Peruvian Traffic: A Whole Different Animal

It's our first day. We're walking to class. We come to a large intersection, 4 lanes on one side (or the equivalent), 2 lanes on the other. There's no stoplight. There's no stop sign. There's not even a crosswalk. It's just one big free-for-all. We stood there, paralyzed with fear. This was completely foreign to us. We had no idea what to do.

In Perú, however, this is the norm. There are very few concrete regulations for traffic. The ones that do exist are rarely enforced. I couldn't tell you the amount of times I watched as a stop sign went flying by outside the window. But it works. People figure it out. It comes down to a simple, common-sense system of space - if you have space to go and you can get to that space the fastest, then you go. This system worked well enough that I didn't see an accident the whole trip.

This is a sharp contrast to America, where cops are much more keen on stopping people for traffic violations. My dad got a $350 ticket for speeding in a school zone, my sister got a $200 super speeder ticket, the list goes on and on. But in Perú? This rarely, if ever, happens.

This could be for a couple of reasons. Drug trafficking is a larger problem in the US, so sometimes police will use traffic violations to pull over someone they suspect of carrying drugs. On the other hand, the Peruvian police aren't heeded as much. I never saw a single police cruiser, and some locals I talked with said it was relatively easy to bribe the police. As a result, whatever traffic rules exist are largely ignored.

Whatever the reason, I admittedly enjoyed the freedom of this free-for-all type system. I waited for my moment, and stepped out to cross the road.

Human Sacrifices

There we were, standing in front of a tour guide, this one somehow worse than the previous two. His voice was one monotone block of sound, completely devoid of emotion and expressing, droning on and on and on. Suddenly, something he said made people gasp. I looked up, trying to see what I'd missed. The guide noticed that what he'd said had gotten people's attention, and so he repeated himself: here, at this temple, they'd found the bodies of 25 people that had been sacrificed - 24 girls and one boy who was dressed as a girl.

Mesoamerican societies had a strange obsession with human sacrifice - almost every ancient society in the Americas used ritual human sacrifice. The Aztecs believed their five gods constantly sacrificed to keep their world running, so they constantly sacrificed people. The Inca rigorously selected "Chosen Women" based on their looks to be sacrificed to the gods. The Mayans usually sacrificed animals, but on special occasions, such as the ascension of a king, they would sacrifice a person for good luck.

No other civilization did this. In fact, most belief systems did without sacrifice altogether. Out of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Islam, none support ritual sacrifice. Even the ones that used sacrifice only sacrificed animals - Judaism tells of the sacrifice of lambs, Zoroastrianism calls for animal sacrifice, etc - but not a single Afro-Eurasian civilization ever sacrificed people.

So why did Mesoamerican cultures sacrifices humans? And why only Mesoamerica? Long story short, we don't know. There's evidence of the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs, using bloodletting techniques, but there's little evidence for them using human sacrifice. Perhaps these other civilizations took the idea and ran with it? We don't really know. All I know is I'm glad I wasn't alive back then.

Cuy

One day, while we were wandering the markets in Pisac, our teacher directed us to a restaurant he wanted us to try. I soon realized that this restaurant was different from any other I'd been to before, because as soon as I walked in, I heard squeaking. I look to my right, and there is a whole complex made to house guinea pigs. then the smell hits me. I look over to the oven in front of me, and I realize that the guinea pigs I was just looking at were about to be on my plate.

It would likely be impossible to have this kind of restaurant in the US. We eat plenty of meat, don't get me wrong, but in the US, guinea pigs are pets. Eating one would be heartless, and putting them on display while they're still alive would either be shaming the customer, ignorance, or sadism, depending on how you spin it. Places like Red Lobster (a crowd favorite) can get away with this type of display because lobsters are far removed from everyday life and exclusively used for food, but guinea pigs are too close to people's hearts to be eaten.

This raises the question of where we draw the line between friend and food in terms of animals, and the answer is that it depends entirely on arbitrary societal norms. In the West, dogs are man's best friend, in some parts of Asia, they're a tasty meal. In India, cows are sacred, in America, beef is a staple. There are people in America who will feed their pet chickens and then stop at Chik-Fil-A for a nice chicken sandwich. Some fish are pets, others are food.

To an extent, it depends on how much the animal is valued and why. In the West, dogs became companion animals that were also useful for hunting. This gave them a sentimental value as well as a practical one, so it became taboo to eat them. In parts of Asia, however, these trends did not emerge, so they were eaten like any other animal. Likewise, in India, cows are sacred and could be people who were reincarnated into cows, so they were protected. In the West, no such belief emerged, so we eat beef.

So there I was, an American, who'd had guinea pigs as pets before, digging into a plate of cuy. As they say, when in Rome...

Syncretism in Art

At one point during our travels, me and some others entered an art shop. It had a lot of the standard, touristy items - paintings of Machu Picchu, the streets of Lima, and the sacred Inca animals, but it also had some much more interesting paintings. On one wall, there was an enormous painting of the last supper, but everyone in it was dressed in traditional Inca clothing, and there was cuy on the table. The other painting that caught my eye was a beautiful portrait of an angel, only this angel was wearing Inca clothing and brandishing a musket.

The blending of cultures in the art at this art shop is representative of a larger blending of cultures between the Spanish and the Inca. In Cusco, the locals still celebrate both Corpus Christi, a Christian festival celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus, and Inti Raymi, the Inca festival celebrating the winter solstice, within a couple weeks of each other. Many Peruvians still speak Quechua, some as a first language, and there are churches in Peru that conduct mass in Quechua.

All of this is possible because the first conquistadors allowed the Inca to keep most of their traditions. While the Spanish looted all the gold and silver they could find and tried to replace the local religions with Catholicism, they also granted considerable rights to Inca nobles, making them almost equal to Spaniards. In addition, the Spanish didn't bring any wives with them, so they married Inca women. In Inca culture, the wife is charged with preserving the culture, and their Spaniard husbands allowed this tradition to continue, allowing the Inca customs to be passed down.

This rich history is what drives Cusco today - its architecture, its culture, and its flourishing tourism industry. Seeing those paintings in that art shop made me truly appreciate how deep this cultural connection runs in Cusqueñan society.

Horseback Ride

Today we went horseback riding in the mountains. We were picked up at our hotel and driven out to a small ranch on the edge of town. At first there was no one in sight, but soon a jolly little figure bounded out of a stable with two horses in tow. He introduced himself as Gabriel, a man who had inherited this ranch from his father and had worked with horses all his life. His eyes lit up as he told us the names of our horses and what their names meant - mine was Waiki, which means “best friend” in Quechua. He helped us all get up on our horses and we were off.

Gabriel’s first order of business was to take us up past Saqsaywaman to the Moon Temple. While profusely and frequently calling us “my friends,” he explained the importance of the moon temple. During the reign of the Inca empire, Inca nobility would be buried here in a grand ceremony that included burying the body in the fetal position so that it could be born again into the next life. They also held a monthly ritual where they would sacrifice a llama to the moon god during the full moon. To this day, there are people - “descendants of the Inca” - who still perform this ritual, albeit without the ritual sacrifice of llama. Instead, they offer coca leaves and other such things.

To me, this horseback ride exposed just how much the Inca culture persists compared to the cultures of native Americans. As we all well know, in America, the native populations were seen as inferior, and as such were largely eradicated, with the surviving populations being forced to live on small reservations with terrible living conditions and little to no government support or help. As such, many Americans, myself included, don’t even know the names of the tribes that once lived on the same land that we once did, much less their traditions, languages, or customs.

In Perú, on the other hand, some Incas were intermarried with Spaniards, and many others survived, and now Inca culture is an enormous part of the heritage here. Our guide’s first language was Quechua - not Spanish or English, but the native language of the Inca. The women we encountered on the trip wore the traditional clothes, and we were often serenaded by pan flutes on our way. The people call themselves “descendants of the Inca”. This heritage adds another dimension to their culture, one ancient and marvelous, grounded in the mythical origins of their ancestors - they say that they are descendants of the children of the Sun. Americans have no such mythology. We are the children of immigrants who came from other countries.

How Lima Allocates Its Land

The use of space in Lima made me feel a degree of culture shock. On the drive to the hostel from the airport, it was glaringly obvious to me that Lima did not prioritize having wider lanes on the road. Even with the lanes that are in place, they’re perceived as mere suggestions to the erratic drivers here. Cuzco is also guilty of this, but the driving there was relatively calmer than it was in Lima, so I can forgive them. While on the road, I have seen that there are advertisements to vote for politicians painted along the sides of the road because these campaigns realize that location is important for advertising.

It’s nice to see that the government does make efforts to change how the people see the city of Lima. I’ve seen playgrounds and exercise equipment near Larcomar, and I have also seen signs on the way to one of our side trips that the mayor of the Corrillos District plans on having a sports field and a relaxation area to improve the public’s well-being. Seeing that was uplifting news that showed me that at least some efforts are being made that value the lives of the citizens. This could also be a sign of the mayor trying to do what he thinks will have his constituents favor him over others that may run against him.

The rideshare scooters around Lima says volumes that the city has been making strides towards bettering the environment. There have been a number of people that have zoomed past me on Grin scooters, meaning that at least some people have benefited from this addition. This, as well as the recycling bins that I have failed to see even around Nashville, have amazed me; unfortunately, Lima will not see the results of these efforts for years to come.

While there is space allocated for these amenities around the city, I couldn’t help but realize that Lima is not a very accessible city. The same goes for Cuzco as well, but I thought that this may have only been prevalent there. I’ll admit that there are crosswalks that lead up to wheelchair accessible ramps on sidewalks, but that’s as far as it goes, apart from the rare elevator in the airport. It is easy to forget about improving infrastructure that doesn’t directly impact yourself, but it should be part of the government’s job to give a voice to the voiceless rather than remembering to maintain payphones on the streets.

Nightlife and What That Means in Different Parts of Peru

The culture in Pisaq seemed to be almost a world away from that of Cusco. While Cusco has a bustling nightlife, Pisaq tends to go to sleep early. Because of that, the town is up by 5:30 AM, when many of us woke up to ringing church bells. I’ve never labeled myself as a morning or night person because I don’t like to be up too early or too late at night. However, I felt like Pisaq took the concept of early riser to another level. For instance, I felt like I didn’t know what to do with myself when it was 6:00 PM and many of the stores and restaurants were closed. I felt trapped by my own boredom inside of the hotel we were staying at because of how little there was to do.

I generally got a different energy from the city although we were no more than 40 minutes away from Cuzco. Meanwhile, I never had to think twice about what time a restaurant or tienda closed in Cuzco because they were always open when I needed them to be. I think I was spoiled by that life for the few days that I spent in there prior to the trip to Pisaq. However, I was that much more grateful for the longer operating hours in Cuzco when we returned from that weekend.

With Lima, it felt as though it was the South American city that never sleeps. With all of the city lights out there, I could tell that there was more of a nightlife in this city. Although it seemed as though it did not thrive as heavily on tourism as Cuzco did, I could still tell that tourism has played a role in shaping what Lima is like after dark. We only spent two or three nights in Lima, but from what I saw, I had no trouble getting a bowl of chicken and shrimp fried rice from Mercado 28, an area with a food court like setup that can fulfill anyone’s late-night cravings. Although each of these cities bring with them different personalities, each of them hold a special place in my heart because they make up the beautiful mosaic that is Peru.

Tsunamis, Construction and Catacombs, Oh My!

On our first real day in Lima, we woke up early to start our 12 hour on and off bus ride Lima tour day. We woke up in a paint fume smelling hotel (the joys of traveling), and I checked my phone to see a text from Falconi at approximately 3 am telling us that what we had just (or had not, hard sleepers I’m looking at you) experienced was a high magnitude earthquake in Northern Peru.

Lima is on the coast, and the neighborhood we were staying in, Mira Flores, was directly on the coast. The minute we boarded the bus, Falconi began telling us tsunami preparedness tips just in case. This is all to say, our first true day in Lima was quite the adventure. After our tsunami prep course, and the anxieties about the early morning earthquake had subsided for most, we took off for our first stop of the day for us wimpy Americans: coffee. From there we toured one of the few ruins (not Inca) in Lima, and then a walking tour of the city. It was here that the differences between Cusco and Lima were most pronounced. Outside of the church there were blind men and women, a badly burned man, and different people suffering from physical ailments begging for money, a swift change from the incessant masaje women in Cusco. The city was also far more like a city in the States or Europe, than Cusco was. There was lots of hustle and bustle, and many the tiendas. We saw the beautiful church in the Plaza, and were not permitted to access any of the government buildings because we came to find out that the President of Bolivia was in town on diplomatic business. Again- not something you see in Cusco ever. Falconi also explained to me on one of our bus tours that day that Lima was the reason that Peru had successfully evaded the past two global recessions with few financial casualties. He explained that though Lima is not known for one particular industry, the bank and finance industry is largest in Lima compared to the rest of Peru. He explained that they handle things really well, even given how we in the States regard Peru as a ‘developing country.’ From here, we visited the catacombs in downtown Lima. This was incredibly interesting, as the skulls and bones were methodically arranged in almost like artwork arrangements- with no real reason as to why. Though the catacombs were a bit claustrophobic, they were incredible to see still intact and directly underneath a place of worship. There were aerial vents directly into the room where they were doing mass, that us lowly catacomb tourists could peer directly into.

Though this day was mildly exhausting, it was one of my favorite days in Peru. I felt that even though we were not in Lima long, I truly understood some things about their day to day life. And the purpose of all of this is to say: traveling requires flexibility! A train may seem like it goes off the rails due to language barriers, a hotel may not be finished in time, there may be earthquakes and tsunami threats- but you cannot truly see the world and understand it without accepting the requirement for flexibility and a positive attitude.

An ode to lomo saltado

This blog is going to be relatively simple- I just cannot leave Peru without fully acknowledging my newfound adoration for a Peruvian dish that I miss already: lomo saltado.

Lomo saltado is a relatively simple dish, but do not let that fool you. Composed of beef or steak doused in salty, juicy marinade and stir fried with various vegetables, lomo saltado is served over white rice and papas fritas. You’ve got your protein, and plenty of carbs. There is nothing better to eat after hiking Machu Picchu, or a 12 hour day tour of Lima, then a steaming plate of lomo saltado. However, do not be fooled. In our day tour of Lima, we had a cooking class (consistently mainly of them cooking and us drinking and eating) where one of the dishes taught was lomo saltado. At this point, all I knew was that it was delicious, not that it was stir fried. So low and behold when flames started flying up from the meat, and I realized that this was not something I could make in a dorm sized kitchen, the misery sat in. At the cooking class, our cook demonstrated the ingredients listed above, and showed how they use pisco in the pan to accomplish their uniqueness in this Peruvian dish. In addition to pisco, they also used vegetable oil, and the stir fry did not take long. Both of these factors I believe accomplishes the juicy tenderness that every single lomo saltado I tried had. However, I am determined to be able to make it at some point in time. This is a staple at almost every restaurant- lomo saltado regular, or a lomo saltado sandwich, it comprised up to 40% of my meals while in both Cusco and Lima.

If you are reading this and coming to Peru in the near future: you MUST try the lomo saltado at La Feria Cocina Tradicional Peruana. 11/10 and the best one I had in all of the country. Similarly, the lomo saltado sandwich at Café Plaza (the best café in all of Cusco): 10/10.

Hanger and Machismo

I have been to a fair share of Latin American countries for extended periods of time at this point, often in rural areas secluded from cities in less developed countries such as Ecuador and Nicaragua. This is to say that I have experienced my fair share of ‘machismo’ culture, and compared it in different places, and Peru’s was unique in a variety of ways. Over the span of two days in our first week in Cusco, I intentionally tried to observe and take note customs that in my mind reflect the machismo culture that many say exists.

Machismo is defined in the dictionary as “strong or aggressive masculine pride.” I have never experienced it in this way, to be clear, but Peru showed their machismo through a few ways. Firstly, women would almost always be served last during mealtime. This was a different custom than I had experienced elsewhere, and I asked Falconi about it one morning. He said that this is one of the reasons he would show up last to breakfast in the morning, because if he showed up early he said the servers at, say, Casa Elena would make a big show out of serving him his food first as a sign of respect. This was interesting to me because he said he made a conscious effort of it, and always tried to sit down or arrive last for meals if they weren’t at a restaurant. On that particular morning, I had been sitting at a table with Crosby, Maverick, Logan and Andrew and was curious as to why the server brought all of their food out before mine, though this meant that he had to traverse around the table in an awkward fashion. Things made a lot more sense when Falconi explained that to me, because people under your service wanted to make a customary show of respect to the men. This is not in any way a mal-intentioned act, rather it was ordinary for many of our meals to me served in this way. It is also a tiny example, one that I am sure I never would have noticed had I not been so hangry that particular morning. In contrast, in the States women are typically served first, as a sign of respect for them. Another example of machismo in a restaurant setting is when later that night I went out to dinner with some of the guys, and both Maverick and I ordered two different types of wine. This was an upscale place, and our waiter came over and poured my (full) glass haphazardly, and then got the other bottle and made Maverick taste it first to ensure it was up to his standards before pouring his glass. Again, these are very minor details, it is just interesting to observe how machismo reflects itself in varying countries, and the biggest way I noticed it in Peru was through eating and drinking.