We arrived early this morning at the port of Callao, Peru’s principal outlet to the sea, about ten miles from the capital city of Lima.
Lima is the third-largest city of the Americas: São Paulo in Brazil has about 12 million inhabitants, and then Mexico City just barely edges into second place with about 9 million residents. Lima counts 8.9 million in its sprawling city, and millions more in the surrounding urban sprawl.
I’ve been to Lima a number of times and have enjoyed strolling its Plaza de Armas with a handsome collection of Spanish Colonial structures.
Today, though, I went with a group of guests for an unusual inside view of one of the most impressive private museum collections in the world: the Larco Herrera Museum.
Rafael Larco Herrera, from a wealthy family with sugar cane holdings, devoted much of his life to collecting artifacts from the rich prehistory of Peru. By some estimates, there are about 87 different known tribes and peoples who inhabited the west coast of South America in and around what is now Peru.
Larco’s collection, amassed between about 1925 and 1966, is astounding, with thousands of objects on display. But the real thrill for me was to get a glimpse of the museum’s storage closet, home to perhaps another 50,000 more pieces of pottery, jewelry and other adornment, and textiles. We were led through the collection by one of the curators.
I performed no looting, taking home only memories and photos. Here are a few:
A funerary wrapping for a Huari mummy, dated sometime between AD 800 and AD 1300. Museum experts x-rayed the piece and say it contains the body of an infant of about four to five years of age. The funerary bundles were intended to shepherd the deceased into the afterlife where they would become an honored ancestor of the living. In fact, one of the gravest threats an attacker could pose to the living was to destroy a gravesite and thus deprive them of ancestors…and their connection to the land.Next week I am due to give a lecture about the hidden meanings and sources of some of the greatest songs by The Beatles. I couldn’t help but think of the Blue Meanies of Sergeant Pepper Land when I saw this ancient piece.
The Garden of Earthly Delights and Monsters
The museum’s lush garden included Cereus peruvianus monstrosus, a truly creepy Peruvian cactus known locally as Monstrito.Monstrito in flower
Larco’s Closet
Almost every piece on the shelves of the storage area of the Larco Herrera would be a treasure at another museum.
I was reminded of two other great museum visits I have made as a traveler: to the storage room of the Uffizi in Florence, full of fabulous but not-quite-famous Roman and Italian busts and statues, and the basement overflow room of the British Museum in London.
All content by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved 2019. If you would like a print of any photo, please contact me using the links on this blog.
When I was a child, one of my paternal grandmother’s favorite bits of poetry–and she had many–was this:
A wonderful bird is the Pelican. His beak can hold more than his belly can.
I thought of her today, as we strolled along small resort town of Paracas, midway between the port of General San Martin where our ship was docked and the city of Pisco.
A Pelican in Paracas
We’ve been here before, but it still is amazing to see the sprawling desert that comes right down to the sea in this part of Peru and in Chile to the south. There is not much fresh water to be had, but the ocean is full of fish and the pelicans are well-fed.
Viking Sun at the pier in the port of General San Martin. The port is named after the man considered the liberator of Peru from the Spanish; San Martin was a compatriot of Simon Bolivar Pierside loading claws at the port
Paracas is a Quechua word that refers to the hurricane-like winds that carry sand. The desert near Paracas is stark beauty, mostly shades of red colored by iron deposits. In 1925 several major archeological sites were found in Cerro Colorado, the Red Hill.
Two sets of tombs were found on either side of the road, one holding about 40 sets of remains and the other hundreds. The larger site is considered much older, but the pair indicate this was a special place for the Paracas people. The older Paracas Cavernas is believed to date from about 800 to 200 BCE, and the nearby Paracas Necropolis from about 200 BCE to 150 of the Common Era.
In both places bodies are wrapped in textiles, many in a sitting position. Peru has done some basic excavation and research, but most of the artifacts are preserved as they were beneath the ground in this dry, remote place.
Cerro ColoradoA modern hotel’s garden in Paracas, lit by the strong morning sunAt the market in Paracas
All content by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
Matarani is the place we parked, but it was not the destination for most of the guests aboard ship. From the gritty mining and export piers here, a fleet of buses departed in the morning for the two-hour-plus drive up into the altiplano to Arequipa.
Matarani, home to about one million, is the deep south of Peru, a thin strip of desert with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the spine of the Andes to the east. In Peru, only Lima is larger–much larger–with nearly nine million inhabitants. We’ll visit that coastal port in a few days.
We’ve been to Arequipa a few times, and so we’re declaring a vacation day aboard ship. We have been on the move almost continuously since March.
Arequipa, about 75 miles or 121 kilometers from Matarani, is up in the foothills of the Andes, at altitude 2,350 meters or 7,710 feet.
The trip follows a two-lane highway thick with trucks and buses and thin with asphalt and guardrails.
It’s a dramatic setting, and also about as close as many cruise passengers are likely to get to landlocked Bolivia.
And it’s not Mount Fuji in Japan, either, but it probably could pass for it in a movie background. Looming over the city is the El Misti Volcano, rising to 19,098 feet or 5,821 meters above sea level.
It is a stratovolcano, the type that is somewhat like a pressure cooker. It lets off a bit of steam every once in a while but mostly sits around in seeming quietude until it explodes violently.
And yes, it is still active, it last major eruption in 1985.
Here are some notes and photos from a previous visit.
ON THE ROAD
AREQUIPA: LA CIUDAD BLANCA
All photos and text Copyright 2019 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
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We flew south all through the night from New York to Santiago, Chile. We left the wintry East Coast of the United States and landed in summery South America.
Viking’s Viking Sun will spend the next 28 days heading northwest and then north, calling at ports in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and then San Diego and Los Angeles in the United States.
This is just one month in a record-setting eight-month-long World Cruise. We will cross the Equator as we sail along the appropriately named nation of Ecuador. In fact, across the eight months of this cruise, this ship will cross the Equator four times heading south then north then south then north again. A hearty few dozen guests will be aboard for the entire journey, while others will partake of various segments.
I’ll be posting photos and comments here throughout this cruise. I hope you’ll join me here.
Matarani is the deep south of Peru, a thin strip of desert with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the spine of the Andes to the east.
Peru’s second largest city (after Lima) is Arequipa, about 75 miles or 121 kilometers from Matarani, about two hours up in the foothills of the Andes, at altitude 2,350 meters or 7,710 feet.
It’s a dramatic setting, and also about as close as many cruise passengers are likely to get to landlocked Bolivia.
And it’s not Mount Fuji in Japan, either, but it probably could pass for it in a movie background. Looming over the city is the El Misti Volcano, rising to 19,098 feet or 5,821 meters above sea level.
It is a stratovolcano, the type that is somewhat like a pressure cooker. It lets off a bit of steam every once in a while but mostly sits around in seeming quietude until it explodes violently.
And yes, it is still active, it last major eruption in 1985.
I traveled today with guests up to the base of the Andes to Arequipa, on a two-lane highway thick with trucks and buses and thin with asphalt and guardrails.
Here’s what we saw along the road:
ON THE ROAD
AREQUIPA: LA CIUDAD BLANCA
All photos and text Copyright 2017 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
————-
Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”
Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Pisco is an island-like city in the midst of a desert-like stretch of southern Peru.
The surrounding desert was the home of the Nazca people…and, according to some, an airport for UFO landings.
And perhaps not coincidentally, it is the world headquarters for a very strong grape-based brandy.
An island in the desert with breweries for high-octane alcohol and an airport for aliens. Makes sense to me. (Just like Las Vegas…)
Speaking of booze, the firewater of this region is called Pisco, a colorless or yellowish brandy made by distilling fermented grape juice into a high-proof spirit.
It was developed by 16th century Spanish settlers as an alternative to orujo, a pomace brandy that was being imported from Spain.
Annual pisco production in Peru is about 10 million liters, but they don’t much drink it here.
Like the asparagus crop, though, Peru makes the product mostly for export with neighboring Chile a major consumer.
Here in Pisco, they prefer to offer visiting aliens a whiskey to refuel their spaceship.
Sadly, Pisco was all but leveled in the earthquake of 2007.
Pisco, An island in the Desert. Photos by Corey Sandler
LOS ISLAS BALLESTAS
On this visit, I went with guests on a boat trip due West offshore to the amazing Ballestas Islands, a mini-Gallapagos that is home to uncounted millions of birds, sea lions, and other creatures.
Along the way we sailed abeam of El Candellario, an ancient figure drawn into the sand and soil of the coast, a cousin to the better-known Nazca Lines inland. No one knows what the drawing means, although it almost certainly does not represent a candelabra, since the ancients had no such device. It may represent a cactus, or it may be a road sign pointing the way inland to Pisco or out to sea toward the Ballestas.
Here is some of what we saw:
All photos and text Copyright 2017 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
————-
Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”
Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
Here’s the answer to a question for team trivia: residents of the major Peruvian port of Callao are known as chalacos.
The city was founded by the Spanish in 1537, just two years after Lima. It soon became the main port for Spanish commerce in the Pacific.
At the height of the Viceroyalty, virtually all goods produced or plundered in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina were carried over the Andes by mule to Callao.
From there the cargo was shipped to Panama. It was nearly four centuries too early for a passage through the canal, so a land route was used instead.
Cargo was carried overland across the isthmus, and then loaded onto galleons to be transported to Spain. The Spanish maintained strongholds in Cuba and in Cartagena in what is now Colombia.
Lima, Peru
Lima, Peru
A COLONIAL TOUR
Today I went with a group of guests on a tour concentrating on the Spanish Colonial history of Lima.
Our first stop was at the amazing Casa Aliaga, a home which has been in the hands of the Aliaga family for more than 17 generations from 1535 through today. It is furnished with items including some dating back to the times of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Here’s a bit of what we saw:
CASA ALIAGA
Photos by Corey Sandler
SAN PEDRO CHURCH
Nearby was Presidential Palace of Peru, guarded by a squad of ramrod straight soldiers:
CASA SAN MARCO
And then we visited a small portion of the sprawling San Marco University, the oldest university in the Americas, dating from 1551. We were greeted by several actors in period dress, including a young woman who showed the connection between Peru and Colonial Spain and the Moorish influence in Andalusia.
And she did so in a very coy way.
THE KON TIKI CONNECTION
Norwegian explorer and author Thor Heyerdahl believed that people from South American could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
Norwegian explorer and author Thor Heyerdahl believed that people from South American could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
In 1947, it was from Callao that Norwegian explorer and author Thor Heyerdahl set sail in his balsa wood raft Kon Tiki, on a successful voyage to Polynesia to support his theaoty that people from South American could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
Today that theory is subject to some questioning, but no one questions the seamanship and bravery of Heyerdahl and his crew.
Lima, the capital and the largest city of Peru, lies about 9 miles or 15 kilometers to the south.
With a population of almost 10 million, Lima is the second-largest city in the Americas, behind São Paulo and before Mexico City.
That puts about one-third of the entire nation’s population in and around Lima, a handsome and bustling city that brings together things colonial and modern.
UP TO MACHU PICCHU
Up in the interior of Peru, along a magnificent mountain pass from the city of Cusco, lies the mystical city of Machu Picchu. You cannot sail there by cruise ship (or any other waterway).
Some of our guests headed there on an extended land excursion. Here is some of what I saw when last we made a pilgrimage there:
Machu Picchu. All photos by Corey Sandler
Machu Picchu
All photos and text Copyright 2017 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
————-
Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”
Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
In relative terms, Peru is a South American success story. Peru is classified as upper middle income by the World Bank, moving upward.
Its total GDP is somewhere around the 39th largest in the world, with a per capita GDP above $12,000.
But there is a major divide between the relative prosperity of the coast and abject poverty in the high Andes.
The economy is based mostly on exports: copper, gold, zinc, textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, services, and fish meal.
Silver Muse docked at Salaverry, a small industrial port town.
There’s not a lot to recommend in Salaverry, other than a parking space for our ship.
The focus of our visit is the old Spanish Colonial city of Trujillo, about 14 kilometers or 8 miles north.
Also, the amazing ruins of the adobe cities of the Mocha and the Chimú capital city of Chan-Chan.
Today, on a pleasant early spring day in Peru, I went with guests to Chan-Chan, a huge Chimú site. We toured one of the sprawling temples and explored the artwork and architecture of a place frozen in time from about 1450.
CHAN-CHAN
Some of the internal artwork under preservation at Chan-Chan.
Watching over us, a pair of buitres, vultures whose ancestors probably were here six centuries ago.
CENSUS DAY
As it happened, today was the day of the Peruvian National Census, conducted once every 10 years. In an interesting arrangement, all citizens, residents, and tourists are required to stay in their homes or hotels between 8 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon as census workers spread out across the nation.
In a last-minute ruling, the government altered the rules slightly, allowing tourists arriving on the day of the census to come ashore and spend time (and money) in a few select places. And so we did.
At Chan-Chan, I came across a special representative of the Tourist Police, hard at work.
TRUJILLO AND SALAVERRY, PERU
Trujillo, Peru. Photo by Corey Sandler
Coastal Peru. Photo by Corey Sandler
Trujillo, Peru. Photo by Corey Sandler
Trujillo, Peru. Photo by Corey Sandler
All photos and text Copyright 2017 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF ONE OF MY BOOKS, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
SEE THE “How to Order a Photo or Autographed Book” TAB ON THIS PAGE FOR INSTRUCTIONS
————-
Now available, the revised Second Edition of “Henry Hudson Dreams and Obsession” by Corey Sandler, for the Amazon Kindle. You can read the book on a Kindle device, or in a Kindle App on your computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
If you would like to purchase an autographed copy, please see the tab on this page, “HOW TO ORDER A PHOTO OR AUTOGRAPHED BOOK”
Here’s where to order an electronic copy for immediate delivery:
