Perusing Peru II: After the Caral Tour It Was Lunch at the Beach

A fishing boat plying the waters outside of Barranca. The "catch o' the day" is sure to be fresh.

Caral is 23 km (14 miles, more or less) inland. The drive takes about as long as it would to walk because the road into Caral hasn't been re-paved since the height of the Caral culture about 5,000 year ago. Bumpy is an understatement. You are amazed when you see glimpses of pavement in between the potholes. But I wasn't driving. So I'm not complaining. I'm just ... observing.

Next stop: Barranca.

It is a Saturday. The beach is beautiful. But no one is in the water because of the frigid cold ocean currents coming up from Antarctica.

Those Antarctic current mean rich fishing, but no one in the water.

While the beach itself is empty, the beachfront street is packed. As a beach town should be on a summer Saturday.

Yes, summer. We are in the Southern Hemisphere. Lunch is at the Tacu:

Beach town. Beach front restaurant. Hmmm. What to order?

I know! Seafood.

I ordered the chaufa con mariscos. Seafood fried rice. And for a beverage? Since we passed by field after field of vines of passionfruit (maracuyá in Spanish), I ordered a maracuyá drink. Soft.

There was enough rice to feed a family of six in that bowl, so I picked out all the camarones and ate as much rice as I could.

The last stop on the day's tour was the statue overlooking Barranca.

Barranca's own Christ the Redeemer:

Just like the one in Rio de Janeiro, only smaller. And happier looking. This one was designed by a local artist and the face of Christ is much warmer than the one on Corcovado high about Rio.

And what are those birds on his arms and head? Vultures. Seriously. No symbolism about Christ having first died before being resurrected. It's just that the neighborhood is filled with vultures. Not condors. Those guys live in the South of Peru. Up here, it's vulture country.

Nice views from the top of the hill.

One last look:

And that ends the day of packaged-tour tourism on this part of the Lima, Peru, today. It's a long drive back to Lima but, thankfully, it's Saturday and traffic (generally reputed to be among the worst in the Western Hemisphere) (Mexico City would like a word with you, Lima) (Rio would, too, although Rio traffic may be thicker, the quality of the driving is better) should not be as terrible as it normally would be late afternoon any other day of the week.