1. Cotton came from Peru. While cotton was also independently domesticated on the India subcontinent, it took the longer fiber of New World cotton to derive at the cotton we have today. My ignorant mind somehow had Egypt as the home of cotton, ugh.
2. I had understood before that unlike Mexico City (built right on top of the conquered empire), Lima was founded in a completely new place, though with advice from Incans. However, I learned on this visit that both Pachacamac and Huaca Pucllana were built by the Lima Culture which predated Macchu Picchu by a millennium. Though the Incans didn't continue at Huaca Pucllana, they were living at Pachacamac when the Conquistadors arrived. Lima has a very unique climate, while it averages less than 0.3in of annual rain, it's foggy/cloudy for at least half of the year. Having just come from the blazing California desert, I am relishing the sunless days.
With advice from the helpful, and seemingly always open, Barranco Tourist Office, we caught Bus L to Lurin right on the Plaza and in an hour later, after a change to a local bus, we were in the Pachacamac Site Museum - lots of English signage and helpful staff.
The site itself is rather desolate. And large.
Looking back to the museum.
A cotton plant in the site demo indigenous plants garden.
The Mamacones Enclosure, a highlight according to the usual guides books, was left unstable in a recent earthquake and can only be seen, not visited. You can see the distinctive trapezoidal Incan doorways.
One of the 16 pyramids on site. Pachacamac was primarily a religious pilgrimage destination with 16 pyramids and one main temple; the Temple of the Sun.
The North-South road.
This is the modern road that allows foot and vehicular traffic access to the far reaches of the site.
A residence that was sacked by the Spanish.
View to the Temple of the Sun (Templo del Sol) from our lunch spot. It is NOT a pyramid but a temple built on top of a promontory.
Ongoing archaeology at the base of Templo del Sol.
View from Temple of the Sun to the nearby modern town of Pachacamac.
View from atop Templo del Sol south along the coast and Pan-American Highway.
And the view East to towards the Site Museum.
The most imposing side of the Templo Del Sol which faces the sea (Pacific Ocean)...
...with this view today.
And we take the Metropolitano home.
The Metropolitano is also very convenient for visiting Huaca Pucllana Archaeological Site in Miraflores. Get off at Angamos.
Huaca Pucllana features a 7-level pyramid built out of millions of adobe bricks.
The site is surrounded by roads and buildings and not subjected to conservation until 1981. Visits are by guided tour only (included in the admission).
Jar with shark motive. The site was a temple dedicated to controlling saltwater and freshwater resources.
And again cotton in the native plants garden.
Arriving in Miraflores just after the rush hour, we were finished with Huaca Pucllana by 10:30 and set off to look for an electric kettle - no luck - and walk back south to Barranco, about 3 miles along the Malecón (coastal greenway).
Tremendous lunch at a vegetarian restaurant: soup, segundo, juice, yogurt, and dessert.
Then over to the Malecón where we sat and watched paragliders for over an hour. A lot going on at this particular landing pad: tandem flights for tourists plus locals practicing and learning.
This guy with the blue chute never got off the ground. He was just working on controlling his chute in the manner of flying a kite.
Tandem.
Walking south on the Malecón to Barranco.
No visit to Miraflores is complete without a visit to Larcomar Shopping Mall.
Looking south from Miraflores to Barranco.
Looking north from Barranco to Miraflores.
