First week in Peru

I've been in Peru for exactly one week now. I arrived in Lima after flying for 24 hours, the price you pay for getting your ticket with frequent flier miles. Lima is this bustling city that I consistently find overwhelming at first - the traffic, the noise, the smell of gasoline. There are 12 million people packed into this city.

On my first day, I made it a priority to eat ceviche. Ceviche is a dish made from raw fish and seafood that is cooked in lime juice. I'm not unbiased, but I think Peruvians have the best ceviche. Peruvians pride themselves on the quality of their food and expect to here more about food in the weeks and months to come.

I spent this first weekend in Cajamarca. It's in the northern highlands of Peru. It is mostly known for being the city where the Inca Atahualpa was captured by the Spaniards and offered to fill a room with gold & silver in exchange for his release. He filled the room, but they killed him anyway. It's the only Inca ruin that's left in the city.

Cajamarca is also as an agricultural center of Peru - so they have great cheese and manjar blanco. A sweet similar to dulce de leche, but not exactly the same. We spent our weekend visiting Cumbe Mayo - these awesome rock formations that are carved with pre- Incan petroglyphs (pictures that people have no idea what they mean). Our next day was spent seeing the city - and my favorite part of the city was the Hospital de Hombres and Mujeres which were built in the 1600's and our now a museum. That was followed by a trip to a cooperative farm - in which we basically visited a Peruvian farm, little wacky, but I got to feed a monkey, see a jaguar, and the crazy ugly hairless Peruvian dog, so no complaints. On our last day we went to the Ventanillas de Comoboyo - basically ancient burial grounds. They are these super cool to openings in the side of the mountain.

Probably my favorite part of Cajamarca were the local people wearing their straw hats. Seeing people at the market gives you a tiny glimpse into peoples lives. The last thing I wanted to mention was the Yanacocha mining company that is the largest gold mine in Peru and is in Cajamarca. The mining industry comes up all the time in Peru, b/c it's one of the reasons for Peru's economic boom, but there are many conflicting opinions about their contributions to the local communities and the impact they are having on the environment.