#15: Leaving Peru Into Ecuador: More Gold, More Bodies, More Sex & Lots of Rain and Misery
Inca symbol, at the Museo de la Nacion in Lima.
6 Mar 2002
After an exciting time in Iquitos and Leticia, I returned to Lima (capital of Peru), and stayed with Horacio and Isabel, friends of my London friend, Marianne. During the next few days, I had a wonderful time with this nice Peruvian-Spanish couple, both of whom I had never met until my arrival in Lima. I have also met some of their friends, all of whom were very interesting people. We have spent many hours exchanging views on issues, ranging from Peruvian relations with its neighbours to global development. I also had the good fortune to try Isabel’s kitchen skills, and they have introduced me to many aspects of Peruvian culture. Most of all, I am very touched by their hospitality and friendship, especially when we were only met for the first time. I had a wonderful time in Peru, and the memories will stay for many years to come.
Lima, the city of kings, was first built by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, on the ruins of an Inca city called Rimac and amidst the remains of many earlier civilisations that had flourished there even before the Incas. Even today, gigantic pyramids belonging to these ancient kingdoms rose high up above the skies of modern-day skyscrapers and buildings of this city of 8 million people.
Peru, like many Third World nations, is a country of uneven income distribution. Whilst one sees poverty in many parts of Peru, Lima – apart from the shantytowns surrounding it – has many oases of prosperity. The shopping malls of Miraflores; the Bohemian bars and Yuppie restaurants of Barranco; and the luxury apartments, international banking towers and the Lima Golf Club of San Isidro are all symbols of a different Lima. They are the ones idolised on primetime TV drama, one that has little to do with many of the masses who watch these programmes. Perhaps they serve as inspiration for a better life, desires of which had spurred off development and improvement in the standard of living in some of the shantytowns Horacio has described to me.
Lima is also a city of great colonial architecture. It used to be the capital of Spanish America, and grand buildings were built here. Some say this is one of the best examples of colonial architecture in the Americas. Of course, one has heard similar claims of Quito, Cusco, Cartagena, Bogota, etc. What I find most appealing is the fact that Lima is a city of great museums. For many years, wealthy Peruvians have been collecting artifacts of the many ancient civilisations that had flourished here. Some have opened private museums here for the public. I spent a few days visiting some of these wonderful collections. Two of the most unique ones are the Gold Museum and the Larco Hererra Museum.
The Gold Museum, as the name implies, is an amazing collection of gold and other precious artifacts of ancient Peru. Gold headdresses, sculptures, death masks, and jewelry of the past 3000 years grace its underground vault. I have never seen so much golden artifacts in any museums anywhere. Like other museums in Peru, there are also a couple of mummies here, but the difference being, over here you see rather gruesome-looking mummies with golden masks or headdresses, golden fillings over their teeth, or wearing well-preserved bright parrot feathers that are over 1500 years old. There is all this, not to mention the equally brightly coloured textiles from the Nazca and Paracas civilisations almost two millenniums ago.
The Larco Hererra Museum concentrates mainly on the Moche civilisation I mentioned in an earlier entry. What is very interesting is its collection of Moche erotic art, which takes up a separate building. As I have mentioned previously, the Moche seems to have an unusual appetite for erotic artifacts, which was further confirmed by this collection.
There were books and lots of studies into this aspect of Moche culture. In fact, I further read that 95% of Moche fertility art relates to anal sex! According to studies, these usually show an aggressive man with the woman showing pain and displeasure while in the act. Very seldom were women shown to display enjoyable looks. I am sure the archaeologists have an interesting field time. In addition, there were a few samples of homosexual sex and oral sex in the Gold Museum. It is interesting that the Moche were a lot more frank about sex and its varied reality 1500 years ago than later Judeo-Christian civilisations, which pretend that sex is nothing but an act of procreation.
After a few days in Lima, I left for Chiclayo, a large city on the northern Peruvian coast. While there I visited the famous artifacts of the Lord of Sipan, whose well preserved tomb has been featured in National Geographic magazine and documentaries. I wasn’t feeling very well in the hot deserts of the north, so I decided to skip the pyramids, as well as some famous local dishes such as lizard soup and fried cat (or rather, I had difficulty finding them in local restaurants even though I was told they should be available there).
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