Altiplano from Puno to Cusco.  In Cusco we'll begin our Machu Picchu adventure.