Sequitur

Late on Friday morning we took a launch to the club pier and to the restaurant to have lunch with Gonzalo and his wife Magdala to help him celebrate his birthday. Also joining them were Herb and Bev of The Lady J of Florida, Peter and Paula of Pacific Blue from Tilburg, The Netherlands and Steven and Kimberly and their son Cullem of Odyle out of Half Moon Bay, California. We shared a splendid lunch, enjoying fine food, delicious Piscos and wonderful camaraderie with new friends through the afternoon and into the early evening.

The Seven Seas Cruising Association has just announced that Gonzalo is this year's winner of the Bateman Cruising Station-of-the-Year Award. From my limited dealings with Gonzalo so far, if he had not just won this award, I would have nominated him for it. He has been and continues to be a most valuable resource for cruising sailors in Peru.

We caught-up on news from Herb and Bev, who had arrived in La Punta in their Ocean Trader trawler from Florida in July 2006, and have remained here since, travelling inland and out. They had recently returned from a break in the Bahamas, and while they were there, they bought a canal-front condominium with moorage. They are planning on heading The Lady J north from Callao early next year to transit the Panama Canal and make their way across the Caribbean to their new cruising base.

Peter and Paula of Pacific Blue arrived in La Punta in year five of their cruise that has so far taken their Breehorn 44 from The Netherlands, down the east coast of South America, around Cape Horn and for a year and a half exploring Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. They were hauled-out in the club yard and are awaiting re-launch before heading off to The Galapagos. Edi and Paula had a wonderful opportunity to practice their Dutch, and I picked Peter's brain for tidbits of information and gems of wisdom gained on their many months of cruising around the bottom of the continent.

Steven and Kimberly and their 14-year-old son Cullem had left the San Francisco area last October in Odyle, their Skookum ketch and have cruised down the Mexican and Central American coast and then along the Ecudorian and Peruvian coast, recently arriving here in La Punta. From here they intend crossing the Pacific via Polynesia.

Saturday we cleaned-out and re-arranged the pantry and the two largest of the six cockpit lockers. Among other things, I reorganized the Jordan series drogue into a more suitable bag, which we had brought from Vancouver. I marked the bridles with tape to indicate the start of their attachment points on the stern cleats, so that it is quick and easy to rig when needed. The entire drogue system is now flaked into one compact bag, stowed in a cockpit locker and ready to deploy.

On Sunday we went ashore to find a convenient supermarket to buy a few things. We met Bev, who was on her way to the Vea supermarket, so we tagged along with her, catching a bus there for 50 Soles each. We completed our shopping and met-up with Bev, who had bought a dozen two-and-a-half-litre bottles of water, and needed to take a cab back, so we shared the 6 Soles fare with her.


One of the reasons we had needed to go shopping was to get some things for the potluck barbeque Frano was putting-on on the upper deck of the club restaurant. We had a wonderful evening, sharing with new friends recently met, and meeting still more cruisers. Among the additional cruisers we met at the barbeque were Pamela of Precious Metal from Canada; Max and Sandy of Volo from Australia and Doug and Jill of Companero from Alaska. Precious Metal is sailing from here westward through Polynesia, while Volo and Compana are heading south to Patagonia, as is Sequitur. We had a great evening, and had another opportunity to spend time with Gonzalo and Magdala.


On Monday we puttered, and then went ashore to take measurements of the club's 20-ton travel lift to see if it could accommodate Sequitur. As we arrived, Peter and Paula were in the process of re-launching Pacific Blue. They will leave on Tuesday, as soon as they get their zarpe.

From its dimensions and capacity, the travel lift should be able to haul Sequitur. We spoke with Jaime Ackermann and asked him to confirm our measurements and if he sees we can fit, to book a haul-out for us.


We had run out of oyster flavoured sauce the last time I did a stir-fry. We had seen small bottles of it in supermarkets since, but we considered it too expensive, and thought that we could do better. Our goal was to find Lima's Chinatown, so after breakfast on Tuesday we took a launch ashore and caught a van into central Lima for 3 Soles each.


After some fifteen or sixteen kilometres, we were let off at Plaza 2 Mayo and told to head across the circle and follow Nicolas De Pierola. We followed this modern street, which for the first two blocks or so is lined with musical instrument stores; I've never seen so many windows full of saxophones. After walking about a kilometre, we came to Plaza San Martin, where we asked the concierge at Hotel Bolivar for directions to Chinatown.


He pointed us to Jiron de La Union, a pedestrian mall. Walking along this mall, we sensed that we could have been in any upscale district in any old-world city on the planet. There were many wonderful facades from modern back through art deco, art nouveau, rococo and churrigueresco.


One fascinating art nouveau-style building caught our eye. It was Photographia Central, the photography studio of Frenchman Eugene Courret, founded in 1863.


We continued along to Plaza de Armas, across which stands Palacio De Gobierno, the Government Palace, which is also known as the House of Pizzaro. We were in the Historic Centre of Lima, which since 1988 has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


To our right was Palacio Municipal, the Municipal Palace of Lima, or City Hall.


Behind us was a line of buildings with the typical balconies seen here in central Lima. These balconies were fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries and it is reported that some 1600 of these ornate structures survive in Lima. The municipal government has initiated a programme in which individuals and companies can 'adopt' a balcony to restore and maintain. We saw many wonderful examples on our walk.


We next walked along Huallaga, past the Basilica Cathedral of Lima, which was begun in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro laying the first stone. The first version was completed in 1538, and since then it has seen many additions, reconstructions and renovations.


We continued along for a few blocks and saw the shops gradually change to Chinese. We passed through the gates into Chinatown proper, and stopped at a simple restaurant for lunch. We were thirsty from our walking, so we decided it was time to try an Inca Kola. We had read that this is the only national soft drink anywhere in the world that locally outsells Coca Cola. McDonald's forced Coca-Cola to allow Inca Kola to be sold in its Peruvian locales, the only country in the world where Coca-Cola agreed to such an exception to its arrangement with McDonald's. In a reversal of the standard arrangement, Inca Kola is the official bottler of Coca Cola in Peru.

I hadn't had a soft drink since my last Fanta orange while on a climbing expedition in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan in 1975, and this seemed the appropriate time to have another. It tasted very much like the very sweet cream soda of our youth, half-a-century and more ago. Here it is found on the tables of every class, from the wealthy to the poor. Our huge lunch, more than the two of us could eat, came to 20 Soles, about $7.30, including the Inca Kola.


After lunch we wandered through the rabbit warren of markets and we found plastic one-litre jugs of oyster-flavour sauce for 10 soles each. We bought two, and then crossed the street to the Mercado Municipal.


This is a very large, multi-floored market with hundreds of stalls segregated into type of wares sold. It was mid-afternoon, mid-week and it was crowded and bustling.


There were aisles of fruit stands...


... and rows of olive and cheese displays. We tasted a dried black olive, trying to find a replacement for the wonderful Moroccans we brought with us from the Parthenon Deli in Vancouver. It was bitter and a bit rancid; fortunately we still have a kilo or so left of the good ones.


There was a row of stalls dedicated to goat meat, most with milk-fed kid carcasses out on display.


We were fascinated by the casual approach to dining we saw in the market. There are aisles of counter-fronted open kitchens serving a steady flow of diners on stools. The food appears to be good honest home cooking from simple kitchens, some of them little more than a couple of metres wide.


We retraced our steps back along to the Plaza De Armas and along Jiron de La Union to Eglesia de La Virgen de La Merced, which was constructed in the 18th century in a churrigueresco style. As we were admiring the ornate façade from across the narrow street, the front doors were swung open. We took it as a sign for us to go in for a look.


The interior is richly decorated in a combination of churrigueresco and more modern styles, with extensive carved wood and masonry, and copious use of gilding.


Most of the side altars are more impressive than many of the main altars in other churches, and there is an obvious wealth indicated here.


One of the side altars, which is of intricately carved wood, appears to be very old. It is filled with images, icons and statues of saints.


Another altar seems to be a spare; it is totally empty and appears to be waiting for some new saints to come along.

We walked back through Plaza San Martin and along Nicolas De Pierola to Plaza 2 Mayo, where we caught a bus back to La Punta for 2 Soles each. From the yacht club pier we caught a launch back out to Sequitur, our mission to pick-up some inexpensive oyster-flavoured sauce a success.