Why do we travel? What is the inexplicable urge that drives us from our daily routines and native habitats to seek someplace that will provide a different experience? Curiosity, you might say, or the quest for knowledge is what drives humanity to explore new places. Perhaps. Perhaps our urges and desires can be explained away by the simplicity of the it-is-human-nature argument. But my enriching experiences with travel have yielded such profound encounters with places and people as to nullify any simple explanations for the need to travel. There is a reason why we choose to explore a certain part of the world over others. What that reason is, I don't yet know, but perhaps after a few more journeys to different places it will be more clear. But I digress. My intention is to record our familial trip to the ancient land of the Incas - Peru. And no, this blog will not have a time travel component, although for entertainment purposes I wish I could have included a blast to the past.
We landed in Lima, the capital city of Peru at approximately 1am on December 20th, 2008. I won't bore you with the tedious details (and delays) of our flight, they're fairly irrelevant. We were received by my cousin's husband, Nelesh bhai, who, bless his soul, had been waiting for us for 5 hours. My first observation was of the weather - warm, humid and virtually breeze-less. I prepared myself for summer in what my technicality-obsessed brain insisted was winter (which of course, it was..in the northern hemisphere). Lesson One: Prepare for a change in perspectives - not just technical, which was a big lesson to learn, but also cultural.
That night as you can probably guess, I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. The next day we geared up for some local sight-seeing. Lima is a beautiful city with a lovely Pacific coastline that attracts tourists from all over the world. After a drive around the downtown area, we parked at an area called Larcomar, which literally means 'the arc of the sea.' Larcomar, situated on a cliff, is essentially comprised of high-end Peruvian stores and restaurants that afford the best view of the coastline. After walking around for a while and taking pictures, we sat down to lunch at a restaurant called Mangos, where we were treated to a most delicious and elaborate buffet lunch. There we were introduced to the authentic Peruvian "ceviche," a seafood hors d'ouvres, which needless to say, was delicious. And of course we tried Peruvian alcohol. Peruvians make, and drink of course, a liquor called Pisco. Distilled from grapes, there are several delectable cocktails the locals prepare with it, one of which is called Algarrobina. This was what I had. There was also an array of seafood, and other meaty delicacies I cannot for the life of me recall the names of, but they were all delicious! :D After that Nelesh bhai had to go into work for a while so his driver Enrique, who is an absolutely delightful man, drove us around Lima downtown which is also called Lima Centro, and showed us Plaza Mayor, which was known as Plaza de Armas until recently. Located in the heart of the city it is surrounded by the Catedral of colonial times, the Presidential Palace, and the Archbishop's palace. The buildings have retained their medieval appearance and make for some fantastic photographs!
That first day I also began to appreciate the universality of English. Though most people in Lima, including Enrique who was our guide for the remainder of the day, spoke Spanish, we somehow managed to communicate through gestures and common English phrases and words - enough that we could understand each other. And of course, we attempted Spanish...and though by no means made any grammatical sense, we had fun trying.
Oh! Almost forgot! We also made an important purchase that first day at Larcomar; we bought the book The Lost City of the Incas written by explorer and Yale professor Hiram Bingham, who has been accredited with the discovery of Machu Picchu in the year 1911. I'm still in the process of reading the book, so I'll reserve my opinion about it for a different post.
