A San Isidro Walk in the Park

This time I am staying at the Atton Hotel in downtown San Isidro, Peru...a suburb of Lima.
It was sunny and cool this morning, a good clear day to go for a walk in search of COLOR.
Since deciding to put more COLOR in my life, I was motivated to get outside when I spied another gorgeous Poinciana (umbrella tree) from my hotel window. I could see a couple inside the walled Spanish Colonial hacienda across the street. As you can see in the photos below...the color of the day was VERMILLION...a bright RED ORANGE that seemed to splash everything sight...

When I started my walk down towards the redondo, I noticed that the estate was the home of the Spanish Embassy.

 Ok Bruce...it is safe to come to Peru now...

Everyone loves this color!

 No...this is NOT the Poinciana, but it is a flowering tree with large bird like blooms. I do not yet know the name...but I will ask Miguel. Perhaps his mother will know. She lives in Miraflores...just around the corner.

 This is the tree...next to a toy store.

Peruvian Monopoly....why not? It's the financial district Sr. Scrooge!












The Poinciana

This tree was named for Phillippe de Lonvilliers de Poincy, the 17th century governor of Saint Christophe (Saint Kitts), who is credited with introducing the plant to the Americas from Madagascar. Because it is a legume, the tree has nitrogen-fixating and soil-improving properties. The Royal Poinciana requires a tropical or near-tropical climate, but can tolerate drought and salty conditions. It's vivid flamboyant red/vermilion/orange/yellow flowers and bright green fern-like foliage make it an exceptionally striking sight.
Southern Texas and Florida are typically the only places you will see them in the U.S.A..

This is a photo I took from the taxi window going to the hotel Friday pm...notice the difference in the light and quality between the two photos! The second photo is more typical Lima weather...see how "blue" the air looks?

"You want me to slow down in this traffic to take photos? Really?" 
HAH!
Miguel is laughing at all the honking horns!

Even the natives can't help noticing the flaming beauties!









And from underneath this dense umbrella like tree, there is much shade...

You could not find a more dense shade to hide from the penetrating sun of Peru.








Speaking of vermillion colors....look at this Peruvian Flycatcher! This photo was taken in "El Olivar," a beautiful park behind the restaurant where I had a late afternoon dinner.

San Isidro is a glamorous district that stands out for its green zones and manicured lawns. The most representative and most beautiful park is El Olivar, with 450 year old olive trees that date from the colonial times. It was declared a National Monument in 1959.

Old and wise, this olive tree has seen a lot in its time.

This is massive cross cut piece of olive tree...commenmorating the park.

I picked a few olives off this old tree you see in the photo.
Deciding to bite into one despite the anticipated bitterness, I was pleasantly surprised. There was a distinct FRESH green olive oil taste to it. A little bitter yes...but with brining or pressing...I could get used to eating this olive oil EVERY day. Delicioso.
Until you have had fresh pressed olive oil, you have not lived!

The side walk has black olive shaped stones. I wonder how many notice the quaint architectural significance....

"Pan, senora?"
They were very hungry. I gave them all the solis I had...
She could not understand that I did not want anything in exchange...
But when I handed her the solis, the girl stuck out her hand as well...
I got the impression that the woman was not her mother and that she would not be fed unless I gave her money as well. So...I did.



Note the date on this urn!  Double click to see it close.









Massive! I could easily squeeze my rear end inside and hide....like Ali Babba.











The urn before you is four feet tall.







Dedication sign for the outdoor olive oil press museum...








This one if for you "T" !



Church bells ringing and ringing and ringing finally caught my attention....
A wedding had taken place in the San Isidro Catedral, while I was making photos of the El Parque de Olivar. This cathedral sits on one of the corners of the redondo near the Atton Hotel.

Here is the fountain in the redondo where five streets come together...see the tall tower in the background?

Here is is up close from the other side of the redonda..."Hacienda de las Condes."

Getting to the other side was not hard because the traffic lights have timers on them that show you how many seconds you have left to cross the intersection. I LIKE THAT!!!  It is a city made for pedestrians...

See the entrance to El Parque de Olivar...

And a demure walk through the park on a cool summer eve...

Here come's the bride!

This commenmorates San Isidro's sister city in Argentina...

Side street colorful buildings...

Micheal, the Archangel of God...

Catycorner to the San Isidro Catedral is the restaurant where I had a very late lunch after following the bride from the church...it is in the very right corner of this next photo.

TANTA has a nice menu of Peruvian cuisine. I had dinner there a couple of months ago while staying at Los Conquistadores in Miraflores....just down the street. Today I had the same meal...it was that good!

Add a typico cebiche con rocoto y una cerveza Cusquena...and I am good to go!

Peruvian Curry

NOW BRUCE...this is not Indian style curry...so don't turn up your nose so quick.
What you see is a blend of about six nationalities on this plate.
Andean Peruvians, Carribean Creole, Indian, Chinese, Thai and Hawaiian cuisines melded into a perfectly stewed culinary delight.
It is nothing like I have ever had before....spicy, semi-sweet, delectable...



What is in this "Curry Super Marca Peru" ?

For those that just have to try to make this...I have included the menu at the bottom of this post...PER THE CHEF! Trying to get the ingredients will be tough for those of you in the U.S.A....but I can purchase and ship to you if you like.
The restaurante has a little shop inside with some of the ingredients used in the curry. These are the three aji's needed for the stew base. I photographed them in front of a magazine page that shows the typical Peruvian aji's.
Remember in a previous post that McDonald's has aji's instead of catsup and mustard!

Ulluco..."Shrimps of the earth"
No...it is not a potato. However it comes from the  higher ridges of the Andes. It is a sweet tuber that is popular in Peru.
I wondered what the yellow slices of sweet were in the curry since had the texture of a firm sliced pickle. I thought it was sliced squash, but different. So, I asked the waiter...and he asked a waiter...and he asked the chef. These are typically sliced thin and added to dishes like this curry.


See the pink spots on the Ulluco?  (pronounced...u-Yuu-coh)
It is popularly known here as papa lisa.
The leaf and tuber are edible, similar to spinach and the potato. They are known to contain high levels of protein, calcium, and carotene. Papa lisa were used by the Incas prior to arrival of Europeans in South America.
When boiled or broiled they remain moist and the texture and flavor are very similar to the meat of the boiled peanut without the skin but unlike the boiled peanut becoming soft and mushy the olluco remains firm and almost crunchy.

Instead of an after dinner dessert from the chocalateria, I had a sweet pisco sour. They really are very sweet, but you must limit yourself to ONE....otherwise there would be no walking home!

Here is the varsol they put in my pisco...

I couldn't help but think of my friend from childhood as I looked at the old olive trees. I wondered what they would look like if he turned a few on his lathe. "T"...I bought one of these for you!  If I could bring an olive stump home with me as a gift for you, I would!

In all the goblets made a simple carpenter, I could only imagine one of made Olive Wood that would hold the Blood of Christ.

I was told to polish the wood with olive oil...

The rough edges are nice. It leaves a feeling for the wood...

And last but not least...the official colors of Peru...stolen from Wiki...

The Peruvian coat of arms includes the vicuña (a relative of the llama and alpaca), the quina (cinchona) tree, and a cornucopia of gold.

The white represents peace and the vermillion red is the blood from the fighters of their freedom.

This is the flag of Peru,

of white and red in color,

as a flame of love,

in Ayacucho and Junín

it dawned victorious with the

Sun of Liberty
.

Es la bandera del Perú,

de blanco y rojo color,

cual llamarada de amor,

que en Ayacucho y en Junín

victoriosa amaneció con el

sol de la Libertad.

Remember the name Ayacucho...it is where my rugmaker lives, near Cuzco...



CURRY INGREDIENTS
Yucca
Sweet Potato
Cilantro
Green and Red Pepper Chunks...including the evil rocoto!
A couple of whole cloves
A nice stick of cinnamon...added at the last second
A couple of chunks of asian eggplant
Chunks of fresh pineapple
Ulluco
Aji panca
Aji rojo
Aji amarillo
salt
Curry paste
Leche de coca (coconut milk)
Oca - Peruvian
Anu - Peruvian
Onions
Broccoli (I didn't have it in mine THIS time...but I did the last time)
Chunks of crispy roasted chicken thighs...

This dish is good enough to go have it a THIRD TIME!  Let me know if you make it.

AMERICAN GRINGA ARRESTED!

(Reuters - Santiago, Chile)

Today an American gringa was arrested for taking cuttings of the Presidential Lavender bushes in Santiago. Police were alerted to the theft when a police officer who was directing traffic was almost overcome when a white Toyota Helix pickup truck drove by wafting the pungent smell down the street. He had presence of mind to notice the license number and radio it in prior to falling into a scent-related coma. Police chased down the vehicle and when they pulled it over approached with caution due to the DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS sticker in the rear window.

When questioned why she took the lavender Ms. Hughes replied "Because it was there". The American embassy has been contacted over this international incident. Their response was, "Vickie who?"

 

Mike Millibar, reporting from Houston, Texas

 

 

Lavender...I'm in heaven!

Which fragrance would whisper in your head...shhhhh....

" You are in Provence , you are in Provence ..."

LAVENDER

Imagine a purple rolling field enveloping an old stone house,

standing alone amongst the beauty...

and me...peddling as fast as I can through these endless lavender

fields - the lavender-laced wind all over my face,

nothing in front of me,

but the waving purple horizon...

Each day I walked to work while La Gringa was in the shop.  The early morning smell would beckon me to occasionally stop and pick a few wands of lavender. I was like a bee....choosing different mounds every day....sampling fragrances, pungency, and color. It was a morning treat as I walked along, hoping to spy a new and different lavender each day!
Did you know that lavender is known for its antiseptic and anti-microbial properties and that it is from the mint family?

Here are some photos of the lavenders I picked...

I love the smell of this pepperminty lavender. Its flowers were on long stalks. Due to its sweet smell, I decided it must be a type of "Sweet Lavender." There are two huge mounds of it in front of a high end shop on Alonso de Cordova. I wonder if the shop owner would let me give both mounds a trimming?

I chose this lavender most days. The pungency would stay on my fingertips during the day. I wondered if it were an English Lavender...since it smelled a lot like the aftershave!
Since there was so much of it, this is the lavender I chose tocut today...there were six huge mounds, so I spent four hours in the sun with my scissors...snipping and snipping...
The smell it left in La Gringa on the drive home was worth the work!

This massive four foot tall display of Spanish Lavender is around the corner from the apartment on Nueva Costanera. Although its showy display is beautiful, there is very little lavender smell about it....

Spanish Lavender up close...Gorgeous! The bees love it!

I have six potted lavenders on my terrace. It is a Spanish Lavender well beyond its prime. Most of the lavender blooms have turned brown and thrown their seeds. It needs trimming back...so I will do that soon.

This is a 4 gallon bucket of lavender cuttings.
Niiiice amount! After taking this bucket home in La Gringa, the odor of it remained through the entire day....

My bounty...a mop bucket full of stems! Now all I have to do is separate the calyxes from the stems...and then read up on how to properly store fresh picked lavender!

After much deliberation and studing over 100 example photos on the internet, I decided that I had picked a variety called Grosso. Most of the calyxes still had a purple color to them, even though they were mature in various stages of ripening. I believe that if I had picked several weeks ago, the color would be more intense. I am happy with the "smell" ! It is pungent and very lavendery....

Aaaaahhhh....sometimes I dream about putting

COLOR back in my life...

Can you see me owning a shop like this in Fredericksburg?

The Texas Hill Country has sprouted many lavender farms.... In my mind, it is much like Provence...

Could I?  Should I? Would you?

Not only are there lots of different varieties of lavender, but there are also hundreds of different molecules responsible for the overall scent. Each smell is different due to relative molecule concentration in each variety, which is based upon the temperature, humidity, UV levels and soil minerals where the individual plant was grown. This plant dependency is very much like growing wine grapes!
Then there's more variety added in by how long the flowers were left on the plant to dry and how they were treated to further dry them or in extracting the oil, further down the process.  VERY COMPLICATED process to produce a good lavender....much like a fine wine.

This recipe is for my friend Helen...who is happiest when making her creams, potions, and scrubs for people she loves.

Now...if I can put some lavender in her life....a miracle could happen! Who knows with that industrious Helen? She could be the next Mary Kay!

What happy little girls we would be running through our own lavender fields!
Lavender fields forever....

* Sage and Lavender After Shave Lotion *

2 cups witch hazel
2 tablespoons apple cider
1 ounce dried lavender flowers
1ounce dried sage

Combine the ingredients in a glass jar and close with a lid for a week.
Shake daily. Remove the herbs and Enjoy!

Texas Tattoo

La Gringa came home from having plastic surgery at the truck shop...
I decided to give her a tattoo to distiguish her from the rest of the stable.
NOW...she stands out from the crowd!

Terremoto from a High Rise!

I was looking out my office window when the floor started to move back and forth. Then my hand on the mouse started to move across across the desk... THEN the building seemed to sway back and forth. I tried to focus on an object outside to see the motion of the earth, but it was beyond my ability.
I felt instant motion sickness and pressure. The tremor lasted no more than 40 seconds max...but it took me over 20 minutes to get "normal" again. It was a feeling that I could not control...
If you go to the link below, you will find the USGS link to see
all the quakes of the day. All you have to do is click on a location.
Today's quake in Santiago registered 5.1. It came from the north...57 KM deep. It was a deep wave quake.
I have no desire to ride 19 floors down in a building collapse! Fortunately, the world trade building has visible expansion joints, which popped in the 2010 epic quake that killed hundreds and set of a massive tsunami...

Click on the location of the day to see the Earthquakes...

Wanna see a video of what it's like? Watch how it moves from a 5.5 to 9.1 on the Richter scale...

Celia gets a make over!

"Celia Cruz" the sofa was bought from a woman moving back to Israel. It was a long, protracted affair that finally ended well. Consuelo, my Santiago assistant, named her after the famous "Queen of Valparaiso"...the Cuban salsa singer.

According to Consuelo, Celia was dark and ugly....but everyone loved her music because it made them feel good.
When we both flopped on the sofa, we looked at each other and knew without saying a word...even though it was old and ugly, it was the right one to buy!

"Ahhh.....you named your baby after me?"
"All I can say to that is... AZUCAR !"


Lo and behold...when Celia finally arrived...she was TOO BIG for the 31 inch wide euro elevator....

OH NO!!!

So for several weeks I debated about what to do with my big girl while she rested in the dark bodega downstairs. As I lay on her one night, it occured to me that if I unscrewed her feet and turned her on the short side, she MIGHT fit through the emergency stairwell door on the ninth floor.
YES!!  Celia's back was only 29 inches tall. The door at the top of the stairs was 30 inches. I could just squeeze her through. BUT, when I went to measure the door at the top of the stairs inside the penthouse, it was only 24 inches wide. CRAPOLA!
After hearing from Irene that she could not get out of the apartment after the last BIG terremoto, I decided to have this door reversed.... Now I can access the emergency stairwell no matter what falls out of the laundry room cabinets.

Narrow door, narrow stairs...

After all the construction I have done in my life, it never occurred to me to measure the elevator. I was a woman on a mission to get SOMETHING to sit on at night...so I overlooked that SMALL complication.  So, Celia sat in the garage another couple of weeks....while I pondered....wondering how my landlords got their furniture out of the apartment when they moved.
Ruth, the housekeeper "Nana", told me on her first day at work, that Helmut and Irene took out the big window panes on the ninth floor that overlooked the terrace....  They then had their movers lift their furniture up onto the terrace roof, through the windows and down the stairs.

Click on the arrow and enjoy a little Celia with me....

You have to give it to her....she made her life remarkable, despite everything. When you have time....Wiki Celia Cruz...you will be amazed.

Back to the story....With that news, Consuelo and I decided to go ahead and find a tapicera (upholsterer)....so we had Celia moved to a little shop close to the Penthouse...a tapicera whom Irene recommended. His price was astronomical...but then his shop was in the Alonso de Cordova district where Armani and other designers have their stores...  There are also many high dollar collections of designer fabrics along this avenida...mucho cara! Hay carumba!

 This is the view from my northside terrace.

High end...high price...mucho cara!

This local shopper is enjoying the view....











My penthouse is less that a quarter block off of Alonso....just around the corner from the Starbucks...yes a REAL starbucks.
See the top floor with the cactus, that is mine...I have the terrace walk around facing Alonso...

Ruth says that the food from Starbucks is muy terrible.....but it is next to the posh handbag store, so it thrives with $8/cup coffee. No coffee in Santiago tastes good...it is the water....tap, bottle, etc....

NO WAY can I afford this...








I decided to bring Celia home and sleep on her in the bodega. Yet the next morning Consuelo reminded me that there was yet a second tapicera on Irene's shopping listb, ut he was from very southern Santiago, where there are dirt floors in shacks.  I am so glad we called him.

When Afredo Bustamante looked at Celia and we told him the story of the upstairs windows, he immediately made the sign of the cross!

Ruth and I laughed and laughed...  He and I immediately bonded over color and texture as he showed me his photo collection of furniture he had made by hand...and the antiques he had restored.
His fabric choices and wood colors were of the best I have seen in a long time....  Alfredo assured me that he could re-construct Celia....so strong she would last a long time. Once he recovers her parts dissasembled, he can re-assemble her in the penthouse and no one would never see the screws or bolts. YEAH!  So, he loaded up my big girl and borrowed my netting to hold her in place in the back of his small pick em up. We had a deal....I would buy the fabric and he would re-build/re-cover Celia to make her more beautiful than ever. Celia was getting a makeover!

Today Consuelo and I decided to go to downtown Santiago...where one never goes during the week or at night. Blocks after blocks of shops and outdoor stalls line the alleys and streets. There you can buy ANYTHING you want.
So, we took a taxi to the fabric and notion stores...Telas....

You can double click on this photo to enlarge...
Consuelo is posing outside the door of one of the pattern shops where I bought three sizes of grandkids "elf costumes" for Christmas next year.

See her shopping cart? We stopped this morning at Home Center to make sure we didn't have to carry 100 pounds of fabric miles and miles....  All the old ladies wanted to know where we bought them, since I had bought one for Ruth also. It was the hit of the day for the Independencia market throngs.

Haggle...it's a way of life....








A colorful alleyway....see the towers on San Cristobal. We are behind the San Cristobal mountain.

Enlarge at will...
My new camera with the 18x lens works great!









Here are some shops...

And here is what I came home with....

I decided to give Celia a totally different look. I wanted her body to be one fabric and of her cushions to be another. I wanted to feel like when I sat on her, I was sitting on the beach in Appalachicola....white sands, blue green seas....aaaahhhhh.....calm......
We shall see how this turns out....