CALLAO IS A PORT FOR CARGO SHIPS and Oosterdam stood out like an evening gown at Walmart. We docked around 2 PM Sunday and would be in port until Tuesday evening, just time enough for the well-heeled to take the Holland America excursion to Machu Picchu and for the rest of us to day trip around Lima.
Callao, Lima's cargo port
Oosterdam is most definitely out of place
Buses were waiting Monday morning to shuttle us to Miraflores, a cliffside suburb of Lima where we had stayed in 2010. We ran into Rob and Wendy, a Welsh couple who were also heading to Larcomar Mall for an ATM and agreed to share a taxi to Lima. Wendy’s Limeño friend had told her not to pay more than 40 soles, about $10, so we let her handle negotiations. I don’t remember traffic being so horrific—it took forty-five minutes to travel less than ten miles to the city. Before we went our separate ways, we agreed to meet back at Gran Hotel Bolivar at three to share another taxi back to Miraflores.
Pedestrians only, Jiròn Union
Streetlights of Lima
If it ain't Baroque...
Arches near Plaza Mayor
Connie and I walked up the pedestrian Jirón Union, admiring the architecture and trying to recall our last visit to Lima. Things finally came into focus a bit around the Cathedral and Plaza Mayor. And we remembered the ubiquitous Inca Cola, the pee-colored soft-drink that outsells Coke and Pepsi combined in Peru.
Lima Cathedral Church
Inca Cola, national Soft Drink of Peru
Central Lima
Something new that we found fascinating were the Tapada Limeña statues scattered around town. These “Covered women of Lima” refer back to the 16th Century when some women in Lima, in a demonstration of independence, donned long, full, hip-hugging skirts and covered their heads with silk cloaks, revealing only a single eye. The tradition, believed to have originally been Moorish or Castilian, existed for 300 years, despite laws and fines for wearing the tapada. The style finally succumbed to French fashion in the mid-1800s.
Tapada Limeña—Covered Women of Lima
Tapada Limeña—revealing only a single eye
Mural with Tapada Limeña
According to Wendy’s Limeño friend, the cafe at Gran Hotel Bolivar is THE place to have a Pisco Sour, Peru’s other national drink. They are smallish, taste something like a margarita and are potent. Trust me, one is enough!
Gran Hotel Bolivar with Jacaranda trees
Celebratory Pisco Sours—Limit; One per Customer!
Pisco soured, I wasn’t as successful in negotiating a fare back to Miraflores, fifty soles this time plus propina, but we arrived in Miraflores just in time to catch a bus back to the ship.
