World Cruise - Lima, Peru

Cathedral

Fill ‘er up!

Our stop in the port of Callao which is a district of Lima signaled the end of the first segment of our World Cruise. About 400 passengers would be leaving us and 400 new guests arriving to fill their places. It was also time for filling the gas tank again. There were four sea days ahead before we would get to Easter Island our next stop. Oh, and we’d run out of strawberries (and I’m sure other things as well) so there were several containers of foodstuffs and supplies waiting to be loaded onto the ship. Staying overnight in the port gave us ample time to do our laundry and still get out to see some of the city of Lima.

For our entertainment on the night of our stay, a local group of traditional dancers and singers came aboard and performed. The costumes were colorful, the music lively, and the drummer amazing as he played a solo on some sort of box shaped drum. One fellow played what looked like a recorder the whole time and another was fast fingered on a ukulele.

Saturday morning we boarded a bus for our panoramic tour of Lima. The tour took us through the colonial part of the city and to the town square where the stately government buildings and the cathedral are and where we were able to spend a few minutes walking about.

 In front of the palace of the president were folklore performers from the mountain areas all in their local costuming and dancing in the courtyard. 

Palace

Street vendors carried large trays of churros which had some sort of filling in them, maybe chocolate and tempted the crowd with them. Just before the bus rounded the corner at our pickup spot, we were able to duck into a church and see some of the interior before we had to scurry aboard the bus again.

 Lima is divided into 43 districts and as we passed through several of them just as in any large city, the housing and population varied. The Miraflores district is probably the fanciest and is where all the large hotels are located. It is right on the shoreline which is bordered by a cliff that extends much of the way along the beach.

Here we got to get out of the bus again and walked through the “Love Park.” Mosaic tiled walls decorated the park area and surrounded the main attraction, a sculpture called The Kiss. Here on Valentine’s Day there will be a contest for the longest kiss.

The bus stopped once again in front of the huge Marriott hotel where the shuttle from our ship was taking people and dropping them off for a walk about town. In the area there are lots of shopping opportunities—all underground. Our guide said there were four levels of restaurants and shops. As I’ve said before, I’m not a shopper so we continued on with the tour bus as it wound its way down to a highway by the beach and we started back to the ship.

The scenery changed once again from fancy buildings and nice apartments to poorer areas where buildings were in disrepair. It was interesting to note that some very basic housing, perhaps cast off building materials, topped off some of the buildings.

As if the contrast wasn’t enough in the housing, we passed two hospitals, one for those who had insurance and one for those who didn’t who had to pay for all services or work their debt off. Our guide indicated that average income was around $600-700 a month and about $1200 for professionals like doctors.

As I write this, I’m looking out my stateroom window onto the top of the bunker that is supplying our fuel and feeling a little vibration and wondering if that is coming from the bunker or the pumps that are filling those tanks up. As long as it gets us to our next ports it’s fine. Wonder if the captain just yells, “fill ‘er up.” Even more interesting: Does he pay with a credit card at the pump?

World Cruise - Salaverry, Peru

[As I post this, we are between Easter Island and Pitcairn and have just gotten internet back after two days of being "in the footprint" where the satellite the ship uses for internet has no signal. Bear with me FaceBook friends and regular readers. It will probably happen again.] 

Salaverry is the port for the city of Trujillo, the third largest city in Peru. As our ship’s Reflections noted, it is a portal to the past. As we ate breakfast outside the Lido in back, we watched the morning mist begin to clear and reveal a beautiful mountain in the distance. 

Before us was a fleet of small fishing boats, their colorful hulls bobbing in the water waiting for the call to go fishing. As we were finishing our coffee one of our dinner partners saw us and asked if we were interested in an adventure. He wanted us to join him and his wife in securing a taxi for a tour to the ruins in the area. It sounded like fun so we agreed to meet and set off on our own excursion.

On the dock we were greeted by a costumed Peruvian who quickly assured us he knew a good English speaking driver who would give us a good deal, of course. He led us to a nice van and the driver assured us that he knew English by telling us he’d spent several years in the USA. For $30 each he agreed to be our driver for the day and we set off to the first ruins called Chan Chan, a UNESCO site.

Chan Chan was established sometime between 850 and 1300 AD by the Chimu Nation (predating the Incas). The city once held about 60,000 people and is made of mud. Yes, mud. The walls are very thick and the substance made from the clay in the area included sea shells, sand and other materials that have lasted quite well over the years. There is a lot of restoration that has been done but it seems the parts that were original have faired better than the newer portions which are already showing the wear of wind and sand and sun.

A guide took us through the ruins and gave us a great description of what we were seeing and how they imagined life to be back then. Each time a new ruler came to power, a new palace would be built and the remains of the old ruler would be sealed off in the area where he’d lived. Of course all his precious gems and gold trinkets were buried with him which was incentive enough for the Spaniards to excavate when they arrived.

There were about nine rulers they figured and so the major part of where we were visiting expanded quite a bit. The area we were in took up about 11 acres but they were sure that the city stretched quite a bit further than that. Monies that come in now are keeping the site preserved but there is little left over for more excavation.

It is always amazing to me how early people knew so much and were able to understand much of what we now know from our enlightened sciences. There was a mural of sorts depicting the two types of currents that affect the seas in that area. We know one of them now as the Humboldt current.

Several temple areas I assumed to different gods were present. Our guide explained that there were areas where idols must have been displayed but they were all destroyed by the Spaniards who wanted to be sure that the Christian religion prevailed. I can’t help but wonder if the people who were normally sacrificed (probably those virgins) were relieved.

Other squared-off sections were said to be storage areas for grains and other foods. Everything though was built from the same mud substance. The designs were exquisite and included pelicans, standing or flying, several kinds of fish and other animals but most having to do with the sea which was all important to them.

Water was supplied by wells that were shallow in comparison to what they are today. A reservoir was in the middle of the city and still has some water trickling into it from below. It is the only place where you find green plants. Our guide pointed out the reedy plants and said those were what the horse boats were made of. That reminded us to tell our driver that we wanted to see those as well.

After some back roads that took us through some strange housing developments, we finally got back to a main street and found ourselves in Huanchaco at the beach. There, lined up probably more for the tourists to see, were the boats known as caballitos de totora which means little horse of the totora reed. They are also known as the horse boats since the boater must straddle it much like riding a horse. A split rod of bamboo is used for the paddle. If this is what they used to go fishing on, I wonder how many survived. Imagine casting your line into the water with bait on the hook while your feet dangle in the water as well. No thanks. I’d be afraid I was shark bait.

From the beach we drove back toward Salaverry to stop for a few minutes in the town square. The church was beautiful on the outside and we were amazed at how even more beautiful inside. The paintings on the ceiling looked as if they had recently been restored. The brilliant colors and artistry reminded me of the Sistine Chapel.

After our short stop in the center of Salaverry, we visited another famous area of ruins called the Huacas del Sol y de la Luna, the temples of the sun and the moon. They are two large temples which cradled a city called Moche between them. It is said they pre-date the Chan Chan area. They are built mostly of adobe brick and are a pyramid shape. The temple of the sun is comparable in size to the pyramids in Egypt.

The temple of the moon survived the Spaniards better than the temple of the sun and it reveals a lot of layers of beautiful murals. Still it had a dark history in that, here too as in Chan Chan, human sacrifices were made to appease the gods.

A museum sits nearby and houses many of the ceramic pieces that were excavated from the temple. Many are in extraordinary shape and have amazing detail sculpted into them. Each piece seemed to be a portrait of someone from that era.

It was an amazing day and an enjoyable time with our new friends and it cost us half of what a ship excursion would have been. Hopefully we will be that fortunate in other ports as well.

The evening was capped with special entertainment from the singers and dancers on board. They did a program in association with iLuminate called The Tourist. The dancers were all dressed in black costumes that were wired with lights controlled electronically. Everything else was dark as well and when they danced or moved they appeared to transport across the stage at times. It’s hard to describe but it was fascinating to watch as lights went on and off and dancers appeared to float or move across the stage like the Flash.

The days are passing way too quickly. Our next port, Callao (Lima) is the end of the first segment of our cruise. Some will be leaving us and new faces will be coming on board. The adventure continues.

World Cruise - Through The Canal to Ecuador and Peru

As I write this we are 229 days away from our World Cruise. I have an app on my phone, T-Zero, which counts down for me. The anticipation is almost as much fun as the cruise will be, I'm sure. Once we cruise from Miami to the Caribbean to Columbia, we then go through the Panama Canal. We've been through the Canal three times already and each has been a wonderful experience. We always learn something new. There is so much history there as well as new construction that had started when we last passed through. It will be fun to see how it is changing.

Once through the Canal, we move on to two ports in Ecuador. Our last trip to Ecuador was to see the Galapagos Islands. This time we will be stopping in Manta and Guayaquil. Manta is the largest seaport of Ecuador and is the gateway to Quito, although the city is reached by airplane from Manta. My search for things to do in Manta revealed a lot of kite-boarding schools. Think we'll pass on that. There is a little town about twenty minutes away however where Panama hats are made. It's called Montecristi. While the taxi fee looks to be $20 roundtrip, there is a ship excursion that is $59 includes a stop at a museum and we can be sure there will be no language problem as some people experienced according to the Cruise Critic boards and we'll get back to the ship on time.

Guayaquil is a little harder to figure out and we may just wait to plan anything until we get closer to it and learn more about while aboard our ship. It looks to be a large city. The offerings for excursions that are within our price range are not terribly interesting from this perspective yet. This will be a wait-and-see port.

We have a day of cruising before we reach Salaverry, Peru, our next port. Salaverry is the port for Trujillo which has several temples from ancient times that look interesting. One especially, The Moon Temple, is said to rival Machu Piccu in interest. It is thought to be a thousand years older. Need to do more research as this doesn't look like a great port to get transportation easily especially with language problems and instances reported of drivers taking the long way around at $10/hour.

Lima, Peru, will be an overnight stop. This is where passengers from the first segment of our cruise will disembark and new passengers will arrive for the second segment. This is the opportunity to meet new people and change dining situations if we need to although as I understand, there are so many booked for the whole world cruise that there may not be a lot of change over on each segment.

Well, off to explore the options in Lima. Ever been there? If so, tell me what you saw and liked.