Lima: La Horrible?

Lima, like most other Latin American capitals (like, for example, La Paz, ahem) is not an easy place to be a tourist. It's enormous, its public transportation apparatus is all but indescipherable, it doesn't have a ton of tourist attractions and it's kind of ugly in parts. Actually, most of the nice parts of Lima are hidden behind 10-foot high walls topped off with electric fenses, particularly in its most exclusive district, La Molina.

That being said, if you know where to go, you can have a really nice time. Lima is full of restaurants where new, amazing things are being done with food. Ceviche, for example, is at its peak here. For the uninitiated, ceviche is raw fish (it has to be fresh), which is chopped up and then "cooked" in lemon juice. Then you add in a slice of sweet potato, finely chopped red onions, a slice of pepper, some dried corn kernels and maybe (in some regions) some yucca, you have yourself a plate of heaven. Might sound gross, but it's not. This is a mix of the robust flavors of fish, the spices of the peppers and onions, and the tartness of the lemons that just can't be beat. The gourmet cachet of Peru lies in the fact that four cultures have been mixing in earnest there since colonial times--Chinese (who were brought over to South America as slave laborers on the railroads and plantations), Africans (ditto), Indigenous and Spanish (and other European countries as well). Ceviche incorporates influences from Europe, Africa the Americas and Asia.

So Kaitlin and I had a good time sampling the local cuisine, seeing as how Peruvians are really undergoing a renaissance in this area (judging by the number of new culinary academies sprouting up all over the place, anyway). And, since Lima is right on the coast, the fish is fresh. We also were able to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and this was last Thursday, before it was even out in the US.

We explored the center of Lima, including the Barrio Chino (where we ate at a chifa, which is what they call Chinese restaurants here), as well as the districts of Miraflores (where we stayed), San Isidro, La Molina and San Borja. One really cool attraction was the Larco Museum, which had quite a collection of Pre-Columbian erotic pottery. Here is a photo just of its storage area, which is open to the public: lots of pots.

The thing about Lima is that it concentrates such a large number of people from so many different economic and social backgrounds pretty close together. In a city that has grown from 1 million to over 8 million in the span of about 50 years ("¿En qué momento se había jodido el Perú?"), this means that the upper classes have been constantly trying to move further and further away from the lower classes that continue to filter in from Peru's mountainous and jungle areas. So on one end you have the aforementioned walls and electric fences, while on the other end you have the northern and southern "cones" of the city, full of "human settlements" (shantytowns, and sometimes just campsites) where migrants have literally just set down their stuff and said "Aquí me quedo."

But whereas 6 years ago on my first visit to the city it practically seemed like it was under a state of siege, with people afraid to even walk down the streets, there are signs of progress. Malls have been built in the cones (many with Chilean capital), because the "human settlers" have increasing adquisitive power and have proven themselves to be good credit customers, paying what they owe on time. There are really nice street cafés in the district of Miraflores, a sort-of upmarket suburb of Lima, where you can sit on the sidewalk without too much fear of having your stuff snatched. And any place selling shawls made out of baby alpaca for US$200 can't be too bad off.