More
than 400 years ago, the Spanish conqueror
("conquistador") Francisco Pizarro named Lima the
City of the Kings ("Ciudad de los Reyes"). Nowadays,
that same city, which rose from the lands of the native
chief Taulischusco, is a metropolis of over 7 million
people who proudly preserve the colonial convents and
mansions which are symbols of their ancient and noble
traditions.
Lima, capital of Peru, founded on January 18,
1535, is a modern city which, while constantly
expanding, has also managed to maintain the elegance of
its Historic Center. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage
Center, due to the large number of artistic monuments
found there, Historic Lima is an enchanting haven
of a period long gone.
Lima's Cathedral, which City Fathers began
building on the very day of the city's foundation; the
Church and Convent of San Francisco, due to its harmony
of volume and color, considered by some as the greatest
architectural complex of its kind in Latin America, and
Santo Domingo, with its beautiful main cloister, are but
a few of the invaluable treasures which provide evidence
of Lima's deep religious faith.
Similarly, mansions such as the House of Aliaga ("Casa
Aliaga"), built upon the private temple of the chief
Taulichusco; the House of Goyeneche or Rada ("Casa
Goyeneche or Rada"), with its obvious French influences;
and the Torre Tagle Palace ("Palacio de Torre Tagle"),
the most beautiful of Lima's early 18th century
mansions, all symbolize the splendor and ostentation of
the Viceregal era.
Built on the banks of the River Rimac, and caressed by
the waters of the Pacific Ocean, the city of Lima
also preserves traces of its pre-Hispanic period; most
notably the great sanctuary of Pachacamac, where a god
of the same name was worshipped, and the 'huaca'
Pucllana, in the district of Miraflores, an important
administrative center of the Lima culture (400
AC).
Lima's name comes from the 'aymara' word lima-limac
or limac-huayta, the name of a yellow flower; or from
the quechua īrimacī meaning 'speaker'. Because of these
links with the pre-Hispanic past, its colonial past and
the strong religious faith it gave it; its modern
outlook and its festive nature, which bathes its
eternally gray sky in color, Lima, will always be
the City of the Kings.
ATTRACTIONS IN LIMA
The visitor to Lima will never be bored, as there
are so many nooks and crannies to discover and get to
know. Visitors, like the native "Limeņos", will
notice that time flies while in the "City of Kings". So,
make the best of your time while there, to visit its old
mansions and impressive convents and churches, its
pre-Hispanic ruins, its museums and squares and its
modern parts as well with its skyscrapers and the neon
lights that enliven its busy nightlife.
GASTRONOMY IN LIMA
When the Spanish conquistador set foot on the lands of
ancient Peru during the first decades of the now remote
XVI century, he found no better way of satiating its
desire for food than trying the corn, the potato, the
peanut, the yucca, the sweet potato, the dried and
salted fish, the exquisite alpaca meat and the
outstanding chilli.
In order to keep his identity, he added some elements of
his own stock of food to all this: some fine cloves of
garlic, the acid juice of the lemons, and a shot of
olive oil. At that precise moment one of the best
cuisines in the world begun to gestate: the Peruvian.
The gastronomy ambit was therefore the best means
of understanding between the native inhabitant of Peru
and the Spanish conquistador. An understanding that was
founded on the basics, as some scholars put it, for the
most permeable part of a culture is its food, and it is
the closest to pleasure, to necessity and to hunger.
In the course of these transformations the Spaniards
accounted for full herds of alpacas, and substituted the
bread made of wheat for the one made of corn. And right
after they established themselves in the cities they
founded whilst subduing the empire, they were clever
enough to send for rice, wheat, olives, sugar, and the
sugarcane as well, from the Iberian Peninsula, besides
full herds of pigs, sheep and cows.
All these ingredients were mixed on the conquistador's
dining table. They assumed new forms. Displayed new
aromas. Created new tastes. As soon as the Spaniard got
used to eating corn and potatoes, the ancient Peruvian
inhabitant learned to eat wheat, pork and beef, and
naturally, they gained the use of species.
We need to include two additional elements to this
interesting culinary crossbreeding: the Moor hand of the
Arab female cooks the Spaniards brought with them, and
the hand of the black slaves, which arrived in great
numbers in the two subsequent centuries.
And so from that centenarian process emerged the
terrific Peruvian cebiche,
the archaic
carapulcra criolla,
the skewers of bullock heart, the tamales of the sierra
wrapped on achira leafs, or the spicy
ají de gallina.
