Bagged Milk

On Monday morning, to my surprise, I woke up to wet streets and moist air. It was the first time we have seen a fluctuation in weather while being in Lima. We ventured to the Museum of Art and Popular Culture near the Plaza de Armas. The museum was in a very old looking building. It had the Spanish balcony Dr. Brown talked about the first day we went into the center of Lima. The museum had lots of bulls, textiles, and hats. Dr. Brown and I had a conversation concerning the symmetry of the bull ceramics. I thought the only thing that ruined a vertical plane of symmetry was the offset tail, but Ryan quickly pointed out the tongue of the bull was off center. The construction and assembly of the native hats and bags was displayed in a few rooms. They are made of the woven husks of the fique plant. The husks are died and sewn into colorful native patterns.

After taking a group picture in the courtyard of the museum, the group dispersed. My group headed for some micros and headed for Mira Flores in hopes of catching some waves.  We hoped off the bus and descended the Cliffside slope towards the beach. Right away we were targeted by multiple surf lesson companies. For 15 soles we could rent a board and a wetsuit for however long it would take to tire us out. It took an hour. After a quick refresher, we hit the water! The waves were decent but reading them was by far very challenging. The Peruvians told it us it would not be long before we got tired and they were right! After 5 minutes of paddling, my arms were burning. After surfing, we ascended the cliff and enjoyed milkshakes. The decision came quickly afterwards to venture to Barranco, just south of Mira Flores. The girls did some shopping and then we all walked along the cliffside to see the view of the Pacific Ocean. Hungry and somewhat tired, we grabbed a bus for our Arenales to get dinner and wrap up the night.

On Tuesday morning, we checked out the Museum of Gastronomy. Eager, I was excited to see the native foods to the Peruvian people along with the history of the food. I was overwhelmed by the amounts of crops and fruits I had never heard of. One example being a quinoa, a grain like eatable seed. There is an innumerable amount of potatoes, breads, corns. A map diagnosed where different fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish come from within Peru. The museum also had recipes posted on the walls of innate Peruvian dishes. A video as well as mannequins showed cooking techniques that have been passed down for centuries.

Later that evening, a majority of us students headed to the Metro to pick up snacks before our early flight to Cusco. After seeing the native foods in the museum, I truly looked at all the foods that lined the shelves at the supermarket. I found two extremely interesting findings. One was crustless white bread that was sliced horizontally. After years of seeing sliced bread, I was amazed at the idea of bread with no crust sliced the wrong way. The second discovery was milk that was bagged. That’s right, the milk was sold in a plastic sealed bag no thicker than a ziplock bag.

Viva Peru

~JH