August 8th Lima Day 5

Back to overcast skies in Lima. Being a Sunday with the office closed, we (Eric, consultant, Uisdean and me) took the chance to visit a local pre-Columbian archaeological site relatively close to Lima (40 km away). This was Pachacamac, (‘the site was first settled around A.D. 200 and was named after the “Earth Maker” creator god Pacha Kamaq. The site flourished for about 1,300 years until the Spanish invaded. Pachacamac covers about 600 hectares (1480 acres) of land.’ – Wikipedia). There are several pyramids, including a ‘Temple of the Sun’ and other structures, many heavily damaged by looting and the weather (most are mud brick constructions). Although founded by the Lima culture, it was rebuilt by the Wari culture and added to by the Inca before being defiled and partly destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores. There is also a rumour that the priests hid a quantity of gold from the temples before the Spanish arrived and this has never been found.

The site is on the outskirts of Lima (or at least it was when I was there) and surrounded by dry, grey barren land. There are views of the Pacific Ocean from the site and a couple of monuments to famous archaeologists, Max Uhle (a German who worked there in the 1890s) and, Julio C Tello (‘father of Peruvian archaeology’, worked in the 1920s) at the time a small museum, which was closed. Rather oddly there was a sort of cactus garden close to the site with a range of cactus plants – the first time I’d seen cacti in their native habitat and it shows how dry the area is.

Part of the site has had some reconstruction carried out, and the information at the time in the form of notice boards was sparse to say the least. One of the areas showing reconstruction was the so called ‘nunnery’, the enclosure and living quarters for the ‘mamacones’, or ‘Virgins for the Sun’. Detailed photos of the enclosure – here & here. Some of the walls still had remnants of painted plaster and the mud brick construction details.

We lunched at the Sheraton.

Later Uisdean and I wandered around a Lima street market and other parts of Lima and taking photos. The street markets were unlike anything I had encountered before, somewhat chaotic, busy and selling a wide variety of goods. Lots of people in ‘normal’ clothes but some in Peruvian styles (you’ll see in future posts). Food was also on offer of course. as well as fresh produce. Large old American cars were also everywhere.  There also was a street musician, playing a sort of whistle and drum with a boy assistant. In this photo you can see a lady from the ‘highlands’ bending over, with a typical budle on her back to carry her purchases etc. – very typical. There were sellers of herbs and spices as well – all arranged and labelled along a wall. One curious thing I noticed in several places we visited were street photographers – nothing unusual about that you might think, However, the amazing thing about them was that they developed the prints on the spot while you waited! They had chemicals in bottles attached their tripods and produced contact prints I think . As you can see they had ‘examples’ posted around their rather old-fashioned (even then) cameras. Another view show a key cutting stand and on the left sewing machines for on the spot repairs to clothing. Not so far away was an almost industrial operation on the street producing flip-flops from old tyres and other materials. There was a policeman in evidence in a few places – as in the centre of this picture.

I didn’t take many photos as I was unsure at the time of hor people would react. Uisdean and I wee certainly ‘objects of interest’ but no-one became aggressive or harassed us in any way.

On the way back to the hotel we passed a typical Spanish colonial style church, looking slightly un-maintained (Unidentified, even online ‘AI’ identification apps can’t get it), and there are many similar churches in Lima. In some streets were ‘modern‘ houses that were noteworthy for having flat roofs as the there isn’t much rain in Lima. So infrequent was the rain that one morning in Lima while we were there the newspaper led with a headline ‘LLOVIZNA durante la noche’ (drizzle during the night). We could see from the hotel room that many houses nearby had all sorts of furniture and more stored on the flat rooftop (clearly not expecting rain)!

I think we ate at the hotel that evening

Another night at the Sheraton, Lima