Another Day in Lima

17 MAY – LIMA
It’s our last day in Peru. We are ready to go home, in truth. It’s been an exceptional and challenging and exhausting trip. This morning, Rosa, Alejandro, Cathy and I went to the Museo de la Nacion, Peru’s flagship museum. Alejandro had us take the bus from Surco to the museum. The bus was an old Chinese wreck, but the ride was a lot of fun. It was nice to see Lima at decent speeds. It was a beautiful day – sunny and clear.

The Museo de la Nacion was interesting and well-thought out, but we were a little confused and disappointed at how abruptly the museum ended, with the Inca. There was nothing in the way of the modern Peruvian experience, other than an interesting folk art exhibit in a separate wing. One of the most interesting paintings, reflecting a theme in the Cusco artwork, was of an angel dressed in Spanish renaissance garb, wielding a harquebus. Afterward, Rosa and Alejandro returned home and we took a taxi into town, stopping at a beautiful park. Lima has some beautiful architecture, but we were saddened to see so much of it run-down as we walked from the park to the city center. We walked through a noisy protest across the street from Peru’s taxation agency. The place was bristling with armed guards, who were resting on their shields, watching the crowd bang their drums from across the street, simply waiting for the word to act if it got out of hand.

We decided to have lunch at a highly-recommended French restaurant called L’eau Vive, across the street from Palacio Torre Tagle, the home of Peru’s foreign ministry. The restaurant was run by an order of nuns who donated all the profits to their charitable operations. The food was excellent, which pleased me since it was the last main meal we were to have in Peru.

We spent some of the afternoon browsing the cheap trinket stores looking for something suitable to give as a birthday present to my friend Shawn…unfortunately, central Lima had little in the way of decent shopping. But the Cathedral, a relatively modern and sedate edifice by Peruvian standards, was magnificent. Of note in the Cathedral was a chapel devoted to Francisco Pizzaro, the man who vanquished the Incas and claimed Peru for the Spanish Crown. He is buried in a place of honor in the sanctuary. Attached to the cathedral was an incredible museum of religious art and folklore – it was huge and well organized, with beautiful works of art. It was obvious to me that incredible sums of money were poured into keeping up the Cathedral and the surrounding buildings on Lima’s huge Plaza de Armas. Incidentally, the Plaza is also heavily armed. Several armored police vehicles, including one with a water cannon, were parked around the corner from the Presidential Palace.

Our last stop of the night was to visit the San Francisco monastery, a much older church and sanctuary. The tour included visit to a library with an incredible collection of old Spanish and Latin manuscripts, and of the catacombs, where many early Limeños were buried. It has recently been unearthed and restored, and the bones have been sorted and arranged in strange concentric circles. I asked the guide if there was a cultural significance to the bone and skull designs, and she said no: “we did it because it would look nice for the tourists.”

We took a taxi back to Surco, enjoyed a few hours of Mexican soap operas with Nelita and Alejandro, snacking on avocado and bread, and then Rosa came to pick us up to take us to the airport. The taxicab she hired was appropriately frightening, a suitable ending to a wonderful trip. Again, saying goodbye made me want to cry. But by this time, I was exhausted, out of tears, out of things to say, and looking forward to my bed at home. The flight departed at midnight, and before the flight left, I finally found something suitable for Shawn, a beautiful tray made of wood, a piece of tapestry under a glass sheet, and trimmed in silver. I felt badly that I purchased it at the airport instead of in some atmospheric, exotic market. But I am sure he will like it.

1 JULY – SALT LAKE CITY
I just finished transcribing and re-typing my Peru itinerary. Looking back, I came home a slightly changed person. My trip to Peru affirmed what it meant to be a human being, for never have I seen such love and generosity. We were treated with the utmost respect from our hosts, and I decided that I could learn a thing or two about being a friend and showing devotion to someone. The country is amazing, blessed with untold resources and a noble history, and challenged with mounting problems. I was told on a couple of occasions, “thank you for being interested enough to visit.” It was an honor. Never have I experienced a trip like the one to Peru. I learned so much, grew to love my sister even more, and came to appreciate a fundamental truth about my life as an American: that the American dream, as it figures in a global economy, is a zero sum game. Peru gives the United States and other countries cheap minerals, cheap labor, and cheap food. In many respects my prosperity rests on the backs of Peruvians, and of others, who live hard, rude lives. Yet they showed me a level of generosity and warmth that I have never seen anywhere else. I cannot wait to return.