Lima Streets.

Downtown Lima is about 9 kilometers from its port Callao. This is intentional. The Spaniards feared English and French Pirates, so they located their major towns, Trujillo, Pisco and Lima some distance from the port. When the pirates (or privateers if you were English or French) came they could raid the port but would have to mount a more complex operation to get to the city. By then the city would be warned, gats closed, and people armed.

Callao and Lima have long since merged into one city, but this distance gives us a chance to ride through neighborhoods and look at life. The streets of Callao very much remind me of Tirana, Albania, where we lived 30 years ago, except that Tirana did not have Tuk Tuks (motorized rickshaws) and certainly none named Kevin. But the street life looks similar. And like Albania, Lima has a lot of unfinished buildings. But the reason is somewhat different. In Albania people built anticipating a bigger family. In Lima that is part of it but people also are loathe to close out a building permit because that will increase taxes. Partially complete buildings are only partially taxed, and many buildings have crowns of rebar suggesting a not yet finished top floor, or windowless rooms that may never get windows or furnishings. The idea was to encourage people to build their own houses and not tax them in the process of building, which in Lima is a never-ending process. The electrical system looks temporary to me as well as the buildings.

In Lima you see lots of restaurants called Chifa or Chaufa. These are Chinese-Peruvian fusion restaurants. Back when the Chinese immigrated to Lima many of them set up restaurants. They were from Gwangju or Canton as it was known in the West. The word Chifa sounds like the word in Cantonese for “cooked rice” or colloquially “Let’s Eat.” Touts stood outside the restaurant shouting Chifa (Or Chaufa) to get people inside. It worked and the cooking evolved. Now there are Chifas all over Peru, and it is spreading to other places in South America. A favorite dessert in Peru is the King Kong Dessert (or cookie). I do not know if this is connected to Chifas but it makes a good story for tour guides.

There are also a lot of casinos in Lima. Gambling is permitted but you need to show an ID. If you become addicted to gambling, you can ask that your ID have a special mark that the doorman will recognize. He will not let you in. The family can also request that a family member, father or husband, have this mark on his id. It is a way of controlling gambling addiction. If you are on-line gambling, you must sign in with your id number.

Riding around at night we drove through General San Martin Square. The bus guide told us, with some awe that “The buildings are 100 years old.” That brought me up short because when I was a kid, buildings of the same style were interwar buildings, 25 years old. Then I did the math.

Here is a gallery of Lima Street Scenes taken from a bus.