sushi at swissotel
A few photographs from a recent food assignment for Peruvian business magazine G de Gestión. Care for a little caviar on top of your sushi?
Sushi Cage at Swissotel
artesanos don bosco
Yet another stop I made on my way through Barranco was at Artesanos Don Bosco. An Italian priest started the non-profit that trains impoverished communities in the Andes in woodworking and other arts, such as painting and textiles. The Lima shop sells the beautiful products and the profits go back to the communities. The quality is stunning.
barranco after dark
Some places look better at night. A few more outtakes from The Neighborhood assignment.
Puente de los Suspiros
museo pedro de osma
Back in October I photographed several hot spots of the Barranco neighborhood of Lima for National Geographic Traveler. In the next few posts I look forward to sharing some of the outtakes from the assignment.
These pictures are from Museo Pedro de Osma. If you like historic buildings and architecture, I found the space as stunning as the artwork inside. It was built by the Osma family in the early 1900s and was a private residence until it became a museum in 1987. Behind the main building are additional gallery spaces and beautiful gardens. The art includes textiles, sculptures, furniture, silver and paintings, some dating back as far as the 16th century.
final days
As I work on editing photographs from El Ayllu, I thought I’d share a few. Both the church and the historic home in the last frame were torn down weeks ago. The land is slowly being turned over to Jorge Chavez International Airport for its expansion. Ol’ François had it right when he said the only thing constant in life is change.
a new beginning
Yesterday Anita opened the doors of her restaurant Mi Terruño in Callao. This month the Peruvian Ministry of Transportation and Communications is expected to turn over 1730 acres of land to Lima Airport Partners for its US$800 million expansion plan for Jorge Chavez International Airport. Anita used to live on this land; she is one of about 700 families that were relocated to make way for the expansion. Plans are underway for the construction of a new runway and eventually the creation of an entirely new main terminal, control tower, shopping area and other commercial infrastructure.
Anita ran a restaurant and store in her former neighborhood, known as El Ayllu, for decades. Now she carries on the tradition, alongside three of her sisters, at this new property. Her carapulcra chinchana – a Peruvian stew of dried yellow potatoes, peanut, ají panca, pork and lots of other flavorful things – was the first I tasted. I don’t expect to find better. Hoping Anita finds lots of luck and customers in her new place.
Anita laughs as her godfather, sister and godmother officially inaugurate Mi Terruño with a sign advertising the menu.
barranco in national geographic traveler
I enjoyed a chance to hang around one of my favorite Lima neighborhoods for the February/March issue of National Geographic Traveler. I look forward to sharing more photos from the assignment in a couple of months.
lazy days
Sunday feels like the right day to blog this photo. It kind of sums up how I feel right now. Resting up for a busy week ahead.
Centro Cultural Carabayllo
ringing in the new year with a pig
In the backyard of one of South America’s busiest airports, about 350 families live in an impoverished neighborhood known as El Ayllu. In Incan times “ayllus” were small, self-sufficient communities known for their collective labor and kinship. Hundreds of years have passed, the language has changed from Quechua to Spanish but the principle is still alive in this oasis in the Lima metropolitan area.
Visiting the neighborhood is like a walk back in time. The land was once home to the grand Hacienda San Agustin, dating back to the 1600s, that belonged to one of Lima’s most powerful and rich families. Structures of adobe still stand, once inhabited by slaves and the family they served. Now kids play in the dirt streets. Men congregate at the same corner daily to chat. Women hand wash clothes at the wells around town, and farmers harvest cabbage and onions from the last farm in Callao.
On Jan. 21 they will all be gone, absorbed and dispersed throughout Callao and Lima, into neighborhoods nothing like the hacienda, as its residents affectionately call it. Their homes will be demolished; their lifestyles changed. The neighborhood is the last to go in several taken by imminent domain for airport expansion. Oscar and I are busy trying to make portraits of as many residents with their homes as possible, before they are gone. What we thought was going to be a serene early morning walk turned into us being invited to watch a pig slaughter – it was one family’s way of ringing in the New Year and celebrating the last they’ll spend at their home in El Ayllu.
recycling in lima
In the early evening Osvaldo rides a bus from his shantytown to one of the nicest neighborhoods in Lima – Miraflores. Here he will walk the streets for hours, searching through the garbage of Lima’s upper class. He finds an old picture frame that doesn’t look special to me. He peels the front of the frame off. It’s silver and will fetch him around $20. Later he finds a watch that looks new. His eyes light up and he smiles, something he doesn’t do often.
After about 8 hours of scavenging Osvaldo calls a cab and hauls his treasures to La Parada – one of Lima’s best known street markets where stolen goods are sold alongside items from Lima’s trash. It’s a rough place. Osvaldo gives a second life to many of the items thrown away in Miraflores. He also collects metal, plastic bottles and newspaper to recycle – stuff that would otherwise go straight to the landfill.
Trash that isn’t trash gives Osvaldo his income. Districts are slowly starting to adopt recycling programs in Lima. Some programs are doing their best to include recyclers like Osvaldo. Others are shutting them out and making it hard for them to make a living.
I took these pictures for an on-going project about recycling in Lima that Oscar and I are working on. If you are in Lima this month, check out Oscar’s exhibit – The Value of the Invisible. If you aren’t in Lima you can still watch the video.
