Ancient Pyramid and Peru's Hairless Dog

Less than half a mile from our hotel in the middle of Lima are the ruins of an ancient sacred site. Huaca Pucllana is a Peruvian pyramid that was built in many layers over many centuries, first by the indigenous people of Lima starting in about 400 AD. These people used it as a place to make sacrifices to the sea god, who from what the tour guide told us, was their most important god. These sacrifices including human sacrifices, which were always young girls and women. According to our guide, they would only do human sacrifices every time a new layer was added to the pyramid. She estimated that that was about every 20 years. The pyramid is built of adobe bricks, made from mud and sea shells.View of the city from the top of the pyramid.

The Limas were conquered around 700 AD by the Waris. According to our tour guide, these Peruvians did not make human sacrifices, however they continued the tradition of making sacrifices to the sea, in the form of fish and artifacts. They also used it Huaca Pucllana as a place to bury the dead, and continued to add to the layers.The top most layer.

When the Incas conquered the Wari, Huaca Pucllana was abandoned and pretty much forgotten. Modern Lima grew up around it and part of it was destroyed by buildings. Basically it was forgotten and was use as area for young poeople to play soccer and other games. Our tour guide said that it wasn't until the early 1980's that it began to be explored by archaeologists was officially made a historic site by the Peruvian government.

While visiting the ruins we saw a hairless dog. We took photos, mostly because we though he was pretty cool looking. I was quite surprised when I was looking up Huaca Pucllana afterwards and discovered that the dog belongs to the ruin and are part of Peru's history. You can read the fascinating story of these dogs here. The dogs in the article have yellow and orange "mohawks". Some of our group saw two of the dogs who had these.

Magic of the Water

This evening we visited El Circuito Magico del Agua--a park in central Lima, which according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the largest fountain complex in the world. It is a beautiful and peaceful park that has 13 main fountains and many smaller fountains. Here are a few photos to give you a taste of the beauty of the fountains.

View of the park:

Fuente Magica:

The tallest fountain in the world that is in a public park. This fountain alone is worth going to see.

Fuente de la Fantasia:


A never ending display of changing shapes and colors. The last two photos were taken during the laser light show that is put on every evening.

Fuente de los Ninos :
(Fountain of the Children)--an ever changing maze of spouts and fountains for children to play in. It sure was a popular place!

Fuente Tunel de las Sopresas:

"Fountain Tunnel of Surprises"-- A tunnel of water that you can walk through and come out bone dry--unless of course one of the people before you or behind you decides to put his hand in the wall of water. If that happens you end up getting sprayed, which is why I have water marks on my shirt.

Home for Sale!

I am very much enjoying my time in Lima. I am keeping my promise to myself to just lay back and relax and not worry about what I get to see or don't get to see. This morning I spent a couple of hours in the rooftop pool, then we went site seeing. For the first time in literally years, I am not completely exhausted. I really think I need to take vacations more often!

I want to share with you some of the lovely homes we have seen. Peruvians seem to love their colors!

This house is for sale. If it weren't in the middle of a huge city, I'd be ready to buy it and move in! It looks large in the photo, but really it is not. The only sad thing is that is is next door to a run down ugly concrete skyscraper. That seems to be pretty typical of this part of Lima though. You will have architecturally beautiful homes next to concrete blocks that are complete devoid of beauty or taste.
I love the red trim on this one.

These next two aren't homes, but are beautiful buildings.
We couldn't figure out what this building is for, but I love the combination of brick red and dusty blue.

And lastly, a little taste of landscaping:


I would love to see the garden that is behind this wall!

First Glimpse of Lima

Some photos from our first day in Lima.

The Monastery of San Francisco.

This church is breath-takingly beautiful on the inside and is one of few buildings in Lima that was built in the 1600's that hasn't been touched by fire or earthquake. It has the original paintings and the original very intricate woodwork, We weren't allowed to take photos of the inside, but you can see some here. I wish I could find some that were clearer--these don't do the place justice. Beneath the church are winding catacombs that were the burial place for the monks who prayed and lived in the monastery. It sounds like this was also the burial place for many residents of Lima. It is estimated that over 70,000 people are buried here. The interesting thing is that they weren't really buried. Instead there are many, many open bins with thousands and thousands of bones. The bones are neatly arranged and sorted by type--skulls in one bin, femurs in another etc. It takes a bit of getting used too!

Peruvian dancers in the beautiful traditional dress. There were musicians and dancers in front of the Monastery of San Franciso for most of the day. One of the little boy dancers.

School girls who eagerly posed for a photo.


I think it is funny that the main flowers you see everywhere in town are celosia and marigolds. They make me feel right at home--those are two of the main flowers you see in Michigan in August.



The humidity and heat feels like August, too!

Basket Willows

Trina from All That is Good sent me some cuttings from her English basket willows a week or two ago. I meant to get them potted up right away and set outside. Instead I put put them in a glass of water on the kitchen windowsill and told myself I would get to them later.
Today the day I finally got to them. They rooted and leafed out quickly. I potted them up milk jugs containers with potting soil. Since we are leaving for 10 days, I am a little nervous about putting them outside while we are gone. I think I am going to put the jugs in a roasting pan partially filled with water so they don't dry out and put it in the kitchen window.

I am looking forward to making baskets with real basket willow next spring! I've wild crafted baskets for years. Here are a few samples...

Weeping willow, cattail, and grapevine:

Grape vine:

Cattail and grapevine:

Weeping willow:

Our Friendly Backyard Rabbit

I always seem to have a least on friendly rabbit in the backyard. On warmer days she is almost always out munching away. I know this one is different then the one we had last year, because she is smaller. The chickens like to chase her around and she will usually go hide under the trailer, which is too low for for the chickens to get under. Once they loose interest she comes out again and continues eating clover. We have figured out that rabbits really do prefer natural lawn to garden. As long as we let the grass , clover, and dandelions grow, they pretty much stay out of the garden. Though I did have a baby rabbit who took up cover in the garden last summer and never came out. She didn't do enough damage to bother me, and I loved watching her running around the garden--or rather dashing under cover every time I came out to work! I wonder if this is her, just grown up a bit...if it is her, she has gotten over her her fear of people somewhat. She lets me come within 20 feet of her before hopping away. Can you find the rabbit in the photo?
She is amazingly well camouflaged...

My Goals For Peru

-Eat lots of fruit (it is the end of summer there, and lots of things are in season.)
-Pick up sea shells on the beach.
-Don't gain 10 lbs.
-Don't think about work for even one minute.


That's it! For everything else I'm just going to sit back and enjoy whatever happens. I realized the other day that this is the longest stretch of time that I have have off since I started working as a nurse. Work has been very busy for the last several months, and I knew I was exhausted and stressed out, but it was amazing what a load was lifted off my mind when I turned off my work cell phone and laptop yesterday. I won't be turning them on again until April 6th. I guess I really do need a vacation!

We leave tomorrow morning and arrive in Lima at 11pm tomorrow evening.

Getting ready for Peru

Terry and I spent the day getting ready for a ten day trip to Peru. His youngest son is getting married in Lima on Saturday. I decided to make a vacation out of the trip and took ten days off from work. I'm so excited! We arrive in Lima on Thursday evening. I'm so looking forward to the summer weather in Lima and the pacific ocean! However the highlight of the trip (after the wedding, of course. =) will be going to Machu Picchu and spending a day in Cuzco. I checked the weather there today. Forecast for Lima is beautiful sunny weather with highs in the low 80's. Cuzco is up in the mountains and much cooler, with lows in the 4o's and highs in the 60's. Yahoo weather is also predicting rain there for the next two weeks. Guess we better pack rain coats.

My chickens will be spending the 12 days out in the country with another flock of chicken. They will get to free range all day long. I'm sure they will hate me when I bring them back home and lock them in their coop again. They do get to go out for an hour every evening, as evidenced by this photo of them scratching in the garden this evening. Every time I walk by the coop, they beg me to let them out.
I'm also so looking forward to spring blossoms and starting the garden when I get back. I did get the garlic uncovered from its leaf mulch last week and it is greening up. Today I started lettuce, spinach, kale, and collards via the winter sowing method today. Is it just me or is spring taking forever to come this year? I know it is on it's way, because there are worms and bugs crawling in the garden and another flower is getting ready to bloom...

Excuse me, but you can't sleep there!

Looks like two chickens decided to roost on my car for the night...ahh, the trials of trying to free range your chickens in the city...

Look! A Flower!

It is official--spring really is about to come to Michigan. Here is the proof:
A clump of winter aconites bloomed today.

It has been a long cold winter, that felt like it would never end. But when the first flower blooms you know that spring is not too far away...

Out to the compost pile and back....

Chicken and people tracks.

Of Dragon eggs and quail eggs

I gave away my brown hens today. They were given to me last fall as adults and they never integrated well into my flock. The California whites tolerated them, but never really got chummy with them. When they were out free ranging the the brown hens tended to go off on their own and do their own thing. They are going out to live in the country and will have more space and more freedom to roam. I think they will be happier with just the two of them and not being snubbed all the time by the California whites.Checking out their new surroundings...

I am surprised how sad I feel. I pretty much knew from the first week I had them, that I would be giving them away come spring. These hens, though they are gentle and calm, are real hole diggers, and I am sure would have wreaked havoc in my garden come planting season. The California whites just sort of scratch around. These hens on the other hand dig 6" holes and that really won't work well with letting them free range in my garden. The coop seems so empty with without them though! And I will miss the brown eggs.
As a parting gift they gave me two huge eggs. Did a dragon or mythical creature get into the coop and lay an egg?

There is something so magical about eggs. Especially eggs that are different. I'm almost expecting to open the door of the fridge and see a pair of baby dragons or two tiny dinasaurs waddle out.

And speaking of magical eggs, the lady who is now the happy owner of the two brown hens, has five pet quail which give her eggs every day. She gave me half a dozen of their eggs. She uses the eggs in Chinese cooking. But just look at these dainty little eggs...they are way to pretty to eat!
Speckled quail eggs

I just want to keep them in the carton and look at them everyday!