The Living in Peru article notes that admission to the zoo is at most nine soles, or around $3.23. I have to say that the zoo is a must-see for anyone visiting Lima!

The board is just an inch across!

Her shop, Mousemarket (I know, isn’t that a cute name?!) is on Etsy.

I mentioned before that the park was more than a zoo: it also had some very impressive archaeological sites, part of the Maranga complex. It also had a botanical garden which was very peculiarly designed: it was basically one winding path that kept making sharp turns to make the most out of the plot of land it took. The problem was that I wasn’t in the mood to walk through the whole garden, and once in there was no escape. I trekked through it, looking at some of the plants along the way. The signs were in the first person, and shaped like speech balloons, so it looked like the plants are narrating. Cute.

There was an archaeology museum in the park as well, Museo de Sitio Ernst W. Middendorf. I missed it on my first loop around the zoo, and I had to cut through the entire thing to get back there. I almost left without seeing the museum, thinking it won’t be worth the walk, but I decided to go back after chastising my lack of sense of adventure. The museum turned out to be very good. It dealt with the local prehistoric cultures, the same ones whose remains I’m studying for my dissertation! It was nice to see a museum’s description of the same general area. There was also a wonderful reconstruction of the Lord of Sipán, the elite whose tomb was discovered in the 1980s. The reproduction of his finery, including giant nose piercings and a ceremonial mace was very well done.

I left the park after seeing the museum (yes, I had to walk back through the entire thing to the exit!). I had seen on Google Maps that there was a local supermarket nearby so I went there for lunch. They had a buffet that charges by weight. I had some pasta and meatballs, and a giant hunk of flan. I went back to the hotel exhausted from the day’s walking.

To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to going to Peru. The sense of familiarity played into that, since a lot of novelty has gone. But also I was in a blah mood a few months ago when I was scheduling this trip. Being here I realize I can see so much more if I just made the effort. Next time I go to Peru I want to allot some time to go somewhere completely different. My top picks are the city of Arequipa, a trip up the north coast to see the archaeological sites, or a trip far south to Lake Titicaca. Who knows I may see all three!

Anyway that’s why I decided to go El Parque de las Leyendas (~Legends Park), where the zoo is. I’ve avoided going there before. The previous Lonely Planet guide said it wasn’t very good, and actually kind of creepy. The current edition is more impartial. What sold me on this attraction was that the zoo is comingled with archaeological sites. How could I -not- go?

I guestimated what bus routes would be the most convenient. Not to pick on the Lonely Planet guide, but despite what it says, it turns out the words painted on the side of each bus or van is actually a very accurate description of its route. That is, if you know enough about Lima’s zones and main streets, those words make perfect sense. Actively trying to remember these strings of place names also gave my brain a decent concept of where to go to take a bus to a given location.

{Words on the side of a bus. Meaningless decoration or key to everything?}

Luckily, the Villa Rica is within blocks of major streets going in every direction, so it is no problem going to where the buses are. I took a bus going westward towards the Pacific Ocean. It got off the bus at the Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú. I was still a few blocks away from the zoo, but I planned for that too. I simply hailed a cab to take me that short distance. The smart part of this plan is that, if I took the cab from the hotel, it would cost around $3. A bus ride is usually 30 cents. Getting “within range” then taking the cab costs around $1.25. I basically cut the cost of getting there in half. Sure, $1.50 isn’t much, but here very sol counts!

It was around 9:30AM when I got to the zoo. Besides a few lines of school kids, I was the only visitor. The zoo is famously divided into 3+1 sections. Three parts, reach representing an ecological zone in Peru (coast, mountain, jungle), and a fourth for international animals. I took a walk around Huaca San Miguel (a huaca is basically the generic term for an archaeological construction) and ended up in the international section.

This was definitely the oldest part of the zoo. The cages had concrete floors and metal bars, a style that was obsolete in the 80s. The male lion was pacing back and forth of it’s tiny cage, with a shellshocked look in his eyes. My heart sank a little.

{The lion dreams of his future new exhibit.}

I took a walk around the international section. I was the only visitor there so it was eerily quiet, except for the animals. I passed a few zoo staff preparing for the day. In typical Peruvian fashion, they greeted me warmly as I passed.

After passing the tigers, ostriches, giraffes, and hippos I entered the jungle section. So this is where the money has gone! The jungle exhibits were fantastic. The tortoises had an enclosure fit for several lions. The black panther and its tiny baby also had an extremely spacious exhibit. I started to think that the lions must have gotten some zookeeper angry! As it turns out, a look at the zoo map shows that the big cats are getting their own exhibit next. Whew! I felt a lot better about this zoo.

Mom and daughter, exploring the enclosure. More pictures at Zooborns.com.}

There were a lot of animals I’ve never seen before at this zoo, which was very nice. There were peregrine falcons, king vultures, and sloths! A stream filled with lilies wound around this part of the zoo. By this point the zoo had a lot more visitors. A little kid ran up to me and told me a story about his grandmother’s turtles (which she ate). Passing by some teenagers looking at a reconstructed jungle hut I heard this in Spanish:

“What’s this?” (indicating the barren one-room hut)
“I think this is where the jungle people hooked up.”
“… I think that’s just their house….”

Leaving the jungle I went to the mountain section. True to its theme, there were lots of stairs and ramps. An archaeological site loomed over one side. This quarter of the zoo had all of the llamas and alpacas. The andean condors had an enclosure which may just be a tad too small (they did have room to soar however briefly from one side to the other).

The last section I saw, the coast, was the smallest. There were literally four animals there: sea lions, Humboldt penguins, some sea birds (I lumped them together), and andean foxes. (Counterpoint: the official website lists 49 species). I wasn’t too enthused with the coastal fauna anyway, except the foxes which were really cute, so I kept going. Kept going? But I saw all four sections! Actually the Parque is far larger than just the zoo….

I made a list of Peruvian foods I want to eat while I’m here. With only three weeks, it looks like my dream may be prophetic! Still, I have been doing a good job knocking out each item. You can see my list here, and it’ll be updated as I eat more.

I was at Jockey Plaza earlier today, as my previous post described. I planned to eat lunch at the food court there. They have the usual array of American imports: KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King. They also have some local chains: Chinawok (Chinese-Peruvian), Manos Morenas (literally “Brown Hands,” Creole-Peruvian food), Mr. Steak (grilled meats), and Bembos. I’ve already had Bembos once (it’s in my list up above) but I like it so I decided to eat it again. This time I ordered a “German Burger.” From the picture, it looks like it has an omelet and tiny hash brown fries in it. The cashier asked if I wanted a medium or large. I assumed she meant the combo so I said large. Then she asked me if I wanted my fries and drink to be regular or large. !?! Confused, I went with regular.

When I got my burger, I realized that the burger itself comes in two sizes! My burger was gigantic. It’s not like one of those Hardees burgers where they add two more patties and another bun so it’s taller. No, this burger is just proportionately bigger all around, like someone took a picture of a burger in Photoshop and made it 150% bigger. Seriously, it looked comically huge, especially next to my regular fries and drink (which in the US would be the kid’s size). I didn’t bring my camera, so no pictures, but it was a very large burger.

I also got the ingredients wrong. Instead of egg, the yellow in the picture was sauerkraut. On top of the patty was a giant dose of relish. A German burger, indeed!

Since it was my birthday I finished off my lunch with some lúcuma ice cream. Another entry on the food list down!

Now off to the mall, Jockey Plaza.

There were a few technical difficulties but we still got a good representative sample of the collection. On our down-time we toured the museum, which I never get tired of (fifth time for me, I think).

On Friday, Mercedes, professional archaeologist, friend, and invaluable intercontinental facilitator, managed to get us a tour of Peru’s largest nuclear reactor since they also do research in archaeometry. We rode the company bus to the outskirts of Lima where the nuclear facility was located, surrounded by the Andean foothills. We were allowed inside the pool-type reactor, right up to the water shielding us from radiation. While most of us left our cameras in dressing room before the airlock, a few in our group had tucked them into their pockets. One of our group asked if he could take some pictures of the reactor. The rest of us thought surely that we would be denied, but amazingly, our guide let him! A few of us got some cool shots of the reactor core. Wow!

Now the students are taking their newfound expertise to Ica where they will work on mummy bundles. I elected to stay here at the Villa Rica to work on my dissertation. I’m a little rusty with the research and writing since I’ve just taken my longest break in that activity since I started in January. But I got a whole bunch of articles to go over tomorrow.

I went to Miraflores today to pick up some things at Saga Falabella, one of the department stores here. I got Hanny another giant wooden prehistoric animal model (a pteranodon, not a dinosaur). I also got some shirts which were on clearance for around $10 each. No plans tomorrow, except writing and enjoying the local food.

I sat at the far back at first so I could have free reign over taking photos without flashing people in the face with my camera’s display. After an intermission we were invited to fill in the vacant seats up front so I got a few closer shots in.

{The full band with dancers}

{Shasha Zhang on fiddle and Debbie Duke on bass}

After the concert I got a cab ride home. The cabbie was an older gentleman, and very chatty. We talked about everything from how pretty China is to all the dancing styles in Peru. I ended the night with a Francesa pizza at the Villa Rica, which has ham, mushrooms, tomato, and sliced boiled egg. It was delicious, as usual.

Update: Mission complete! I woke up at 7, got there by 8 and found out they didn’t open until 8:30 -_-. They were very nice though and there weren’t many people in the various lines. After some waiting, and wondering if I’m waiting in the right place, I was handed my new migration card. I got back to the hospedaje at 10:30, way ahead of schedule.

Then, I switch gears: I’m going to a benefit concert by The Three Jacks, an Irish rock group. The money raised goes towards relief for survivors of the 2007 Pisco quake. How did I hear about this event? On the flight from Lima I sat next to their violinist ShaSha Zhang!

Luckily they sold tickets from a booth at the nearby Metro supermarket, where I went this afternoon to pick up on essentials like shampoo and a toothbrush. It was like one of those Spanish textbook situations that seem so unrealistic. Who buys tickets for a concert in a foreign language? Well, that chapter paid off, though there was a lot of blank staring followed by pointing on both sides of the booth.

On TV right now is VH1′s top 80′s one hit wonders. Der Kommissar is #51.