I'm writing this from memory 10 weeks later. I've been bad about updating this site lately.
Sunday. We woke up and had breakfast in the hotel. I don't think anybody was feeling quite 100% but we all were ready to start the day and see the last of the sights before heading to the airport after dinner. After breakfast we walked the hotel a bit and saw ornate and beautiful ballrooms that must have been incredible 50+ years ago. The furniture, chandeliers, carpets, etc. all reminded me of fragmented memories in my grandparents' homes from my childhood. There was a church service getting ready to start directly below our room, and we were told that we weren't allowed to walk around anymore by one of the bellmen despite there being no signs or warnings. We headed upstairs and packed for our last outing. I felt a bit stir crazy, so a dancing / photo session helped lift the mood before leaving the hotel.
We walked past a lot of the things Shelly and I saw yesterday, then continued on to new sites. In search of a market to spend the last of our soles, we wandered into a market that took us a bit by surprise, to say the least. It was more of an everyday shopping center, with anything from wedding dresses to beads and fabric to a butchery. The meat area smelled terrible and gave me serious pause for giving up animal products entirely for a while. Having no Inka fabrics or tourist items, we moved on. I'm not sure why that market was mentioned in Lonely Planet - perhaps for tourists needing to sew a button back on a shirt as cheaply as possible...? Anyways, we continued on to a few churches and centuries-old buildings in Lima. We walked through stark contrasts of socioeconomic statuses. It seemed to vary with each crosswalk, and ultimately became a bit too much to digest. It was a grey, humid, and generally uninviting day. It felt like everything was dirty. As with the rest of the trip, I struggled to make sense of what I was seeing and understand how it affected me.
Perhaps needing a sense of cleanliness and normalcy, we took a taxi back to Miraflores... it's hard to say whether that was part of it, but it did feel easier once we were there. We returned to the Inka market where we all bought a few things and watched a women's volleyball match, then ate lunch in what might be comparable to the cafeteria in a Super Target, and walked through a large amount of Miraflores. I couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but it seemed a lot nicer being in Miraflores. There is a lot more wealth in that part of town, but parts of it aren't that different than central Lima. The city parks were better maintained and overall it was a lot cleaner. Taxis and restaurant employees were hounding us for business, but people weren't begging and didn't look desperate. I think it was just a lot harder to look the real disparity right between the eyes in central Lima. I wondered if tourism wasn't partially why Miraflores is maintained nicer than central Lima and felt a bit guilty for being responsible for some amount of injustice. This trip confused me.
After lunch we headed to Huaca Pucllana to see some pre-Incan ruins. The site is right in the heart of a neighborhood and is surrounded by modern streets and buildings which are known to cover up more ruins. Despite that, there is no effort to remove said streets and buildings, which was incredible to me given that the ruins are as old as Constantine declaring Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. If this were Europe, the people would be demanding further excavation. The neighborhood residents seemed far more interested in the upscale gourmet restaurant that shares the same name as the site. More confusion. The tour was informative and relaxing, and included a spotting of the ugliest dogs of all time (as well as llamas, guinea pigs and a coca plant, all of which seemed out of place to me).
It truly amazed me that we saw almost no signs or indication of special significance to our stops outside of the books we were reading today. Once again, Perú confused me in that regard. I wondered again if Limeñans (and therefore Peruvians in general) have any concern for preservation of the past in Lima. I could understand wanting to forget the Spanish Inquisition and the elimination of ancient cultures now celebrated by Peruvians as their ancestors, but I couldn't understand the general lack of respect for Huaca Pucllana. Or Machu Picchu for that matter. One of the strongest impressions of Peruvian culture for me in this whole trip was that they don't care about preserving their history unless it makes money to preserve it (a la Huaca Pucllana and Machu Picchu). Maybe they actually don't care, or maybe they instead just don't know their history. Maybe the government doesn't want to spend the money. Maybe they don't have the resources to preserve more. I can't say for sure, but that's a huge distinction between somebody from the United States and Peru in my opinion. United States national parks or historical sites exist for the enjoyment and betterment of the citizens of the United States and not for financial gain. I for one am thankful that I can tour Gettysburg, Ellis Island, The Alamo, Little Bighorn or Canyon de Chelly in a preserved state, and cannot understand how the average Peruvian doesn't care about national treasures like Machu Picchu, Nazca or Huaca Pucllana. We saw a perfect microcosmic example of this leaving Huaca Pucllana. Two boys playing soccer with the site's fencing as their goal... a classic Sunday afternoon game. One of the boys kicked the ball over the fence and cared only about getting his ball back. I don't know that he damaged any of the pyramid by climbing over the fence and climbing it, but all I could do was look on in amazement and laugh. I'm sure that kid would have been in serious trouble at an Egyptian or Mayan pyramid. Many times this level of what I would consider disrespect frustrated me but didn't seem to bother locals. I wanted to impress upon them in some way that this was important. Perhaps I should have, or maybe I was just supposed to learn a bit more about being a traveler.
After Huaca Pucllana we walked back to Kennedy Park and people watched, rested, and ate dinner at a pizza place where all the employees were totally engrossed in a volleyball game with the Peruvian national women's team, and finally grabbed a taxi to make our way to the airport as the presidential debates began. The taxi ride was a positive memorable experience. The car itself was basically falling apart and looked unofficial, but the driver was very nice. We had discussed before getting in that we should consider the same taxi to get us back to the hotel as well as then to the airport as long as the driver was cordial. After receiving a reasonable rate and a few minutes of pleasant driving, I asked as well as I possibly could whether he would wait for us at the hotel while we grabbed our bags and then take us to the airport. He hesitated at first but agreed once I assured him our bags were ready and we wouldn't be long in the hotel, and offered another reasonable rate to get to the airport. On the way to the airport we stopped at a gas station and had to get out of the car due to fear of explosion. The engine had been converted to natural gas, which looked to be immensely cheaper than gasoline. After that stop, he switched back and forth on the radio between a Christian gospel CD and the presidential debates. I tried to follow along with the debate as much as possible, but the channel kept cutting out, so we listened to the CD more than the debate. The driver was simply nice, and it made all the difference. When we arrived at the airport he explained that he wasn't licensed to enter the airport, so we were dropped off outside the airport and walked in a side entrance that looked a bit suspicious. All the locals were doing it, so it didn't bother me. We all thanked the driver and made our way inside... simple kindness made all the difference and was such a stark contrast to yesterday's taxi event. I'm happy that was our last impression of Lima's people.
Our plane needed a tire change so we were late departing. I wanted to write but instead took the time to nap and try to put my thoughts together about the trip. I know I was hard on Peru, and don't want to give the wrong impression. I had a good time. I learned a lot, saw a lot, ate great food, got a ton of exercise, saw the ocean, etc. But I also had a hard time understanding many things about Peru. None of the other countries I've visited have been this way. I would go back, but I think the next trip would be very different. I wonder if I'll feel the same way about other countries... time will tell.
