October 20, 09 by Sergio Reyna
On last sunday 18th while thousands of devotees were worshipping the icon of the Lord of the Miracles (for more info please refer to previous post) around downtown Lima, hundreds of chefs gathered a few miles away from there and prepared one of the biggest turrón de Doña Pepa ever, which measured over 300 mt (984 ft) of length.
Associated with the Coloured Christ procession, the turrón de Doña Pepa has turned out to be part of this traditional feast held in the city of Lima during october, the purple month. Nowadays, nevertheless, the flavour of this dessert can be enjoyed not only in october but all year round in this city.
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October 18, 09 by Sergio Reyna
An image of a coloured Jesus Christ painted on a wall in Pachacamilla near the city of Lima in 1651 was bound to become the beginning of the most important religious tradition in Peru’s calendar. According to history, an anonymous african slave painted the mural which survived a few earthquakes. After 358 years, the faith to the image evolved into a great feast. Every october, a series of processions are arranged by the Hermandad or Brotherhood of The Lord of the Miracles. People not only from Lima but also from other peruvian cities fill up the streets of downtown to worship the icon. Today, the 18th, devotees give pay homage to the image for the third time in this month.
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May 31, 09 by Sergio Reyna
My memories are still vivid as if it were just a few days ago:
“Let us go, Sergio, come with Roberto too. Cesar and Kike are already there, and I am going with Lalo el gringo and Kunta Kinte”, said my cousin Martin as I saw him running away. My brother and I joined the gang just as quickly. We all enjoyed our day-off playing with the seesaw, slide, climbing frame, swing, and merry-go-round.
My recollections bring me back to the playground just in front of the bakery “El Chino” in my childhood neighborhood, Pueblo Libre, near two of the most renowned museums of Lima: the Antropología, Arqueología e Historia del Perú and the Larco Museums (I shall pay them a visit if I happen to be in Lima again).
Time changes and none of us live in Pueblo Libre anymore. Nonetheless, there are still reasons to feel as a kid again.
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May 12, 09 by Sergio Reyna
”I al oro asimismo decian que era lagrimas que el Sol llorava”.
Conquista i Poblacion del Piru.
My watch rang one o’clock when our tour on the double decker bus was over. My friend had to go, and I stayed at the Miraflores Central Park trying to figure it out how I could get the Peruvian Gold Museum from here.
Even though Angamos avenue was at a walking distance from the park, I preferred to catch a van or “combi”. The heat was just unbearable. Once at that spot, I waited for another combi which went by all along Primavera avenue. The driver had me get off at the right bus stop.
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April 28, 09 by Sergio Reyna
I am a real fan of ceviche. In fact, I am a real fan of seafood in general. But my favorite by far is ceviche. Imagine sushi but marinated with Peruvian lemon, and supplied with sweet potato, corn of the cob, stripped onion and chili pepper. A place where ceviche is served is called cevichería here in Peru. As I was told there are also cevicherías in the United States, but most or a few of them don’t use Peruvian lemon but lime so that the flavor is rather different. You should definitely come to Peru to taste the genuine ceviche.
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April 26, 09 by Sergio Reyna
Deisy and I had to run in order to catch the double decker bus.
“Double decker bus in Lima, like in London?”, I asked her when she told me about it.
“Oh, yeah! Open-top double decker buses, indeed”.
“Then, we should go for it as soon as possible”.
“Chévere!”, she called out joyfully.
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April 01, 09 by Sergio Reyna
My feet are fastened on the surfboard. My arms move vigorously, and I can sense the balance just in the middle of my body. My waist and hip turn smoothly and quickly in order to face the big swells. I ride left and right breaks and barrels. Just before the moving ridges batter its pointbreak on the shore, I plunge in the water. Sergio, the instructor, cries out to me: “great, now, go on”. “Sure thing”, I shout at the top of my lungs.
I lift my head from bed when my cell alarm fires off at half past five in the morning. Somebody claims dreams come true?
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March 24, 09 by Sergio Reyna
“To the left, Sergio, to the left! , what are you doing? , the foam is going to screw you up, man…to the left!”
I hardly hear him. He is out there, but I am not able to see him. I barely tell the contrast between the dark blue sea and the white horizontal line which is growing higher and nearer. Pulling my arms with strength, I feel my shoulders ache. “I am gonna make it, yes, yes, come on, man!”.
I am dead wrong. The wave is just above me, and my board is not straight to the wall of water, but sideways, so there isn´t any hope for me. I hold the board tightly when the foam embraces me with such force that it makes me spin, and I lose grid of my board. I just disappear under the cold water.
After seconds which seems to be a lifetime, my head gets off the water. I gasp and cough. Naively, I swim towards the board instead of pulling the line or cord attached to my ankle, but it is too late: another wave. ¡Splash!
For God’s sake, what am I doing here?
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March 19, 09 by Sergio Reyna
Lima, february the 19th, 1564. A man is about to die.
It is a warm summer after midnight, and a masked man is getting down a stepladder from a balcony. Suddenly the stepladder breaks, and the man falls to the ground. Five neighbors come over and start beating the man. When a sixth neighbor arrives, the man is already dead. The man´s name: Diego Lopez de Zuñiga.
This would have been another love affair story, but the man was the count of Nieva, fourth viceroy of Peru. The story appears in the “Tradiciones Peruanas”, written by the Peruvian author Ricardo Palma.
Balconies were silent witnesses of this kind of stories during much of the Spaniard colonial period in most of Peru, but especially in Lima.
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