Tomb Raider

Night tour of Presbítero Maestro Cemetery (photos courtesy Daniel Noriega Reto).

In the spirit of Halloween, Friday night I took a night tour of the Presbítero Maestro Cemetery in the Callao district of Lima.  What was meant (at least in my mind) to be a creepy adventure turned into two hours snapping photographs of the cemetery’s statues and mausoleums.  This was through little fault of the tour company itself: they did their best by offering the night tour,  guiding us through dimly lit spaces, recounting the most haunting cases of illness and suicide, and once, even enlisting the help of an actress to recite the work of Peruvian writer Mercedes Cabello Llosa de Carbonera—who, plagued with syphilis and suffering from dementia, spent her final years in an insane asylum—in a tone eerily reminiscent of ¨The Raven.¨  But the lighting and the stories never quite cut it for me: the monuments were too beautiful.

The word ¨beautiful¨ may seem like a disturbing way to describe a cemetery, but that´s the only adjective that comes to mind.  (Though I admit, it could simply be because in the past few years, I´ve visited more haunted houses with gimmicky hands reaching up from the earth than actual graveyards.)  The most impressive structure in the cemetery is the Paneteón de los Próceres, which houses the heroes of the War of the Pacific (1879-1884), fought against Peru´s most unfriendly neighbor, Chile.  This two story structure looks more a museum that a mausoleum with its pristine, spacious corridors and neoclassical architecture.  The biggest tombs there are reserved for military leaders Francisco Bolognesi and Miguel Grau, although as our tour guide soon revealed to us, the latter´s remains are not actually kept there.

Paneteón de los Próceres

Family tomb.

Beyond the Paneteón, Presbitero Maestro Cemetery offers a collection of marble statues and ample land for the final resting places of several historically important families.  Reflecting their wealth, the private graves are set up like small estates, with a set of stairs climbing down to the tomb´s main entrance.  The only difference between the grave and the home is that here, the doors are always locked: guests aren´t welcome.

Something´s missing...

Yes, all seemed a little too quiet at Presbítero Maestro Cemetery last Friday.  That is, until we passed through the corridor reserved for agnostics and suicides. Scanning the wall, I noticed something unsettling: one of the coffins had been removed. The space that once contained a body now looked dark and empty; inside, only a few burnt scraps remained. 

When asked by a fellow visitor what had happened to the body, our tour guide offered up the following explanation: destroyed by witchcraft.

Second Invasion?

Where the Wild Things Are: Huaraz, Peru?

Eight hours north of Lima is the small city of Huaraz, nestled in-between the snowcapped Cordillera Blanca and uncapped Cordillera Negra mountain ranges. There, the adherence to tradition, combined with the traffic of adventure tourism, yields a community that is at once insular and cosmopolitan.  Thai curries are served alongside Andean beans and quinoa, Tweety bird´s face is plastered beside Che Guevara´s on the side of a mototaxi, and a MFA graduate can find an incredible library of contemporary English writing, including three volumes of the Best American Nonrequired Reading.  Waiters, security guards, and taxi drivers may not study English, but their ears are well-trained to understand a Spanish-speaking gringa´s accent.  

This unexpected nuance is true of many Peruvian cities, including the well-known tourist destinations of Cusco and Arequipa.  They seem better equipped to meet the needs and expectations of English-speaking tourists than the megacity of Lima, home to nearly 9 million Peruvians.

There´s an easy explanation for this: it´s all about the money. Lima merely serves as a stopover city for most tourists, while Cusco, Arequipa, and even smaller mountainous cities like Huaraz become prime travel destinations. According to Peru This Week, some 700,000 tourists of the 2.7 million expected to travel to Peru this year will visit Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incan empire and cultural hub en route to Machu Picchu. The traffic generates huge revenues for the city, so catering to a tourist´s every need has become one of the government´s biggest missions.

When I studied in Cusco, my professor referred to the tourist phenomenon as the city´s ¨second invasion, ¨ showing us a painting in which the stars and stripes of the American flag hang prominently next to the Spanish flag and the tribute Incan flag in the city´s Plaza de Armas.

Che + dolphin + Batman on a mototaxi in Huaraz.

In Arequipa, our twenty-something-year-old tour guide´s language was more P.C. and optimistic, explaining that he had resumed studies at a local university in hopes of one day giving travelers a genuine local experience without exploiting natives.  But as outsiders, how can we ever be sure we´re welcome, or at the very least, that our presence isn´t invasive? 

There´s no simple answer to that question—and never will be—but for me, a conversation with the resident security guard of the Wilkawaín ruins near Huaraz put my mind at ease for a brief moment.  He asked me what my favorite Peruvian food was, to which I responded pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken served with French fries). 

And can you get pollo a la brasa in your hometown?, he inquired.

I nodded. He grinned back at me, proud that even some city he´s never heard of serves the same chicken he´s eaten his whole life. 

Pittsburgh and Peru: Dynamic Duo?

The Lost City and The Steel City make the ranks of National Geographic´s ¨Best Places.¨

The normal sequencing of this blog is being interrupted to bring you a special announcement.  National Geographic Traveler just released its ¨Best Places to Visit in 2012¨ and I am quite pleased to say that both Pittsburgh, PA and Peru have made the list.  The criteria used to create such a list is unclear--especially since small cities are given the same consideration as entire countries--but I for one have always been an advocate for the natural charm and social character of both destinations.

Peru offers countless manmade and natural wonders--it houses not only the awe-inspiring architecture of the Incas, but also the deepest canyons and one of the largest bird varieties  in the world; Pittsburgh´s city skyline via Mt. Washington offers stunning views of the city´s three rivers, bridges, and the steel edifices that forever revolutionized city architecture. Peru draws visitors seeking to learn about the history and culture of fallen empires; Pittsburgh attracts those who want to celebrate America´s football empire, as well as film directors looking to give their characters a new home. 

Perhaps the comparison is far-fetched for the average reader, but for me, the two places are inevitably tangled. They´re my two favorite places in the world, however big or small they may seem.

Read the full National Geographic article here.

Food for Thought

A few weeks ago, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala made the push for Unesco to add Peruvian cuisine to the World Heritage List.  The request comes as no surprise to Peruvians and tourists alike, who must put on their eating pants every time they leave the house: food is not only cheap, but hearty staples like rice, potatoes, and steak come in heaping portions.  Even more than that, each forkful you bite into here comes with the knowledge that you´re sharing in an evolution of taste, a gastronomy influenced by Andean, Spanish, Asian, and African products and flavors.  Here´s just an appetizer platter-sized summary of the Peruvian food revolution:

1.)     The potato

Spanish conquistadors supplied cattle and pigs, but potatoes claim Peru as their true homeland. The potato was first cultivated between 8,000 and 5,000 B.C., its adaptable nature making it one of the first successful crops to survive the stubborn Andean terrain.  The native Andean tribes carved giant terraces into the mountainsides to cultivate their food and developed irrigation systems to prevent erosion.

Flash forward to any Peruvian menú restaurant in 2011, where the spud serves as the accompaniment of choice to Peruvian plates like pollo a la brasa (rotisserie-style chicken) and lomo saltado (stir fry), or stands alone as an appetizer in the form of papa a la huancaína (boiled potato in a special sauce made of cheese, milk, and ají amarillo) or causa (mashed potato and chicken/tuna casserole).  Peru— the true innovator of the meat-and-potato diet.

2.)    The ají pepper
Used as a spread for sandwiches and a dipping sauce for French fries, ají sauce is the ketchup of Peruvian cuisine. This piquant little pepper is also used to make one of Peru´s staple dishes, ají de gallina, chicken served with rice and vegetables in a creamy yellow ají sauce.  The existence of the ají pepper in South America is thought to date back to at least 2,500 B.C., and is most popularly represented in the artwork of the Moche culture.

3.)    Ceviche
Ceviche´s origin is thought to reach back to the Inca Empire, during which time fermented corn and fruit (mainly tumbo) juices were used to make the dish.  The Spaniards offered up their limes and onions, while the Japanese immigrants brought ginger and their mastery fish preparation. Today, ceviche is Peru´s national dish and is popularly prepared with raw fish and fresh citrus juices.

4.)    Chifa
Wander through the streets of downtown Lima and you´ll eventually stumble across the red arch of el Barrio Chino, Chinatown.  Yet the influence of Chinese cooking cannot be contained within these few streets.  Chifa restaurants are almost as ubiquitous as combis in Peru, especially in Lima, where they can be found on almost every other block.  The term chifa itself is a uniquely Peruvian word used to describe the fusion between the countries´ two cuisines, largely caused by the need to adapt traditional Chinese dishes to include readily available Peruvian ingredients. 

5.)    Cuy
Disclaimer: If you grew up in a world where guinea pigs were pampered, fluffy pets named Domino or Buckwheat, this past post may not be for you.

Here in Peru, the cuy (guinea pig) is much more than a pet.  Domesticated as early as 5,000 B.C., guinea pigs were once considered a sacred animal by indigenous peoples.  They were believed to have healing powers and so were rubbed onto the body of diseased tribal members until they made a cooing noise to indicate the area of infection/sickness.  At that point, the cuy would be split open for the healer to examine the internal organs of the rodent and diagnose the disease.

Cuy entree at Jesus´ Last Supper, as depicted by Marcos Zapata

But what´s probably more difficult for English-speakers to swallow is the consumption of their domesticated pets at Peruvian dinner tables.  High in protein and low in fat and cholesterol, quick to reproduce and able to thrive in a wide range of environments, cuy holds a significant place in Peruvian diet, particularly for highlanders.  Even worse to picture—when cuy makes its way to the table, it comes bearing paws and all. 

For more on Peruvian food:
Glossary of Peruvian Cuisine
Pisco Trail

The Real World Lima Soundtrack: Now on Sale!

It´s everywhere. Each day on your walk to work, you pass Steven Tyler´s larger-than-life lips.  Your fine dining experience comes with a side of old-school Bon Jovi tunes, before he shaved his shaggy ´do and went country.  In the hippest bars and clubs, you tap your feet alongside twenty-something-year-old Peruvians to A-Ha and Pat Benetar.  You might have thought your teasing comb and cut-offs had reached their final resting place in a New Jersey junkyard years ago, but you thought wrong.  The ´80s epidemic has merely migrated south—to the Miraflores and Barranco districts of Lima, Peru. 

For the past three months, I have been conducting a hard-nosed investigation of this musical phenomenon.  The shocking truth? Foreign musical acts were once heavily taxed in Peru, triggering reluctance from big name ´80s, ´90s, and early millennium bands to make concert stops in Lima. Any Peruvian hoping to catch a whiff of aerosol hairspray had to travel outside the country to Argentina, Brazil, or (brace yourself) Chile, that skinny—but feisty—pisco-making rival to the south.  An entire generation of English-speaking, rock-music-loving Peruvians were robbed of genuine encounters with their favorite ´80s acts.  So they did the only thing they could do: they passed the unforgettable melodies onto the next generation, and they waited.

Flash forward to 2007.  The tax was lifted, opening the floodgate for ´80s musical icons to plant their leather boots on Peruvian terrain for the first time and revive (or maybe just perpetuate) the electric guitar fever.  Grumble as you may, you know you can´t resist bopping your head to at least one song on this playlist.  Go ahead and try:

1. queen & david bowie - under pressure (1981)
2. soft cell – tainted love (1981)
3. the smiths - there is a light that never goes out (1986)
4. depeche mode - personal jesus (1989)
5. the cure – just like heaven (1987)
6. depeche mode - just can't get enough (1982)
7. A-Ha – take on me (1985)
8. michael jackson – billie jean (1982)
9. michael jackson – beat it (1982)
10. dire straits - money for nothing (1984)
11. bon jovi – living on a prayer (1986)
12. guns n' roses - sweet child o' mine (1987)
13. aerosmith – janie´s got a gun (1989)
14. simple minds – don´t you forget about me (1985)
15. ac/dc – you shook me all night long  (1980)
16. INXS – need you tonight (1987)
17. the smiths - bigmouth strikes again (1985)
18. george michael – faith (1987)
19. new order – bizarre love triangle (1986)
20. dead or alive – you spin me round (like a record) (1984)
21. beastie boys – (you gotta) fight for your right (to party!) (1987)

Complete playlist available here.  Music brought to you by Daniel Noriega Reto, ´80s enthusiast.