24 hours transiting through Lima, Peru

Once in a lifetime trip it was ....And what better place to celebrate 25 years of marital union with your best friend than at the long awaited and dreamed about trip to Machu Pichu.  Peru, the land of beautiful Andean Quechuas and their famous Incan kings is most recognized by the Sanctuary of Machu Pichu.  However, there is so much more to this land than that.  Twenty four hours spent in Lima, while waiting for a plane to get to The Sacred Valley on a quiet Christmas day, gave us a tiny glimpse of how the locals live.

Driving from the airport to our hotel on the quiet roads of early morning, we commented how the city looked like any Indian city but a whole lot cleaner.  We found out later in the day that there is a whole crew of locals devoted to sweeping the garbage in the city from dawn to dusk.

After a quick checkin at the JW Marriott in Miraflores, high atop a cliff overlooking the pacific, we sought out the concierge with hopes of someone laying out our entire day for us...lesson 1 - concierge service in Peru is not the same as in the US..."today is christmas, everything is closed, tour operators, taxis, church (churches? really?), yes churches).  Our instincts got the better of us and we walked down to the deserted mall and the found the lone hopon hopoff bus booth and boarded the bus in no time.

Christmas spirit albeit quiet was everywhere, from local nativity scenes to the Incan christmas tree.  We even caught a part of the mass at Lima cathedral and enjoyed the spanish rendition of Silent Nights.

High up from the double decker bus with a heavy mist translating into a drizzle on and off, the city presented itself as a contrast of beautiful monuments and squares with lovely colored buildings, or more appropriately facades (as behind the brightly colored fronts of the colonial squares lay dilapidated guts).

These squares were also in stark contrast to the modern brick buildings of the middle class residential neighborhoods.

Potato truck, no idea what but loved the" meeting in the park" statue, the flight monument to Jorge Chavez and the Lima Ruins (closed, not because of Christmas but closed on Mon and Tues)

A native mother stopping on the sidewalk to comfort, console or play with her baby

We got off the bus at Plaza Armos to enjoy the festivities including the dances and procession of baby Jesus.  Contrary to the bus driver and the concierge, the Monastery of San Francisco was open (thought the crypt was not).  There were very few tourists around and the it was nice to walk amidst the families enjoying their day off after the service.

 

The bus (price gouged) dropped us off at the hotel  and we sauntered to Parque de Amor.  It was still drizzling on and off (you will see water drop smudges on the photos below)

Rosa Nautica as viewed from Miraflores

The flavor of Parque de Amor (Love Park)

The best part of the walk was eating icecream and fruits from the local fruit trucks.  Mangoes, passion fruit, bananas and many more that are still a mystery.

The promise of  beautiful sunny 70s forecast as predicted by yahoo weather never materialized for us but certainly seemed like a possibility for those who would transit the next day as we watched the sun set over the pacific.

Heres a glimpse of a city full of brick buildings with only the front facades finished, an illusion of a desert city when viewed from the plan but in reality a rainbow of colors when viewed from the street.

I am so excited to share more from The Sacred Valley in my future entries.

Last of the Istanbul Series

Wow, what a long hiatus!  I have broken every rule about successful blogging...stay with theme (almost failed), write regularly (oops!), tag it so that it ranks high amongst search (so failed here...).  But then, this is more of my own online journal so visitor stats are not de facto success measures.  There... I feel so much better now that I have made the excuse! (big smile on my face!)

  When I first started this blog a year ago, I was hoping to make it through the first anniversary and would have given myself a good rah rah for that.  As with anything else, life happens and  this blog was in the danger of being extinct but a quiet weekend afternoon offered an opportunity to pick it up.

This entry will also serve as a test of my gray matter so please God let me pass it (it doesnt have to be with flying colors), I will light incense.

We had saved the best for the last couple of our days in Istanbul.  We started our day a bit too late from Ciragan palace and by the time we got to Hagia Sophia it was noon and the lines were 300 deep just to get in.  My companions went in search for a pomi juice (fresh squeezed, really delish - a must have from one of the street vendors) while I held our place in the line.  It was a perfect mid afternoon to people watch, especially the color coordinated orange and red chinese tourists.  There was a group of american families with teens and the overenthusiastic mom (listening to her talk was almost like looking in a personality mirror for me) was trying to quiz her kids from a guidebook and making a desperate attempt to convince them as to why it was important that they tour the Hagia sophia.  The Dad was conveniently disengaged.  After about 40 minutes, it was our turn to enter the gates but my company was nowhere to be found (I spotted them far away taking pictures of each other with all manners of backdrop).  Now if it was anywhere else in the world, the guide would have asked me to wait there but this was Turkey and the people here define "niceness".  The guide asked me to go search for my companions so we could enter whenever I would find them.

Once inside, we had to wait for a few more minutes to go through security and another 20 minutes for the audio guides (which btw were well worth every penny). As you go through the main entrance, you get a small glimpse of the gild and marbles used to construct this place but.......

Entrance Hallway to Hagia Sophia

nothing prepares you for the grandeur that awaits you.  If you are into history, architecture, art, religion, you name it...take your time with the audio guide and explore every nook and cranny of this place.  Most tourists enter and stand by the dome, maybe take a few pictures near the mihrab and head out and there is nothing wrong with that but if you do not have the time to explore the naves or the side galleries, then stand under the dome and look up, down and all around you and each vantage point of the church/camii (can i even call it either?) will surprise you with yet another mosaic, stained glass window, painting, decal that you did not expect to be present.  The Mihrab is like none other I have seen.

The mihrab viewed from the dome

I just loved every wrought iron chandelier and the sense of intrigue that the lights created inside the dome.

 

Sultanahmet Camii from inside the Hagia Sophia

The dead center of the dome, looking up through the chandelier

The walk between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue mosque is nothing short of a destination itself.  The wrought iron lampposts, the ablution fountains tucked here and there, all offer you a chance to take it slow and enjoy the surroundings.

After a busy day at the Hagia Sophia we treated ourselves to none other than Cagaloglu Hamam.  The 300 year old bath offers an atmosphere where the vanities of modern day are left behind and one is forced to be comfortable in one's own skin.  Though I must say, it is another great place to people watch (nope no starring but subtly observing from the corner of the eye).  You can easily spot the americans struggling to keep their coverings on and being modest, while the body builder turkish women who bathe you snatch away the ever so tiny towel.  just let go and enjoy...

We also had some time to catch up with a bit of window shopping at the Grand bazaar.  It was a little disappointing.  Other than a few turkish fabric crafts and the lovely calligraphist who made us each a tile capturing our essence, most goods were from anywhere but turkey.  The market was too large and too overwhelming for me.  I would take the spice market any day over the grand bazaar.  To really truly enjoy the essence of the market, one needed a full day which we could not spare.

As we headed back from the market, we caught a glimpse of Constantine Column originally dating to 328 AD.

If you have the time and can explore some of the back alleys next to the blue mosque toward Kennedy Avenue, you will be able to glimpse the wooden houses of the old turkey...restored to some extent but still capturing the imagination as portrayed by Pamuk in any of his novels.

The last evening in Istanbul was spent on the Asian side, high above a hilltop overlooking the city and eating horrendously bad food in a hookah restaurant (so bad I do not even remember the name and am just glad that the taxi driver got us there in one piece).  The views were spectacular though.

We spent our last morning exploring the cafes (especially Ara which has a great collection of his photographs on the wall),  music shoppes, bookstores and baklava shoppes in Taksim.

I am a bit sad to end this series here as I know I can continue it forever and ever (who knows I might be able to squeeze in another trip to that fabulous country in this lifetime).   My gray matter needs to remember few mor of trips that have happened since Turkey....so Hoscakal until next time.....

Freedom Sighting on a Summer Night

Dear Visitor,
Are you tired of the Istanbul series yet?  Well I am.  But before you rejoice, let me clarify it does not mean I am done with it. I still have to cover Sultanahmet na.  (didnt get the "na"?  Then you must not have grown up in India. My kids still don't understand why Indians have to end an affirmative with a negative, na).   However, I decided to free myself from it for a summer night.  A beautiful summer night, free of children (my cousin was watching one of them- thank you B&H in connecticut),  free of thunderstorms,  free of social obligations (oops I meant engagements),  free of plans in general.  We had our cousin visiting from one of the Carolinas so at a random spur of the moment we decided to go to NYC at night.  An unplanned exit for Liberty State Park let to viewing Lady liberty's backside from the Liberation monument side.

My camera could not be set up on the gorilla pod to soak in the view of Manhattan since J and the park ranger shooed us out, J in his ever so subtle way of just walking to the car without looking back and the park ranger in his no uncertain terms of blaring on the loud speaker.  But the few minutes we spent there left an impression so powerful that I wanted to share it with you today.

Taking a form of resilience, strength, solidarity and light, is how I saw freedom a couple nights back.  A tower of steel, bathed in red glow in the darkness of night, rising higher each day until no one can bring it down again.. The Freedom Tower at Ground Zero

The 911 memorial on the Jersey side, Empty Sky described by some as "11" beckoned you to walk through it as you sought freedom......almost ethereal.

Beam from WTC

 And so I spent the rest of the night, capturing images of the tower from different vantage points, be it the Jersey side or the Brooklyn bridge and along way captured a couple more symbols of American freedom.

And since no picture of NYC is complete without a view of the Empire State, here are a couple images to check it off.  As you can see, a handheld camera can only do so much at night but hope that you enjoyed viewing them as much as I enjoyed clicking them.  See you again in a few days as I wrap up the Istanbul series.