Our first mango, and Pachacamac

Although we´re no longer in the Lima area...I have one more story to tell about the time there, and Matthew will update you from there.

Like Matthew said before, we met a friend who is from India, and he gave us a great introduction to the crazy city of Lima. Pratap also introduced us to some local things, like a drink (chicha morena?) and the insanely busy market down the street from our hostel. He was shocked to find out we had never tried a Mango.

After a quick and overwhelming tour of the market, hanging chickens, sides of beef, notebooks, flip flops, vegetable booths, and basically anything you can imagine needing, we stopped at a booth selling mangoes. Pratap selected 3 perfect ones and walked with us to the bus stop. We washed it with a little bottled water, then he showed us what he considers the ¨proper¨ and best way to eat it-tearing into it messily with your teeth, getting mango everywhere. After agreeing to eat ours in the same manner, we asked someone to take our picture together, as we weren´t sure if we´d be back from our Pachacamac trip before Pratap had to go to the airport for his flight home. (Notice the bit of mango on his nose in the photo.)

We boarded a bus and with broken Spanish tried to inform the door operator where we wanted off, near las ruinas (the ruins), not the town itself. I knew it would be a long ride, but didn´t expect to spend 2 hours touring around Peru. We went from intense Lima to what is the countryside, I guess. Lots of little houses, dirt roads, way far out. Finally, another passenger instructed us where to get off, and where to get a taxi.

We took a taxi into the ruins, and then paid 6 soles (about $2) to walk around ruins that predate the Incans! It was amazing to see the ruins, with the hillside of small homes on one side, and then the Panamerican Highway on the other. Such a contrast of wealth, as well as time. We didn´t pay the extra money for a guide, but did eavesdrop on another group and learned that the people used to sacrifice young girls and animals, especially black lambs. That´s all I learned. And, that people traveled from all over to visit the temple there, and that there is this huge area that was a shelter for the pilgrims to rest under. Matthew is the history buff, but the old dirt was cool.



We took a break from walking around and ate our first mango, the right way. Although there is evidence (plenty of mango strings in my teeth and juice around my mouth), I´ll just let you imagine the scene. We were finishing up our snack when a guard at the top of the Temple of the Sun blew his whistle and yelled at us. All I could understand was ¨cinco.¨ I looked at the time, which was also cinco, so I assumed they were closed. We packed up and headed out, when two other guards told us it was time to go. Oye, they were ready to go home! We didn´t get to see as much of the ruins as we had planned, but did make it back to Lima safely and in time to spend some time with Pratap and see some amazing photos from his home in India.