Taxicabs for the Damned

We flew into Lima at night. Rosa met us at the airport and had a taxi waiting for us. The ride was a nightmare. The car had no seatbelts and the tires were bald. He traveled at ungodly speeds while Cathy and I trembled in awe and fear while Rosa laughed it all off. I have never been so frightened in my life, and I haven’t been carsick in 25 years…

Enough of that monster of a cab driver! Rosa, Cathy, and I went to dinner at a most wonderful restaurant: Huanca Pucllana in Miraflores. This is apparently where chic Limeños and members of the diplomatic corps eat. The scenery was second to none: it had a million-dollar view of a large pre-Inca ruin that was illuminated in the foggy night. The lomo saltado was simply to die for. Although the site was officially closed, a guide offered to give us a tour of the site, which we had to ourselves. It was eerie but wonderful to be walking through a pre-Columbian religious site while hearing U2’s “How to Build an Atomic Bomb” blaring from Huanca Pucllana’s bar. We bought Rosa’s dinner, despite her protestations, for all the trouble she went through due to my late arrival in Lima.

We wanted to go to Pachacamac today, but the foggy weather was not conducive to the visit, according to Alejandro. Instead, we visited the Museo Rafael Larco Herrera, an unbelievable collection of pre-Columbian pottery, weaving, and metalwork. Also noteworthy is the erotic art gallery, which displayed pottery (mainly from the Moche culture) depicting sexual tableaux in three distinct contexts: humorous, educational, and religious. Cathy and I wondered where the homoerotic art was – and if and how homosexuality was expressed in pre-Columbian civilizations.

The Larco was beautiful, in an old villa with a large garden boasting incredible bougainvilleas. Cathy treated me to a pair of cufflinks, replicas of some gold Inca frogs with jade eyes that I admired in the museum. The Larco is linked via a blue line painted in the sidewalk to the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Arqueología e Historia. We started to walk, but Alejandro grew tired about halfway there so we hailed a cab for the remainder of the journey. The Museo is a tired and dusty facility, though beautiful. It had impressive displays of Peru’s various cultures, including stunning art, and beautiful dolls intricately dressed in period costumes.

After our visit to the museum, cut short due to Alejandro’s increasing exhaustion, we went home, where Nelita prepared us more lomo saltado, served with this horrible soda that tasted like bubble gum (it wasn’t Inca Kola, but it tasted like it). I took the opportunity for the downtime to call mom, Noni, and Rob’s mother for Mother’s Day. As I was talking to them, I sat out on Alejandro’s porch overlooking his rose garden and watching pigeons feed on the leftover rice and corn from lunch. After lunch, we watched Alejandro play with his pet parrot, who cawed and sang at us for an hour. We then took him to Plaza Vea – Peru’s answer to Wal-Mart – and bought some groceries for him. We decided to spend the evening resting, for tomorrow we’d be taking the bus to Nazca – the last big event on our crazy journey. The prospect of the bus ride scares us a little. Maybe we’re gun-shy from the death taxi last night.