Around the world with two suitcases
Not much new this week, but some memorable images.
Camping on the beach is a part of summer here. Having spent several summers camping on archaeological research projects I say it looks a lot more fun than it is.
A number of beachfront restaurants open for the four-month summer season.
Here’s a color-coordinated vehicular blast from the past.
The balloon vendor has just sold balloons to three little girls: a pink cartoon pig, a Pikachu, and a Spiderman. To each her own.
Summer is going full tilt. The air is warm and humid most of the time, and the ocean is not as cold as it was a few weeks ago.
On the left is the rocky point at the south end of our bay. On the right is a recent sunset. We have many, many sunset photos, but sometimes I still want a new picture.
Our friends Mark and Marcy were here for a few days and we visited the archaeological site of Caballete. It was hot and almost clear, but there was some breeze, so we didn’t roast. The summer can be really hot out in the desert.
The upright stones near us used to form a circle, but so many people have dug under them to look for gold that they’ve all fallen over. No gold has been found…..
Last Christmas, our youngest daughter Lillian and her boyfriend Neil visited us in Peru. This year they went to see his family but our two older daughters visited us. We enjoyed every minute. I didn’t take nearly enough photos. Amanda and Jimmy arrived on Dec. 20 and Lyra arrived on Dec. 22. We spent Dec. 23 cooking and decorating. Christmas Eve dinner we shared with our next door neighbors the Byrne’s, who had all the family including Rodolfo, Sarah and Scott from Hawaii and Pino from Florida. Everyone brought wonderful food. Jonathan was in heaven cooking. Lyra made wonderfully decorated cupcakes and Jonathan roasted a turkey. Toto roasted a leg of pork in his wood fired oven. What a night!
The table had an empty place set for Gaim Byrne, Jonathan’s good friend and oldest brother of the family, who died in 2016. We all miss him. He would have enjoyed the toast in his honor.
On Christmas Day we had some family fun around our “tree” that will be planted in the garden later.
My fondest wishes were fulfilled by boxes of chocolate.
The rest of the girls and Jimmy’s stay was all too brief. We loafed, walked the dog up and down the beach and Jimmy reconnected with his inner surfer–acquitting himself very well and impressing the Peruvians, all of whom have been surfing since childhood. He did us proud.
This is us watching surfing.This is Jimmy surfing in the middle of the photo. (Scott in foreground.)
Since we are a family of archaeologists, there had to be at least one field trip, so we went to Caral, to see the reconstructed pyramids. Despite how it looks, the day was slightly overcast with some breeze so we did not roast as I did when I went last year at this time. The girls reminisced about being able to roll down the sand dunes as little kids. We believe they are off limits now. There were no footprints….
After almost two weeks, it was time for the return trip. We drove into Lima on Jan 1 early in the day (10 am) and avoided the traffic. The young people finished up their shopping at the stores that were open—-there were enough to get the job done. We ended their trip in style with dinner at “La Huaca Pucllana” restaurant, one of the best in Lima in my opinion (see Jonathan’s report on TripAdvisor). The restaurant overlooks a large archaeological site that is illuminated at night, creating a spectacular setting. It was a relatively early night. We dropped all three at the airport at 6 am for their flights back to the US. They were on the same plane as far as Miami and then headed for opposite coasts. It was a memorable holiday and I miss them already.
When we want to go beach combing in Peru we have always gone to a beach about an hour’s drive from here. This year, things seem to be changing. The beach is normally empty except for a row of seabirds wading along the edge. There are mole crabs (muy-muy) under the sand where the surf crashes and people have been collecting them for bait for as long as we’ve been here.
Now there are a lot of mole crab carapaces on the shore. Are they molting? If so, why are there also a lot of mole crab legs out there, too. There are also regular crabs. There have always been lots of crab burrows and little crabs scurrying in and out. This year there are a lot of dead crabs and some still dying, lying upside down waving their legs just a bit.
We also have sea stars and sea urchins washing up, something that I don’t recall happening before, especially the starfish. We saw some tiny mole crabs eating a dead sea star.
In addition to the new sea life, dead or alive, there are more shells washing up. We didn’t used to find many shells and now we find limpets, big barnacles, slipper shells, some clams, turban shells and the occasional loco (Chilean abalone, Concholepas). Not fancy species, but a lot more than the broken mussel shells that used to be most of the beach material. We also find live limpets and locos. What makes them let go of their hold on the rocks and wash in to the beach? The other day a couple were poking at this sea slug that washed up. It was still alive. Why did it wash up? 
Can it be natural fluctuation of ocean conditions? Peru is a place where there can be unusual variability in the temperature of the water. The warm phase is the El Nino phenomenon (last winter). Could these changes come from increased water pollution? Only a portion of Peru’s waste water is processed before being dumped in the ocean. Could that be making a difference? What kind of by-catch comes from anchovy fishing? The fishing fleet is out full tilt, trying to close in on 100 million tons before Christmas. Most evenings the stench of the fishmeal processing plant in the nearby town of Supe floats over to us for a few hours. Fortunately, there will be a hiatus for the holidays, and the season closes before summer ends. So to quote the immortal bard (one of them), “There’s something happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” Neither do I.
“Let’s not rush into things,” is a phrase that people on the beach can really get behind. Today is Dec. 15, ten days until Christmas, one of the biggest holidays of the year and source of a lot of annual income along the shore. There’s been a surge of efforts to fix the beach up for the season, but just in the past few days.
DISCOS are the most resistant to improvement. The Rumba (above left) has added a ramada, while at Zunka, the facade was torn off just this morning. We’ll see what they put up. 
The restaurant bar owned by the Ordonez family got a facelift a year ago and it looks like they are re-opening this year as a nightclub. They have been closed since we arrived in early November, and the banner announces the Rupac Beach Club opening Dec. 17 with Rubia Conga Salsafest (from New York). In preparation, the windows have been cleaned. I guess they’re ready.
Hotels often receive a paint job during the year, but (below right) the hotel-formerly-known-as-the Daso Inn has sanded off the old logo. We’re holding our breath to see the new name. On the left, Barranca Suites, completed last spring, is already adding another section. Will it be ready for Christmas?–Maybe Valentine’s Day.
There is some new construction. We are not sure of the purpose for either site, and the guys working construction are cagey. The structure on the left may be a restaurant.
The men working in front of this abandoned house (below) are putting up an ice cream stand–cremoladas, actually, a chilly fruit drink.
On the house below, the third floor is being sanded before tile is added to the facade. I think they got tired of doing the annual paint job. I guess it’s easier to wash the facade each year instead.
The bus shelters (there is no bus system) are getting a new coat of paint. The new paint job on the right is for Guaraná, a brand of soda. It’s the first time the sponsor of the paint along the boardwalk hasn’t been for a beer company. Unless there’s a corporate sponsor, the seafront installations don’t get repainted.
At our end of the beach there was no sponsor this year, so the neighbors got together and bought paint. The city agreed to provide a painter for three days. It may not look like much, but it is a lot nicer than scaly beer ads.
Hardest working part of the beach community are the trash cans:
Trash is collected every day. I keep threatening to put up a sign on the wall outside our house:
“The ocean is not soup. Do not put food in it!” The remains of limes, onions, the orange chili peppers called aji amarillo, and tangerine peels are among the most common of beach trash, right after ice cream papers.
Last but not least, the city touted the way our tax dollars were used this year to improve the beach environment. I am not happy with the choices.
First, we have a new “security center” that is manned occasionally by one civilian who cannot see out the window because it is so hot inside they have to paper the glass over. Anyone on the beach could have told them that at the start of construction. 
Second, the city has put up scaffolding to repair and restore the giant mis-proportioned statue of Christ the Redeemer that was put up by a former mayor in about 1999, just before we arrived. Work to create the base of the statue utterly destroyed an archaeological site. The mayor’s comment, “There are lots of sites.” Supposedly, people visit Barranca and its beach as part of a visit to the statue. Maybe they do.
Happy Holidays!
Here is a good follow-up to our visit to Cuba (See the link to a recent article below.). While we found the food in Cuba to be only moderately interesting, apparently we are ingrates. Tourists are eating up all the fresh fruits and vegetables in Cuba, along with the best cuts of meat and leaving nothing for people who have to live on a salary of Cuban pesos. Is tourism good or bad in this situation?
Tourists are eating up all of Cuba’s produce
This is one of the more expensive, co-op markets.
For all we hear about the decline of Catholicism around the world, a version of it is alive and well in Barranca. I am not sure how many people I know go to Mass every Sunday, but almost everyone participates in one of the many festivals in honor of the Virgin Mary or other saints that take place around the year. I was reminded of this recently when I realized there are three shrines to the Virgin right here on the beach, and there is another at the market.
One shrine is by the water company pumping station down the beach a bit. 
Just down the street from our house is a shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes that is maintained by a group of women who hold an annual celebration in her honor. The original shrine is up on a hillside overlooking the beach. When some of the members found it difficult to walk up to it, the group conducted a fundraising campaign to build a building on a small patch of land that they got the city to donate. The shrine is maintained by a group of women that seems to include almost everyone on the beach. The responsibility for organizing the annual feast day celebrations rotates among members.
Another Virgin presides over the market. She seems to be ready for the season.
Our region also celebrates a number of saints. Every town has a roadside shrine or two. There is national veneration of Senor de los Milagros, a mural that survived an earthquake in 1655 when all the walls around it fell. The procession through the center of Lima honoring this image is said to be the largest in the world.
Closer to home, I couldn’t understand why there were fireworks last weekend, especially during the day. They were part of the celebration of the feast day of Saint Martin de Porres. A special seating area was set up in front of a temporary shrine across from the sea wall. After being on view most of Saturday and Sunday, there was a procession up and down the street, with stops at some houses. I saw a small child held up to touch the image of the saint.
In addition to Saint Martin, there is Saint Rose of Lima, Saints Peter and Paul patron saints of fishermen, and the Virgen del Carmen, called the Perpetual Mayoress of Lima. Each of these elicits processions, vigils, and sometimes festivals up to a week long. This is a largely secular society, but there is still a lot of faith.
I am diverging from my usual posts to add this to my blog. I urge you to read through it and think about the message–that the US Congress has an important role in the systems of checks and balances on the power of the other branches of the US system, the executive and the judicial. Roger Myerson is a distinguished ecnomist at the University of Chicago, and a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. (Most important of all, he is a member of my undergraduate cohort at Harvard.) His opposition to term limits for members of Congress is presented in a very understandable, articulate way and I agree with his message.
We know that other countries have sometimes elected presidents who then manipulated the great powers of their office to nullify constitutional constraints and establish a permanent grip on political power. But from George Washington’s first election until now, Americans always selected presidents who, in prior public service, had demonstrated their commitment to exercise power responsibly within legal and constitutional limits. In January 2017, however, America will for the first time have a President who has never held any public office and who, as a businessman, has a long record of manipulating laws to his personal advantage.
Throughout the presidential campaign, many have consistently underestimated Donald Trump’s ability to market himself and denigrate his opponents in a relentless drive for power. Now his perplexing mixture of extreme and moderate policy statements must not distract us from the fundamental constitutional issues which may be at stake in the next four years if…
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We wanted to make another guest room more attractive because we are having both daughters visit over Christmas. If Amanda and Jimmy take the suite, Lyra would be left with an unimproved space. The ceilings are so high that it is difficult to get artwork big enough to fill the wall. 
I designed a patchwork wave that was going to be made of mantas cut in quarters and hemmed into squares. My problem was that I would end up putting a lot of nails in the wall to put it up.
Help was needed! My friend Leila Wilson came over to give me artistic consultation. Leila is a ball of energy and loves to paint. She decided–and I completely agreed!–that it would be more fun to create a mural on the wall. Taking off from the wave theme, she sketched a scene of waves and the beach and started painting. I even got to help a little bit. (I’m behind the ladder.)
When we get the rest of the room organized, I’ll post the entire new space, but we have to wait until the wiring is replaced and the patches in the wall from the new connections get plastered and painted. It won’t be long. Didn’t she do a great job?
Trying to look at a familiar place with fresh eyes is a difficult proposition. I’ve been here in Barranca many times. One of the good things about a beach community is that it doesn’t change. The same fishermen haul out their beach seine every afternoon even though I have yet to see more than a few tiny fish in it after all these years. The beach is still there, the waves crash endlessly, the sunset is both the same and completely different every day. That’s why we sit on the front porch and eat our lunch, then wheel chairs out to watch the sunset. The ocean and the sky are the fixed points in our universe.
What is going on if I look the other direction, toward the land?
Barranca is booming. There is construction in many places around town. There are properties for sale (When we arrived here in 1999 there was almost nothing for sale or rent). Outside town the new highway from Huacho to Pativilca is almost finished (The Panamerican Highway up to four lanes from two, though still full of speed bumps).
Here on the beach there is a new house built by a local hotel owner, Arturo. It looks like apartments, but he assures us that it’s a house. The small pool on the right is just about finished.
Farther down, I am watching the slow construction of a new building–probably a small hotel–in what has always been an empty lot.
Another empty lot is being landscaped as a restaurant parking area. Or so they say.
One disco is being refreshed for the holiday season. So far, the second disco remains abandoned (and that’s a good thing).
There is a new restaurant in the ground floor of our neighbor to the south. That may not be a good thing–it depends on what music they play, and how loud. Restaurant Gaviotas has been our neighbor on the north forever.
There is lots of scope for new development. Here is an area waiting for investment.
These six properties are empty right now. They were home to families of fishermen. Some died, some moved away. Just to the left of this photo is a large new home and next to that is Arturo’s new house. Our house is down the beach to the right. In the 1930s along this roadway was a long wooden boardwalk trimmed with picket fencing and with a large gazebo at the end. Anyone ready to invest? No rush, it’s been this way for most of the past 15 years.
I still go to the market with Jonathan at least once a week and keep my eyes open for interesting things. On Saturday, I asked this woman if I could take her photo because she was dressed up for the market. You could tell she put some time into getting ready. What’s interesting, too, is that when you were looking at how carefully she was made up, you stopped noticing her walker. (There may be a lesson here.)
I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more great local sights. Here’s Jonathan, the happy homeowner on his front porch.
Llywindatravels 2026 