Experiencing Lima

​Our day in Lima started out surfing at the beach. Syd’s soul was to happy to get wet. He rented a wetsuit and surfboard from a nice surf school tent and they even gave me a chair!

The beaches are all stones here so it’s a bit hard to sit on the beach. The waves also sound different with the rocks moving around. It is a very unique clinking noise. 

After the morning at the beach we took a cab across town to The Larco Museum. The museum showcases artifacts from the pre-columbian cultures that we saw the ruins of this trip. It’s collection is huge and incredibly impressive and the grounds are beautiful with colorful flowers. 

We started off looking at the pottery. All of these pots symbolize the dualities of life like light and dark, above and below, male and female. 

I was so happy you could take photos at the museum! Notice the Inkian stairs on the right. These shaped pots are also distinct for the Inka. They look like kettle bells. 

I loved these owls! Any pottery or images with birds represents the heavens. Cats or felines represent the earth. From Syd’s favorite podcast, ArcheoEd, we learned about the fanged diety, and it was really cool to see all the depictions like the bowl on the left. Serpents/snakes represented the below. 

One of the reasons we came to the museum was to see the Quipus. Syd is fascinated by Quipus (again from the podcast) because this is how the Inka communicated and kept records. There were special people in their society who knew how to weave the thread, make knots, use different colors, shells, feathers, to create meaning. Syd loves language so he really wanted to learn more about the Quipus and see them in person. 

The sad thing is the Spanish Conquerors destroyed most of the Quipus and killed all the people who knew how to read them so the language and records are completely lost. There are less than 1000 Quipus found and no way to read them. Syd would love to be the person to crack the code!

The Inkan metal work was also pretty amazing. These are all weapons that they could throw in battle. 

These are gold nose rings! Can you imagine wearing one of these?! 

This is gold armor that someone was buried with. It’s so elaborate and pure gold. 

The next section we saw were the archives. Its floor to ceiling with artifacts that they have found. Most of them are in one piece, which is amazing, and they are grouped by type. Most museums hold their archives in private, but the Larco wanted to share everything with the world. 

So many artifacts!

This is a tree of life. It’s made of textiles and survived being buried for hundred of years. It represents fertility.

The museum also has an erotic section because Inka were also know for showing off their sacred sexuality in their pottery. 

Here are two pots, some of the least vulgar on display. They definitly focused on getting anatomy correct! 

After seeing all the amazing artifacts we had lunch in the cute museum cafe. I loved all the plants and decor. 

To end our day, we had dinner at Maido, the number 1 ranked restaurant in the world. It’s funny, someone recommended to me that we get a reservation to eat there because it was in the top 50, but since then it was named number one! Maido is Peruvian Japanese food with a fixed 8 course menu. The whole meal is an experience. 

Us sitting at our table. There is rope hanging from the ceiling and the restaurant is a black box with mirrors. 

I will spare you the photos of the entire meal, but every course had different ingredients, different utensils, and Syd got the drink pairings. They first bring the drink, then they give you the utensil like a special spoon or knife, or chop sticks, and then they bring the food, and talk about what it’s made out of, and then they explain how to eat it. Some have a certain order, some need to be stirred, and others you have to add things to it. It’s interactive and a meal. 

This is the Tuna man. He comes over and cuts you the thinnest slice of tuna I’ve ever seen and dips it in a sauce for you. It was so good!

Syd got to choose which sake cup he wanted. He went with blue. 

This was the best course! Sea bass (foreground below) with rice, left. The three colorful sauces got mixed into the rice. Delicious. Also notice the special fork and spoon, plus the mini spoon for scooping the sauces. 

There were three course of dessert. This was the last one. My favorite part of the desert of the vanilla seed milk shot to cleanse your pallet.

Us after our meal! That was an experience. I want to add that I was very brave and tried everything. I ate things like scallops, snails, fish roe, suckling pork, and sea urchin, that I would never have tried, but at a place like this, it’s one bite and if you don’t eat it they know! It all tasted delicious, but because I eat with my eyes, and imagine raw fish swimming in my stomach after eating it, I did buy a bread roll on the way home to settle my stomach. If you are ever in Lima, you must try Maido.