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TRAVEL So, with an arm full of vaccines, most essentially a Yellow Fever certificate, and a hip full of SynVisc, the first leg of the 31-hour odyssey began. For West Coasters, you have to get yourself to either Sydney or Melbourne and, as Lima is not on a direct flight path from any Australian port, all flights go through the Chilean capital of Santiago. After more than a day on the ‘road’, arriving in Lima is a wonderful thing to achieve but be prepared (and patient) for another 50-60 minutes while your driver valiantly negotiates the insane Lima traffic. This will be the case for most of your time in this bustling city of 10 million people – and its slightly fewer cars, buses and trucks. Peru is divided into three geographical regions that all contribute to the greater good and a GDP that pushes it into one of the healthier South American economic zones. Colloquially, they are ‘The Coast’, with Lima at its heart, ‘The Jungle’, with the Amazon Basin thumping out the beats, and ‘The Mountains’, where the air is thin and the history is thick. The first part of the five-week adventure takes place at The Coast, broadly, and Lima, specifically. There has been continual habitation of Lima for thousands of years, but that still doesn’t prepare you for a 1500-year-old pyramid to appear miraculously at the end of a suburban street in Miraflores. The Huaca Pucllana is a preIncan step pyramid originally built by the resident Lima culture between 200AD and 700AD. It is a spit from the Pacific Ocean and commands views over the city,
The Huaca Pucllana
hence its political significance. It is part of a chain of pyramids and archaeological sites around the city – just a 10-minute car ride and you’ll be at the feet of another pyramid, the Huaca Huallamarca, in the upmarket suburb of San Isidro. Lima is like many modern cities that must co-exist with their pre-history – sometimes its valued and revered, sometimes it’s a bit of a nuisance. Like Athens, there is history with every shovel load in Lima. The best place to see what the shovels unearth are the museums. The Larco Museum has great raps on Trip Advisor and, interestingly, it is a private museum, something we don’t experience all that much in Australia. It is located in the wonderfully named Pueblo Libre, or Free Town, district of the city in an 18th century vice-royal building. Inside is 5000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history as told by thousands of pieces of pottery, metalwork, textiles and murals. The collection got serious in 1925 when Rafael Larco Herrera acquired his archaeologist brother-in-law
Alfredo Hoyle’s 600 odd ceramic discoveries. The collection has some notoriety for its extensive erotic pottery collection, but it is far from the drawcard. The artefacts of daily and royal life from millennia past capture the imagination in far more powerful ways than rather obvious drinking cups. To cap off a wonderful visit, the gardens are a thing to behold. In a city that sees little rainfall, these verdant, blooming grounds are a balm from the dusty city streets. The restaurant is crackerjack as well. For the bohemian (in us all), the Barranco district is full of artists, writers (Mario Vargas Llosa for one), photographers (Mario Testino, another), musicians and actors. Its stop-and-gawk colourful architecture, its parks full of interesting artworks and even more interesting characters, its quaint bridges make it a place to return to again and again, for a great coffee, a stroll to the sea, a drink at the chic bars. It’s a lot of fun. It’s probably pertinent here to discuss the Australian government’s warning: “Exercise a high degree of caution in Peru overall due to the high risk of violent crime.” I was in a privileged position of having family who knew who’s who in the zoo and location of the no-fly zones. However, common sense is the best companion a traveller can wish for.
The sunset over the Pacific Ocean of Miraflores
Lima has inhabitants who struggle economically. With the Venezuelan diaspora, Peru has had nearly 1,000,000 people cross its border to find work that is already difficult to find. The capital has more than its fair share of desperate people, so, yes, caution is urged. The rules that continued on Page 48
MEDICAL FORUM | PAIN MANAGEMENT ISSUE
MARCH 2020 | 47
