On my last day in Lima, I met with my friends Guiseppe, Tomas and Sandra for lunch and vintage shopping. We decided to met at Guiseppe's Artist housing project TUPAC and on the way there I realized that i left my fathers camera at the apartment.
So I decided to draw what I remembered after the day was done. Coincidentally, Tomas bought me some color pencils earlier in the day because we needed change for a taxi.
I hope you like them:
On the way to the restaurant, Giuseppe showed me an old dilapidated church in Baranco, a suburb outside of Lima.
We walked down a cobblestone pathway that he said is hundreds if not thousands of years old.
As we walked down the pathway, the street got steeper and steeper, and we were met with this huge fence that some crazy rich guy lives in and has a little private zoo. On the fence were these incredible flowers that were burning reality with a purple fushia. I stared at it for 5 minutes to feel the color and remember it.
Then we went to a typical Coastal Peruvian restaurant. The guys ordered a big platter of different Peruvian dishes and some ceviche.
On the platter:
TIRADITO- like ceviche but cut differently
Pulpo con Crema- pan seared octopus in a purple cream
Jalea- fried seafood
Arroz con Mariscos- a saffron rice with seafood and peas and carrots
Conchas- (in the middle) crispy corn delights, for the munchies in everyone
Everything was amazing. The tiradito was incredible. The ceviche was the best. And I still think CHIMU is the best Peruvian restaurant in NYC. It is identical to the food I had in Lima.
Afterwards, we went to another cafe where we had a super sweet dessert and some coffee.
We then walked through the center of Baranco, which is lush and beautiful.
That's a park. I guess I'm a bird's eye view person. I never knew...
We walked past this "La quinta" which is sort of small cul-de-sac. High above the la quinta was a massive vine/tree/mushroom mess with these electric orange flowers glowing on top.
We got a cab and went to La Victoria, apparently the tough area of Lima.
We stopped on a street called Grau which was the start of a "chola market". There was vintage clothing, new clothing, amazing electric colored tights for the winter, stereos, music, everything...
On every block were these small trucks filled to the brim with oranges and the loudspeakers talking about how their oranges were the best oranges and the other guys weren't fresh. It was great. They spoke so fast.
the little dots are people, can you tell?
I'm a terrible drawer, but Donna likes them so I'm posting them..
Here's a detail shot of the market:
(it says Pantalones on the right hand side of the drawing, means pants, romance)...
After shopping, we went to Miraflores to meet our friend Luis (who set up the show at Sonoteca) and walked around the park. We heard some salsa music off in the distance and saw a large group of people gathered around this small rotunda:
And in the middle of the rotunda were older people dancing (geting DOWN) to the salsa music. Everyone watching were young and everyone was smiling. Then the music turned off abruptly and everyone, including me went "Aww!!!"It was the first time I ever felt as if I bonded with the society that I was from. Everyone was Peruvian. I wasn't the only one anymore. And we all wanted the same thing, for the music to continue. It was by far one of the best experiences of my life.
Tomas had a book about Incan music and musical scores, they were all so beautiful so i copied one.
As you can see the pan pipes get smaller as the score goes on. The sun is a symbol of how to play the score. I'm assuming it's a harvest song.
The Mochicas were the bloodiest of all the Inca tribes. Here is a man and woman playing the pan pies linked by string to symbolize their union. It's said that this tribe would keep human heads as trophies predominately in their homes. Rotting.
I saw a drawing of some ruins and decided to re-draw it. And the bottom picture is an etching of an Incan ceremony. Not sure exactly what but they looked like they were enjoying themselves.More posts coming in the next few days. And a special announcement.....
xo
