Ok for those of you who don't know (either because your not in Peru or because you live under a rock)since last Friday the city of Lima has been celebrating the Grand Week of Lima, a FREE 9 day event that encourages Lima's citizens to take back the streets in recognition of the City of Kings.  The festivities are being hosted by the Municipalidad de Lima and are sponsored by various established Peruvian businesses (Inka Cola, RPP, Cristal, etc.).

Most of the events will take place in the Plaza de Armas and surrounding areas including Jiron de La Union.  The Festivies include exhibitions of various local and regional art and artisan craftworks, as well as music and entertainment (from a dog show to a surprise concert to be held in the Plaza de Armas, word has it that Hermanos Yaipen and Grupo 5 will be there but don't quote me on that).

Here is a link to the main website where you can see the calender of events scheduled to take place.

Also for those currently in Lima, Chilean Artist Francisca Sánchez has setup a huge platform around the statue of Independence hero José de San Martín in the Plaza San Martin.  She titles it: "Yo y San Martín (Me and San Martín)".  This allows citizens and tourists the opportunity to get up close to the statue as well as receive a spectacular view of the city below.  The exhibit is available to the public up until the 1st of November and is open from 9am to 6pm.

Here is a cool video that talks about the project



IMPORTANT: LADIES IF YOU WANT TO CLIMB THE PLATFORM DO NOT WEAR HIGH HEELS.  THE SECURITY AT THE EXHIBIT IS STRICT AND WILL NOT LET YOU CLIMB THE STAIRS OF THE PLATFORM IF ARE WEARING HEELS!

Exhausted from a late saturday night of drinking and tom foolery, I chose to spend most of Sunday hibernating in an attempt to rejunenate my aging body.  When I did finally manage to crawl out of bed I decided to go get some outdoor exercise and headed with my dad to the local soccer stadium here in Chorrillos where the regular Sunday match was already underway.  There I found a few wonderful little ma and pa food stands selling the perfect Sunday morning meal Ceviche with Chicharron de Calamar (Ceviche with Fried Calamari).  Not really 100% in the mood for Ceviche I decided to go for the straight Chicharron platter instead, which was tender and delicious with just a hint of lime and ginger.

I then packed my camera gear as I normally do when I plan my weekend excursions and hailed a ride in a collectivo.  Once in Lima I met up with Zdenka and we headed over to the Plaza de San Martin where I rushed over to the monument platform eager to climb it to the top where I would undoubtly take several photos only to later rejoice at my photographic evidence.  Unfortuantely.........I was unaware of the NO HIGH HEELS policy and thanks to my beloved girlfriend was unable to wait in what was probably a 1 hour line.

Disappointed and anxious to take cool artsy photos we continued along Jiron de La Union which due to the festivities was packed.  It was there in Jiron that I spotted the most beautiful of all houses, a true work of art.  The ARCHITECTURE was like an architechs wet dream, I still have dreams about those columns and the 19th century hard wood floors. Saddly the beautiful shrine to artistic design and possible good old fashion slave labor had been converted as with most buildings on Jiron, into a god damn SHOE STORE of all things!
The thought still haunts me.




I managed to snap a few decent photos while in the Plaza de Armas and even passed through an open art exhibit in the Municipal building.  I really liked this painting.



The night finally ended in Jesus Maria where a craving for great, down to earth cooking came in the form of anticuchos and picarones.  The meal was put together by the local Catholic church on Av. Cuba as a fundraiser for some recently initiated sisters or something.