Lima Day Three

Today I go on a tour of the ruins of Pachacamac, but first a breakfast of some of the food I got at the market yesterday.

Booty from the market. 

From left starting with the dark green and going clockwise 

 Sapote, pepino, corn, aji chiles, lucuma, and ciruela

My breakfast - pepino, ciruela, and lucuna

The temple of Pachacamac is an archaeological site 25 miles southeast of Lima in the Valley of the Lurin River.  The site's name derives from the Quechua term for the coastal deity, Pacha Camac (Pacha = earth Camac = creator).  This site, which contains a number of pyramids, was considered one of the most important religious monuments by the indigenous people of the central Andes at the time Peru was conquered by Francisco Pizarro in 1533.  The main temple at the site was dedicated to Pachacamac and held a famous oracle. Pilgrims traveled to the center from great distances, and its cemetery was considered sacrosanct.

The Pachacamac temple complex is spread out over an area of three square miles.  Archeologists have identified and uncovered at least 17 pyramids at Pachacamac, many of them irreversibly damaged by time and weather.  Also discovered among the pyramids, from the Early Intermediate period, (c. 200-600 CE) were a cemetery and multicolored fresco of fish. This is from when the Lima People started building pyramids there. Later, the Huari (c. 600-800 CE) sponsored construction of the city, probably using it as an administrative center. A number of Huari influenced designs appear on the construction in this period and on the ceramics and textiles found in the cemeteries of this period.  Only the Lima People and the Huari worshiped the diety of Pachacamac.

After the collapse of the Huari empire, Pachacamac continued to grow as an important religious center. The majority of the common architecture and temples were built at this stage (c. 800-1450 CE).  Historical sources indicate that in the 15th century, Pachacamac was ruled by the Ichma, who established an alliance with the Inca. Following the expansion of the Inca empire, Pachacamac became an important Inca administrative center, while maintaining its status as a religious shrine. The Inca built five separate complexes there, including the Pyramid of the Sun and the Mamacuna. The latter contains fine Inca masonry in its entrance gate, a rarity on the coast.

When the Incas took over Pachacamac, they built the largest temple on the highest ground, which was the temple of the sun.  This temple was facing the sunset over the pacific ocean.  Most previous temples built faced the rising sun.  The temple of the sun was painted all in red using achiote which is the coloring  used these days for cheddar cheese.

View of the ocean from atop the temple of the sun

Ruins at the edge of the Pachacamac grounds with Lima on the edge of the Lurin Valley in the background

The temple of the moon was built by the Inca and was at a low spot in the temple complex.  It almost never rains in this area and most of the erosion is from wind.  This temple was the most well preserved as it was in low area and sand blew over it.  It has been restored but not rebuilt.

My lunch after getting back from the tour was at Mezze restaurant.

This is a kind of ceviche of sliced sea bass in three ways.  On the left is with rocoto chile, middle is plain lime juice and the one on the right is with aji chile.  Note the garnishes of poached sweet potato, cilantro and fresh corn

Later in the afternoon I called Yadilitta and she came over to cook at Kokopelli.  We walked down to the market and picked out our ingredients then took over the Kokopelli kitchen.

We got Yacon which is crunchy like jicama but a bit sweeter.  On the plate just above the yacon are some red/yellow potatoes and going around clockwise, -----which tastes a little like cucumber but is hollow inside with black square seeds, a roma tomato, tumba which is seedy like pomegranate and sour, cocona, and in the middle a passion fruit.  Next to the yacon is some andean cheese and a ------squash.

Prepping the food tumbo, passion fruit, aji chiles, the potatoes

Blanching the squash and corn

Yadilitta having fun!

All the ingredients are ready

Let's Cook!

The finished product

Time to enjoy!

After eating we went out to a (very)local music club for some traditional Música criolla which combines mainly African, Spanish and Andean influences.  It features Spanish guitars and the rhythm section is a box.