We enjoyed Saturday with four other missionary
couples as we rented a van to travel about 45 minutes south to the ruins of
Pachacamac, the most popular ruins in Lima right on the ocean.
The tour was informative but the ruins, although massive, were only about 25% uncovered . . . if that. Let me explain a little: fifty years ago archeologists would begin the excavation work for a particular site and rebuild, so to speak, the broken down adobe walls to what the original building would have been. Some of the work is extensive. But then in the 1990’s, new laws came out that prohibited replacing original work. Currently, only cleaning, uncovering or stabilizing work is allowed so to the regular tourist only sees piles of rubble.
Ruins
Ravaged by time and weather,
Stalked and haunted by shadows
And ghosts of the past.
What was once a royal temple
Standing proud and strong,
Now blows away with the wind
And is buried by the sand.
After
our tour, we went to lunch at a wonderful resort that had play areas for the
children and a small bird aviary with a friendly toucan, several parrots,
doves, a hawk and others. There were rabbits, llamas, sheep and goats. During
our meal, we had live entertainment with the Peruvian flute and Folklorico
dancers. We got home about 4:00 and it was a pretty perfect day. The weather
was even perfect being mostly cloudy so we didn’t have the sun beating on us as
we were in the open. Being so close to the beach, we wish we had time to just
walk along the shore and dig our toes in the sand. THAT would have been
perfect!
We
actually had a rainy day!! We really had to watch ourselves as we walked the
narrow path to the office because the buses and trucks would spray water and
mud ten feet wide. It was still 80 degrees with rain coming down most of the
morning, the first we have seen since we’ve been here. They say, whoever “they”
are, that this is the El Nino year and we will have torrential rain the first
quarter. I imagine that will be mostly in the mountains of Peru because Lima
doesn’t get rain and it would definitely be a disaster if they did because
there are no windows, no run off, no gutters, and no underground drainage.
Until we wash away . . .
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