Peru Carolina A Miranda Aimée Dowl, Katy Shorthouse, Luke Waterson Beth Williams 01-prelims-per7.indd 1 17/12/2009 1:20:11 PM BEST OF PERU Clinging to the Andes, between the parched coastal desert and the drippy expanse of the Amazon rainforest, Peru offers such a wide range of experiences that it can be difficult to choose between them. Solemn pilgrimages honor gods both Christian and indigenous. Neon-lit discos get jam-packed with reveling youth. Ancient ruins regularly divulge bits of prehistory. And then, of course, there is the food – a bounty of sublime concoctions made from ingredients native and contemporary. Welcome to Peru – it’s going to be one tasty trip. RICHARD I’ANSON 02-best-of-per7.indd 5 17/12/2009 1:21:43 PM 6 Essential Peru There’s north, there’s south, desert and jungle. There are museums to visit, lakes to ogle, waves to surf, labyrinthine cities to explore – and enough ancient ruins to keep archaeologists employed for centuries. Where to start? This is our guide to a few essentials. TIPLING; 3 BRENT WINEBRENNER 2 DAVID 1 ERIC WHEATER; 02-best-of-per7.indd 6 17/12/2009 1:21:50 PM 7 Lake Titicaca Máncora Less a lake than a highland ocean, the This internationally famous surf spot (p376 ) Titicaca area is home to fantastical sights: has something for everyone – even folks floating islands made of totora reeds (p207), who don’t hang ten. There’s horse riding, pre-Columbian funerary towers (p206 ) and hot springs and beach combing to fill the fertility temples full of stone phalluses days, while street parties and beachside ( p212 ). Far out. bonfires light up the nights. Parque Nacional Manu Nazca Lines Covering an area the size of Wales, this The meaning behind these mysterious vast Amazon reserve ( p474 ) protects cloud glyphs ( p142 ) continues to elude scholars. forest and rainforest ecosystems – making Not that it matters. Their magnificence and for maximum wildlife-spotting. Not to be breathtaking scale – which can only be ap- missed: the clay licks that draw hundreds preciated from the air – make them a wonder of squawking macaws. to behold. Monasterio de Santa Catalina Kuélap The eternally graceful city of Arequipa is Archaeology buffs refer to the Chachapoyas home to this dazzling, citadel-sized monas- people’s mountaintop fortress ( p448 ) as the tery ( p164 ), which dates back to the 16th ‘other Machu Picchu,’ but its unique stone- century. It even has its own cafe, serving work and proud position overlooking the pastries and espresso. Utcubamba valley make it a special – and incomparable – place to visit. Lima Nightlife Tourism in Peru is devoted to the past, but The Streets of Cuzco Lima is all about the present. Here, discos Once the capital of the Inca empire, tourist- spin international beats ( p117 ), lounges thronged Cuzco ( p220) – the gateway to serve frothy fusion cocktails ( p115 ) and the mountaintop refuge of Machu Picchu restaurants draw late-night crowds with a ( p267 ) – is lined with extraordinary cobble- bevy of inventive dishes ( p109 ). stone passageways and indigenous struc- tures that have been inhabited continuously since pre-Hispanic times. 1 ERIC WHEATER; 2 DAVID TIPLING; 3 BRENT WINEBRENNER 2 DAVID 1 ERIC WHEATER; 02-best-of-per7.indd 7 17/12/2009 1:21:53 PM 13 Contents On the Road 4 South Coast 125 Pucusana 126 Best of Peru 5 Asia 126 Cañete & Cerro Azul 127 Destination Peru Lunahuaná 127 17 Chincha 128 Pisco & Paracas 129 Getting Started 19 Ica 136 Huacachina 139 Itineraries 23 Palpa 141 Nazca & Around 141 History 29 Sacaco 147 Chala 148 Camaná 148 The Culture 47 Mollendo 149 Mejía & Río Tambo Valley 150 Food & Drink 58 Moquegua 150 Ilo 153 Environment 67 Tacna 154 Arequipa & Canyon Lima 78 Country 159 History 79 AREQUIPA 160 Orientation 79 History 160 Information 80 Orientation 161 Dangers & Annoyances 86 Dangers & Annoyances 163 Sights 87 Sights 164 Activities 101 Activities 168 Courses 102 Courses 170 Tours & Guides 102 Tours & Guides 171 Festivals & Events 102 Festivals & Events 171 Sleeping 103 Sleeping 171 Eating 109 Drinking 115 Peru Outdoors 173 Entertainment 117 Eating 182 Shopping 118 Drinking 184 Getting There & Away 119 Entertainment 184 Getting Around 121 Shopping 185 AROUND LIMA 122 Getting There & Away 185 Pachacamac 122 Getting Around 187 Lurín 122 CANYON COUNTRY 187 Southern Beaches 123 Reserva Nacional Salinas y Carretera Central 123 Aguada Blanca 187 03-content-per7.indd 13 18/12/2009 11:08:10 AM 78 LIMA Lima On its surface, Lima is no thing of beauty. A sprawling desert city clinging precariously to dusty cliffs, it spends much of the year marinated in a perpetual fog that turns the sky the color of Styrofoam. It is loud, chaotic, and gritty; much of its architecture is bulky and gray. Foreign travelers tend to scuttle through on their way to more pastoral destinations in the Andes. This is unfortunate. Lima may not wear its treasures on its sleeve, but peel back the foggy layers and you’ll find pre-Columbian temples sitting silently amid condominium high-rises. Vestiges of colonial mansions proudly display lavish, Moorish-style balconies. And, here and there, graceful modernist structures channel architecture’s most hopeful era. What Lima lacks in attractiveness, it makes up with a huge array of downright literary experiences. Stately museums display sublime pottery; edgy art spaces host multimedia instal- lations. There are solemn religious processions dating back to the 18th century and crowded nightclubs swaying to tropical beats. You’ll find encyclopedic bookstores and cavernous shop- ping malls, well-heeled private golf clubs and baroque churches ornamented with the skulls of saints. It’s a cultural phantasmagoria with a profusion of exceptional eateries, from humble to high-brow, all part of a gastronomic revolution more than 400 years in the making. This is Lima. Shrouded in history, gloriously messy and full of aesthetic delights. Don’t even think of missing it. HIGHLIGHTS Dipping into the continent’s most inventive cuisine at the bustling restaurants of Miraflores ( p112 ) Admiring sublime Moche portrait vessels and naughty erotic pots at the Museo Larco ( p95 ) Sipping a simple beer or a high-brow fusion cocktail at the vintage bars and chic lounges Iglesia de of always-hopping Barranco ( p116 ) Museo Larco Santo Domingo Walking around the sandy ruins of several civilizations’ worth of temples at Pachacamac LarcoMar Miraflores Shopping ( p122 ) Mall Barranco Leaping off the Miraflores clifftops and para- gliding (p101 ) past the shoppers and diners at Pachacamac the trendy LarcoMar shopping mall ( p119 ) Gazing upon the skulls of some of Latin Ameri- ca’s most celebrated saints at the Iglesia de Santo Domingo (p90 ) in Central Lima TELEPHONE CODE: 01 POPULATION: 8.5 million AVERAGE TEMPERATURE: (Greater Metropolitan Area) January 17°C to 27°C, July 11°C to 21°C 11-lima-per7.indd 78 15/12/2009 2:17:04 PM lonelyplanet.com LIMA •• History 79 refurbished parks, and cleaner and safer pub- HISTORY LIMA Lima has survived endless cycles of destruction lic areas, not to mention a thriving cultural and rebirth. Regular apocalyptic earthquakes, and culinary life. warfare and the rise and fall of civilizations have resulted in a city that is as ancient as it ORIENTATION is new. In pre-Hispanic times, the area served, Planted on the sandy foothills of the Andes, at one time or another, as an urban center for Lima is a rambling metropolis composed of the Lima, Wari, Ichsma and even the Inca more than 30 municipalities or districts. The cultures. When Francisco Pizarro sketched city’s historic heart, Lima Centro (Central out the boundaries of his ‘City of Kings’ in Lima), lies at a bend on the southern banks January of 1535, there were roughly 200,000 of the Río Rímac. Here, around the Plaza de indigenous people living in the area. Armas, a grid of crowded streets laid out in By the 18th century, the Spaniards’ tum- the days of Pizarro houses most of the city’s bledown village of adobe and wood had given surviving colonial architecture. On this way to a viceregal capital, where fleets of ships neighborhood’s southern flank, around the arrived to transport the conquest’s golden Plaza San Martín, the Plaza Bolognesi and the spoils back to Europe. In 1746, a disastrous Parque de la Cultura, the city takes on a 19th- earthquake wiped out much of the city, but century veneer, where grand boulevards are the rebuilding was rapid and streets were soon lined with extravagant (if decayed) structures lined with baroque churches and ample caso- built in a panoply of architectural styles, from nas (mansions). The city’s importance began Victorian to beaux arts. to fade after independence in 1821, when From this point, Av Arequipa, one of other urban centers were crowned capitals of the city’s principal thoroughfares, plunges newly independent states. southeast, through Santa Beatriz, Jesús María In 1880, Lima found itself under siege when and Lince, before arriving in well-to-do San it was ransacked and occupied by the Chilean Isidro. This is Lima’s banking center and one military during the War of the Pacific (1879– of its most affluent settlements. San Isidro 83). As part of the pillage, the Chileans made quickly gives way to the contiguous, seaside off with thousands of tomes from the National neighbourhood of Miraflores, which serves as Library (though they would eventually re- Lima’s contemporary core, bustling with com- turn them – in 2007). The war was followed merce, restaurants and nightlife. Immediately by another period of expansion, and by the to the south lies Barranco, a stately turn-of- 1920s Lima was crisscrossed by a network of the-20th-century resort community.