Perusing Peru: Lima Arrival

Christmas in Lima with the traditional Nativity Scene:
Mary, Joseph, the Baby Jesus. The ox. The ass. The angel/ And two of the reindeer. Donner and Blitzen, maybe?

Third trip to Peru. Third trip to Lima. Third time that Machu Picchu is not on my Peru itinerary.

Mental health getaway. Once upon a time this would be my first trip after retirement. But retirement has been postponed, but the trip already was scheduled and this is an inexpensive time of year to travel, so why not a return trip to Peru.

This is my hotel for the first leg of this Perusal of Peru: the Crowne Plaza Lima in the Miraflores neighborhood of the city. This, being a U.S. based chain hotel, is your typical American-style business hotel. I picked it for the neighborhood, since I prefer to avoid U.S. chains when I travel due to this simple fact: They cost more.

Speaking of neighborhood, this is the neighborhood. That is NOT a sad-looking Christmas because there is no such thing as a sad-looking Christmas tree. Think of the bend at the top as being an homage to the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

The neighborhood is a bit noisy. This is a city after all. And traffic is a mess. But it's clean and decently safe with plenty of nice restaurants.

 

This is the upscale "suburb" of Lima.

I did not get moving today into well into the afternoon because yesterday was a travel day with the first airplane ride of the day starting at 1:00 p.m. So nothing much on the day's itinerary. So I walked down to Parque John F. Kennedy. It's known as a "cat park."

Lots of stray cats. All looking healthy and well-cared-for.

And here is the park's namesake:

They nailed the hair, but the face? Less so.

He looks a bit chubby to be JFK. More Teddy than John John, if it had been eaten by Teddy.

There even was a dog and cat adoption taking place at the park. And a fairly large Christmas just inside El Parque D'Onofrio restaurant.

Lima does get decked out for Christmas quite nicely.

This is the side view of La Parroquia La Virgen Milagrosa, the Parish of Our Lady of Miracles:

This is the side facing Parque John F. Kennedy, America's first Catholic president. (We Catholics have done much better with the Supreme Court than the presidency. Only two Catholic presidents, but working control of the Supreme Court for nearly 40 years, at least since the George H.W. Bush presidency.)

Let's have a look inside, shall we?

I have seen more ornate Catholic churches, but the structure itself, with the curvature of the roof pulling your eyes toward the alter in the front, is very nicely done.

This is the front entrance:

Across from the front entrance, in Parque 7 de Junio, which borders Parque John F. Kennedy, Yes, two side-by-side parks in Miraflores, Lima, Peru, filled to the brim with stray cats. Struttin'. As stray cats do.

But Parque 7 de Junio has something that Parque John F, Kennedy does not: a nativity scene for Christmas:

And how do we know we are in Miraflores?

Letters! Every city in Latin America has its perfectly-instagrammable letters. Miraflores is decked out in its Christas garb, as you can see.

One last look at La Parroquia La Virgen Milagrosa:

And right next door is the lovely Miraflores City Hall.

I'm not sure why it's called a "city hall," since Miraflores is not an independent city but is a neighborhood within the City of Lima. I guess the term "city hall" is used more loosely 'round these parts.

With all the Christmas decorations up, I presumed that these parks would look even better after dark, when the Christmas lights come on. I was not disappointed:

This giant Christmas Tree is still under-construction. Maybe it will be done tomorrow? It's a very short stroll from the Crowne Plaza, so it would be worth checking out.

There were more Christmas decorations in Parque 7 de Junio than Parque John F. Kennedy. Separation of church and state? Or, more likely, it's because Parque 7 de Junio is much, much bigger.

The reindeer were lit up, as Christmas reindeer should be.

A couple of dozen. None with red noses.

This giant tattooed blue bull probably is a year-round presence here in Parque 7 de Junio.

I don't think he is one of the oxen for the Christman creche.

Obverse angel:

A festive angel of lights:

Now the festive angel of lights with the Miraflores City Hall in the background, breaking all those rules of "separation of church and state" that are more meticulously observed in adjacent Parque John F. Kennedy: 

Here is La Parroquia La Virgen Milagrosa lit up for the night:

With the lights being white, this might just be night-time lighting and not festive Christmas lighting.

On the other hand:

There is no mistaking the red and green lights lighting up Miraflores City Hall. It's definitely not honoring the Italian-Peruano community for the local San Gennaro festival.

Separation of church and state indeed. The concept does not exist in Miraflores.

I was going to get some chifa -- that hybrid fusion cuisine combining Chinese cooking with the flavors of Peru, but I have a ridiculously early start tomorrow for a tour outside of town -- so historic it's not pre-Columbus but pre-Christ -- the real B.C. -- so I ate a light Mexican supper:

Mandil Taqueria.

I decided to try the nachos with a tamarindo agua fresca.

The tamarindo agua fresca was awesome. Very refreshing.

The nachos?

I got the pollo nachos. Grilled chicken. Guacamole. Jalapenos. Pickled onion. Black beans. Maybe some tomato. I couldn't tell. Which is how I like my tomato. And a light, runny cheese sauce. In a bowl of chips. This was, perhaps, the healthiest nachos I've ever had in my life. It was very good. But was it "nachos"? Depends on if you are nachos purist. But, again, this is Peru. Do you really order nachos in Peru if you are a nachos purist?

Touring Georgia Outside Tbilisi (Part I of III): Mtskheta

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral with a street dog posing in the front

Today was the day to see Georgia outside Tbilisi. Tbilisi tourists -- and they are legion -- who want to see the areas outside of the city typically head either east, to the Kakheti wine country, or the west, for a three-stop tour of Mtskheta, Gori, and Uplistsikhe. How many wineries in the world do you have to see before you've seen them all? I know wine tours are great fun if you want to drink wine all day with someone non-drinking doing all the driving. But I pointed my tour guide to the west.

The first stop of this multi-stop (and multi-post) tour was the town of Mtskheta, with two churches to see there. The first is in the lowlands, near the Kura River that eventually flows through the middle of Tbilisi.

This is the lowlands destination: Svetitskhoveli Cathedral. Carpets for sale! There always are carpets for sale at all the tourist hot spots in the Caucasus countries.

The cathedral is well-fortified.

Time to enter through the exterior walls:

And into the cathedral itself:

Let's have a look inside:

Like all great Christian church architecture, the design is meant to lift the eyes upwards. That means, practically speaking, the photos are in "portrait" and not "landscape" setting.

This is the walled-off altar area, with an enormous portrait of Christ:

The wall that separates the tourist zone for the sanctuary is, itself a beautiful sight:

 

Very nice. And it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, as it dates back to the fifth or sixth century A.D. and the early years of the Georgian Orthodox church. But only so many photographs looked decent given the dark lighting and the rule against flash photography.

Time to head to the next stop on the day's journey: 

Ascending the hill in Mtskheta to the second stop: the Jvari Monastery.

Like the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, this too is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

And like the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, it too comes with sleeping doggos. 

This is the view down on the town of Mtskheta. Zoom in and you can see the large Svetitskhoveli Cathedral on the right side of the picture.

Going into the Jvari Monastery:

This has a little more natural light than the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral:

So it's not just the candle power lighting these non-flash photos.

This shade of blue is quite common in Orthodox Christian archietecture, for those of us who are not Orthodox.

It signifies heaven. I am guessing the use of this shade of blue in Orthodox Christianity explains its use on the Greek flag, but that could be a coincident. Which I doubt since the Greek flag also features an Orthodox cross.

The monastery, not surprisingly, was much smaller than the cathedral. Much less time to explore.

But impressively old, as was the cathedral.

The interior is nice, but, of course, it is the physical setting on a bluff high above the Kura River looking down on the town of Mtskheta that makes the Jvari worth a visit.

Time to get back to the car for the next stop on the day's journey: the City of Gori.