Lunahuana Dog Tale

Urban life offers a dog certain advantages. Plenty of buzz, great food smells, pigeons...

And lots of time with humans.

My set-up is particularly good that way.

Even when my most-favorite-human goes to work in the morning (after I've taken her for a walk and we've had breakfast); I get to hang with second-most-favorite human. She's great, except with a vacuum cleaner.

Still, it's good to get out of the city from time to time.

So, I took my humans to Lunahuana recently. We had a leash-free weekend. Let me tell you. That was a-okay.

We stayed in a hotel that had a great setup. A big garden. Lots of room to run. Good dog pals. Just the usual territory sniff-bark business, and then we got down to the business of being a pack.

These stairs go up to the hotel Refugio de Santiago. Come on up. It's great.

Here's part of the large garden. It's full of fruit trees, herbs, and native plants. The owner will tell you all about them, and adds them to the delicious meals he prepares in the restaurant.

Mota was one of the local dogs. She was a bit big around the middle for my taste, but some people go for that. I had to keep an eye on her, because she kept trying to take over my most favorite human.

Pretty well set up for chill-axing.

Even the cookware is happy at hotel Refugio de Santiago

Breakfast of champions - fresh mango juice and eggs mixed with local greens.

Lunch - smoked trout and fresh veggies from the garden.

Fresh strawberry juice and duck.

My humans thought the view was cool.

We took a walk down to the river.

Here we are by a church that was demolished in a flood. And they wonder why I don't like water.

My humans like the water.

Lots of room to play ball in the gardens of the Refugio

So they had this rug. Not soft and fuzzy like the ones at home.

My humans like to wear hats.

These smaller versions of humans were our guides on a long walk. Lots of great stinky stuff.

My man human.

Humans seem to make a big deal out of the end of the day.

Day 2, we took a hike through some Inca ruins.

The men humans were really into walking in this rocky place. Pretty hot and not much to smell, if you ask me.

Monks and Sea Lions

Rimac is known as a rougher neighborhood of Lima, where you'll find the city's bullfighting ring and well-meaning locals, who will tell you not to wander there without a proper guard.
In spite of all this, it is also the place where you'll find one of Lima's loveliest refuges from the noise and crowd of a busy city - the Convento de los Descalzos (Convent of the Shoeless).
We recently checked it out with visiting relatives (Valerie's mother, Britt's brother and brother's girlfriend) and were really delighted to discover it at last.

Having out of town visitors also was a good excuse to visit a place Valerie dbeen wanting to see for several months. It is a series of islands, just off the coast of Lima's port at Callao, where you can see migratory birds, sea lions, and even the ever popular Humboldt penguins. We'd try to do this before, but it's a long boat tour (4 hours) and you have to reserve seats in advance, as the boats tend to fill up.

Here are photos to tell the stories:

The convent is on a pretty, quiet square in Rimac. Though called a convent, it houses a few monks, who stay away from gawking visitors.

Britt and Alan in one of the several courtyards of the convent.

Material for making pisco (a sort of brandy made from local grapes and used to make the beloved Peruvian cocktail known as a pisco sour)

Stephanie in another lovely courtyard of the convent.

Taking in the good aura of the place..

Here we are in a small boat on the way to a slightly larger boat, headed for a 4-hour tour to the Isla Palomina and other nearby islands.

The life preservers were required and did serve to keep us warm, on what turned out to be a chilly, foggy outing.

We hoped the fog would lift, but it didn't.

It was fun to see flocks of sea birds, but with the fog, we could only see the ones that came close to our boat.

We totally missed the Humboldt penguins, as their island was completely shrouded in fog. Here we approached an island covered with sea lions, which you can just make out in the mist.

One of the features of these boat tours is that you can "swim with the sea lions". In spite of the chill, and because the Peruvian Gwinners seldom miss a chance to prove just how insane they are, we decided to dive into the cold water for a try. Here, Addison and Valerie are trying to keep moving to stay warm as they await their turns to jump into the water.

There was a jolly group of young Peruvians, who served as inspiration. On the left in this photo, you can see Addison and Valerie in the water.

At this point, Britt decided to join in the fun. You'll note the absence of sea lions in the water.
It was about here that Britt looked at Valerie and told her she already looked blue with cold. She headed back to the boat.

Britt and Addison stuck it out with the group - but never did get to swim with the "lobos del mar" who safely observed the crazy humans from their island perches. Needless to say, they dove back into the water the minute all the humans were back on their boat.

Post swim: bundled up and still shivering.

Chiclayo

A recent visit from Valerie's mother provided the incentive to visit the Lambayeque region of Peru.
The main city  is Chicalyo, though we stayed in the pretty, nearby town of Lambayeque.

Located on the northern coast of Peru, it is an agricultural area, mainly featuring sugar cane and rice production.

But Lambayeque is mostly famous for its archeological sites from the pre-Columbian Sipan and Sican cultures.

Remarkable treasures have been found from both of these cultures, housed in several museums. The most stunning of these is the new Senor de Sipan museum, which is worth seeing both for its collection and the excellent way in which it is presented.

The Senor de Sipan museum in Lambayeque was one of our primary destinations. It is designed in the form of a pre-Columbian pyramid. You enter from the top level and work your way down in the same order in which the archeologists discovered the treasures. The artifacts and story of their find are beautifully presented. It's a world-class museum, but as they don't allow photos inside, you'll have to take my word for it.

The town of Lambayeque is jolly and busy, and it features a pretty colonial center.

We stayed in a very pretty hotel, located in a colonial mansion. It had an excellent pool, which was a welcome relief after hot days of visiting sites. Our room also had a big terrace, from which we could enjoy the bright blue skies and view of the cathedral towers.

Mototaxis are one of the best forms of transportation in Peruvian towns.

Valerie's mother thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

This colonial house in Lambayeque is said to have the longest balcony in Peru (or according to some sources, in all of South America).You can visit the inside, which is very prettily restored.

View from the long balcony.

This tree is an algorrobal (type of locust) located in the Bosque de Pomac and said to be over 1,000 years old. The bosque, located 50 km NE of Lambayeque, is technically a "super arid tropical desert forest."

A view of the Bosque de Pomac from a hilly overlook. The bosque is a surprising sight in the middle of a desert region, even if it is a dry forest.

In the background, you can see two pyramids. The one on the right is where they discoved the Senor de Sipan treasures.

Addison at the overlook after a hot climb.

This is at Tucume, a site filled with pyramids, which was previously excavated by Thor Hyerdal.

Tucume pyramids

Valerie, still smiling in spite of the heat.

This is a typical dish from the region, which features dried beef, lots of onions, and "cancha" a type of fried corn kernal that tastes like popcorn and is equally addictive.

This is a little beach town just west of Chiclayo, which features the reed boats you find in the area, known as "caballitos" or little horses.

The boats are used for fishing and feature their fresh catch of the morning.

This is a fisherman returning on his caballito.

Little boys with their mini versions of caballitos used like boogey boards.