Huaca Pucllana

Arrival in Lima awakens many senses: the nose detects fish, the eyes see concrete and cinderblock buildings in various states of disarray and the tongue, if it's lucky, tastes le comida typicos de Peru at Huaca Pucllana.

The smell of fish fades but the view of the city only diminishes slightly.  Buildings erode on the outskirts of town as construction workers constantly labor on various projects within Miraflores.

After arriving at 4:30am, we traveled to a hostel near the heart of Miraflores where I enjoyed a blissful sleep until noon.  Upon awakening exploration of the city began as we ventured out to exchange money, buy food and aqua sin gas.  Returning to the hostel my future roommate Syeda and I endured a perilous taxi drive to our host family and tried out our Spanish on a friendly taxi driver, a confused doorman and a suspicious maid.  Completing our task of dropping off the luggage we returned to the hostel and paid a whopping 5 soles (~$2) for the roundtrip ride.

Finishing our last errand of purchasing pre-paid telefonos we traveled to Huaca Pucllana north of Miraflores. Huaca Pucllana is the site of Pre-Spanish ruins built for religious worship in the fifth century.  With an impressive pyramid rising in the background (only slightly marred by the blue Windows 7 screen saver projected upon it) we enjoyed a multi-course meal (sin carne por mi!).

Caustistas Pucllana (the picture does it no justice, but as it is the only one I took I figure I should add something.)

First up was 3 kinds of bread followed by Huancaina con Yuca (a white cheese sauce over a crunchy yuca chip stuffed with more yuca) and Caustistas Pucllana a delicious and beautiful concoction of yellow potato, avocado and mayonnaise topped with shrimp.  The main dish of chicken covered in a yellow sauce with rice on the side came next (of which I ate rice covered in the sauce and the potato underneath the meat) and for dessert was a sweet dish that seemed to be a burnt sugar crepe filled with some orange paste which tasted at times like sweet potato and at times indescribable.  Filled to the brim the group split up before collapsing in our surprisingly comfortable bunk beds for more much needed sleep.

Lessons Learned:

 Traffic laws, if they do exist, do not apply.  Anarchy seems to reign the roads.

Cab drivers stopping in the middle of a busy street to ask directions from passing pedestrians is not uncommon, in fact it has happened in all 3 of my rides so far.

Lima really is one of the "strangest, saddest cities" I've ever seen.  The sun is constantly hidden and the combination of destruction and construction baffles me.