Built on bones.

On Monday, a friend of Jennifer's from her days as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic came through Lima. She was coming directly from Iquitos where she had been out in the jungle at a temple that hosts spiritual experiences with a psychedelic concoction known as ayahuasca. Native people out there have developed a recipe that they brew out of native plants and shamans at this temple escort participants through the process. I am both skeptical of these kind of beliefs and frankly frightened by the process, perhaps even fundamentally frightened/unconvinced of the need for revelations. Jennifer's friend took the ayahuasca probably 5 or 6 days over the course of her 2 week visit, sitting in a circle of mattresses with a shaman singing in front of her, vomiting repeatedly, hallucinating. Sounds like hell to me, but she had the spiritual breakthrough she was seeking and was actually sorry to have left. A quick look on the internet and I can't find any negative testimonials, so who knows, there might actually be something to those jungle vines.

Jennifer's friend was happy to get some laundry done, though, and patiently answered all our queries. Yesterday we went with her to the colonial downtown of Lima and toured the Franciscan monastery. The catacombs beneath the church are chock full of bones, estimates put the number of people buried down there at 25,000. Most of them are still hidden behind walls and lost chambers, but some were excavated in the 40s, with archeologists arranging large piles of bones in geometric patterns. [Why put the bones in patterns?]

The church is nothing compared to some of the grand cathedrals in Europe, but still interesting in context. I particularly enjoyed a large painting in the dining hall, a 17th century version of the Last Supper. When you pay attention, it becomes clear that the well-known theme has variations that are particularly Peruvian. The table is round and welcoming and children run around. The central platter shows that the main course is cuy (guinea pig) and scattered on the table are 3 of the important Peruvian chilis.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner close to our house. This restaurant was started by a couple, a Peruvian chef and her Australian superstar chef fiancee. These two were killed along with 2 other star Peruvian chefs, back at the beginning of December in a mountain auto wreck, rocking the country's vibrant culinary community. At the end of our meal, the waiter brought out complimentary chocolates and alfajores (cookies) and a man introduced himself to us and asked about our meal. It was the father of the woman, putting a brave face on it and showing us a picture of the couple on his iPhone.