Perusing Peru: Destination 2: El Norte

Elias Aguirre stands tall in the park that bears his name

Travel day. And the travel day destination? El Norte. Or, more specifically, Chiclayo, Peru.

I am referring to this as El Norte, the North, because just about everyone in Lima with whom I spoke, when I said I was next going to Chiclayo, would respond with two two-word responses. "El Norte," because it is in Northern Peru. And "muy calor," very hot, because Peru, being in the southern hemisphere, gets hotter as you move north,

I am staying at the Casa Andina. Casa Andina is a Peruvian chain hotel. But I'm not just staying at any old Casa Andina. No. Not me. I'm an upscale traveler who in the course of my travels has developed a taste for the finer things in life. I am staying at a Casa Andina Select.

It's in a relatively quiet neighborhood, just beyond the small downtown core of Chiclayo. Of course, any neighborhood is going to seem quiet compared to Lima. Where I was staying in Lima, by Lima standards, was a quiet neighborhood. That meant the car horns stopped their constant honking at around 1:00 a.m. I shudder to think what it's like in the less-quiet neighborhoods of that mega-city. Here in Chiclayo, the streets are quiet by 9:00 p.m. Just like in Phoenix!

The hotel is across the street from a small park: Parque Infantil de Chiclayo. Translation (and this one is obvious): Chiclayo Children's Park.

There is a statue of man on a horse.

Every park should have a statue of man on a horse. There also is an abbreviated colonnade:

The streets are relatively quiet. You can actually safely jaywalk. Not that I would ever do anything illegal in a foreign land. But I could do it if I were so inclined. But I'm not. So stop thinking about jaywalking please.

There is of course market stalls right on Avenida Salaverry.

And we then come to Plazueta Elias Aguirre,

I presume he was a Naval hero of some sort. The anchor is my clue.

And he does have a cool-looking building over his left shoulder. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Chiclayo has been thrust to the forefront of global tourism because of events that happened this past May. The selection of Robert Prevost as the new pope. Pope Leo XIV. Chiclayo now is known throughout the land as "La Ciudad del Papa León XIV," the City of Pope Leo XIV. And when I say "throughout the land," I mean the land that is Peru. And when I say that the city has been "thrust to the forefront of global tourism," I mean interest in Chiclayo as a tourist destination has increased among the people of Peru, who are quite proud to have been the home of the reigning pope.

I do want to see the Pope Leo XIV sites when I am here. But the more significant reason for visiting Chiclayo -- which has been on my list of places I want to go long before any of us thought that Chicago-born priest living in Peru would be selected pope -- are some pre-Inca historic sites in the Chiclayo environs. The first is the Sipán, or Moche, culture, which was dominant in this region from A.D. 100 to A.D. 800. The Sicán, unrelated despite strikingly a similar name, was dominant in the region from A.D. 750 to A.D. 1375, right before the rise of the Inca in the 120 years to so before the Spanish arrival in Peru.

I was on my way to dinner at a well-reviewed restaurant according to the google: Don Juan Plazuela, right next to the Elias Aguirre Plazuela. But, first, I had to check out the Christmas decoration at a retail location along the street which, at some point in the brief few blocks I walked changed its name from Av. Salaverry to Calle Capitan Elias Aguirre.

Peru does decorate for Christmas. Anyway, google maps said that Don Juan Plazuela was "not too busy," which is not bad for a restaurant rated 4.9 stars. It was closed. "Cerramos," said the man behind the locked gate. Well, I guess if your restaurant is closed then, inside, it genuinely would be "not too busy," although, in my world, the use of that phrase was a trifle misleading.

So, anyway, not wishing to do any further research and just wanting to feed my stomach which has not had food tossed into it since the quinoa bar on the airplane ride, I went to Brasa Roja. It's a chicken restaurant. Ninety percent of the restaurants in Chiclayo (at least my neighborhood) seem to be chicken restaurants. The rest are chifa, but downscale chifa. 

The restaurant was basically El Pollo Loco, but where you sit down and they take your order. Plus they serve alcohol, which I believe El Pollo Loco does not. I had the rotisserie chicken, breast quarter, served with a large amount of fries (three dipping sauces for the fries), a salad that was equal parts salad and dressing (which in my mind is the appropriate amount of salad dressing: make that lettuce swim), and a Cerveza Cusqueña Negra, the dark ("negra") beer from one of the major Peruvian breweries.

This not being Los Estados Unidos, none of the three fry-dipping sauces were ketchup. One was mayonnaise. One was what seemed to be, potentially, a mayonnaise and ketchup mix. What people in Utah would call "fry dipping sauce." And the third was this spicy mayonnaise-based herbal sauce. The herb might've been cilantro, but the spice level was sufficient I could not be certain.

As far as the adult beverage goes, truth be told: this was not one of my favorite dark beers. It was very sweet. And I mean VERY. It was so sweet it tasted like hard root beer, rather than a dark lager.

One last look out my hotel window at the park across the street before I turn in for the night.