Peruvian GOLD

GOLD!, I say....

although i've been a littel lukewarm for the yellow metal as a speculation recently. that's pretty much just the charts being an utter disaster.

BUT

...being in the actual physical presence of gold got my fever going. It turns out, that upscale mall had an exposition they were putting on -- on loan from the national museum -- of peruvian gold crafted by the Incas.

we paid a couple of bucks and put on some headphones -- English was available it turns out. For the next 45 minutes or so we were treated to a lecture on the Incan way of life, their uses for precious metals, their fabrication techniques, the status they conveyed, etc. etc. etc.

.... i didn't really retain any of it. i just remember they had GOLD! :)

artifacts and stuff.

the pics we had to take with out little digital with the flash off. this of course, necessitates walking up to the GOLD and taking a picture without your paws twitching -- while the shutter is open long enough to get adequate exposure -- or whatever digital cameras call 'exposure'. anyhow, i was all in a twitter with all that gold, so the pics that came out without any blur were mostly taken by Golden Lotus while my eyes turned into little swirls, like in 70's cartoons.

it was pretty spectacular -- especially near the end where they displayed some guy's previously "private" collection.

The incans liked to put compounds on the gold to change the color -- (what were they thinking?) so at times the "booyah" "gold fever" effect that you get when you see, for instance, the king tut exhibit, isn't there, but there are some fabulous pieces nonetheless.

obviously, the photos barely do these things justice and it's hard to capture scale at times -- but enjoy nonetheless.

adios,

Uruguay Guy

'Lima Bean Good to Me'

We finally got in the van and on the way to the touristic neighborhood of Miraflores in Lima.

Since we arrived around midnight, my initial impressions of Lima were as viewed through the "late night" lense.

My first impression was that it appeared to be much more US-centric than Montevideo. It wasn't just that there were a lot more cars (and broad roads built to handle them) it's that places of business were built with parking lots.

In addition, some of chain restaurants from the US had migrated as far south as Peru and would make an appearance on the roadside with startling regularity.

Pizza Hut

McDonalds

KFC

Dunkin Donuts

Dominos

Burger King

Subway

Chili's

and several others that i'm sure i forget. In addition to the North American eating establishments, the other things that immediately struck me about Lima were:

1.) an asian influence (believe it or not), and

2.) the ubiquity of casinos, bingo halls, and gambling establishments

MiraFlores is the "upscale" neighborhood in Lima (I guess). While not pristine (by North American standards), by *lima* standards you could tell just driving down the streets that it was considered the "good" neighborhood.

MiraFlores has a nice park that sits on a cliff overlooking the ocean a couple of blocks from our hotel. Then, underneath the park, into the cliff overlooking the ocean they built an upscale outdoor mall.

The pictures are a little weak because the marine layer whites everything out on my camera. Trust me, it was a lot nicer than anything in MVD though. There was a nice/upscale Chinese AND Japanese restaurant, Tony Romas (lol), Hooters (lmfao), and a Dunkin Donuts (not laughing now -- i ate lots of those :))

There were also a number of local stores selling upscale baby alpaca "wool" items of clothing and some other stores geared towards the well-off Peruvian or Foreigner/Expat. The mall was quite crowded everytime we went there for to eat in our four days in Lima.

Ok...further adventures/details/and pics coming in the next installment.

UG