Art in Callao

Last Friday we took a trip to Callao, Lima's port city, where a portion of its old downtown has been being cleaned up and restored bit by bit.  One of the features is an old building, which I am told, was at one time the central post office.  It has an grand hall which crosses from one side of the block to the other, with marble floors and busts of philosophers and artists lining the walls. Above, a beautifully-preserved stained glass ceiling allows in plenty of soft natural light.

The numerous side rooms on the first floor have been turned into spaces for artists to display their work, most of it with an ironic sense of humour or touching on social themes and issues such as environmental degradation, youth culture (basically, hip hop), and so on.

 

 

 

Pachamanca in Pachacutec

Today we headed out in caravan to Pachacutec, at the northern end of the Lima metropolitan area (actually we were closer to Ancon than to San Felipe), for a pachamanca hosted by Diego and his fiancee at their new place.

A pachamanca is a an Andean method of cooking food in the ground, and is also the type of meal that is cooked that way.  The specifics vary from region to region, as does the seasoning, but generally it includes a variety of meats --beef, lamb, chicken, pork, guinea pig, etc.-- potatoes and sweet potatoes.  In some places they also put in fresh fava beans, in others bananas are included.  In Ayacucho it is customary to top it all with a small pot of cheese before covering the pachamanca with earth.

Diego's delicious pachamanca included all the requisite elements --pork, lamb, chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and bananas.  He and his inlaws stayed up late last night seasoning and preparing the meat, and got up early today to make the charcoal they would need to cook the food.  Their efforts were well worth it and definitely appreciated!

 

La Arenilla

A relatively new, and somewhat unknown or overlooked, attraction of La Punta -the tip of the peninsula at the north end of the bay of Lima- is La Arenilla.

A few years back, after one-too-many instances of inundation and wave damage to the streets and homes of La Punta, the authorities dumped a number of boulders offshore from the southern side of the peninsula, to create a breakwater.  An unforeseen result was the accumulation of sediment behind the breakwater, forming a lagoon and a coastal wetland.

Soon enough, the new wetland became a haven for seabirds and even began attracting migratory waterbirds who use it as a stopover point along their flyways.

With encouragement from environmentalists and local birders, and with corporate sponsoship, the wetland at La Arenilla has been designated an ecological reserve, and have even provided signs to help visitors identify some of the birds they might see.

It was actually a very pleasant place to visit, to sit on one of the benches and listen to the sea and to the calls of the gulls and other birds out on the sands.  This aspect of La Punta was new to me, as it did not exist when I was a kid, and I don't think it was there the last time I visited La Punta -or at least it hadn't yet gained much notice.   

Now, it its an evident source of local pride -the park next to it is kept immaculate, and it was mentioned to us a as a must-see at the restaurant we ate at.  In fact it has become an almost obligatory stop for birders in Lima, along with San Isidro's El Olivar park and the wetlands of Villa El Salvador.

Callao and La Punta

Last week (I've been a bit remiss about posting updates, I know) Toya and Orlando took me to Callao, Lima's port district.

Officially, Callao is a province, independent of other jurisdictions, and whose existence has been built into successive national Constitutions for years. In practice, it does depend quite a bit on the metropolitan government of greater Lima (although arguments do arise, as is the case now over reform of the city's transportation system).

Until the middle of the last century Callao was a separate city from Lima, although it has served as the capital's port for hundreds of years.  Long ago, however, its fortunes faded and it acquired a reputation as one of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods -which it does, I think deservedly, retain to a degree.

Today, Callao's former glory can still be glimpsed in its crumbling early Republican architecture

All of it, presided over by the Real Felipe fortress, erected to defend the city from pirates and English privateers.  Its construction was begun under Viceroy José Antonio Manso de VelascoViceroy in 1746 and completed in 1774 during the administration of Viceroy Manuel de Amat y Junent.

At the far end of the peninsula that comprises Callao, and the northern end of the bay of Lima, lies La Punta, which -as its name implies- is a point of land extending into the pacific.  On its northern side lies the deepwater anchorages that serve the port, and on the southern side, the bay which is overlooked by the city of Lima.

At La Punta's very end, there is a beach which is still used by artisanal fishermen -many of Italian descent-  who supplement their income by giving boat tours when the weather is good.

Off the coast, lie a set of islands, comprised mainly by the large isles of El Fronton and San Lorenzo.  The latter harbors the last of Lima's sea lion population,  a myriad seabirds, and even Magellanic penguins on its far side.  It has also been found to contain Pre-Columbian ruins and traces left by pirates and English privateers - including gravesites.  

El Fronton (at left), San Lorenzo (at center), and the Naval Academy at La Punta (at right)

Unfortunately, the powers that be have dreams of building a causeway between La Punta and the island and turning it into a deepwater port for larger ships or building an airport on it, either of which would devastate the ecology and archaelogy of the island.

El Fronton, for its part, was infamous as an island prison over which lurid tales were spun.  In the 1980s it was used  to house prisoners from the Shining Path.  The prisoners rebelled on June 18, 1986, and by the next day, courtesy of the Navy, most had been killed and the prison reduced to rubble.  The Navy demolished the cell block even with wounded prisoners inside, precipitating a scandal and crisis for the government of President Alan Garcia.

(From L to R) Orlando, myself, Mr Peñaflor

Of course, being surrounded on three sides by ocean, La Punta is known as a prime locale for quality seafood meals.   And, of course, we took advantage of that, at La Caleta, a restaurant run by Mr. Rodolfo Peñaflor its friendly and talkative owner.

Cebiche

A bowl of parihuela, a Callao classic

Sunset over Lima

Sunset over Lima.  In the background is the peninsula of La Punta, part of the port city of Callao. To the left is the mass of San Lorenzo Island, long ago a refuge for pirates and today a last haven for seabirds and sea mammals along the city's coastline.