A note about Lima from a friend

The following was written by Charisse Phillips, who is currently looking after Goliatha:

Lima is an old city. It was a big city nearly one hundred years before the Pilgrims even landed at Plymouth Rock. It has many grand buildings, since it was the capital of the whole Spanish empire in South America. The buildings don't always look so old, though, because Lima has had so many really big earthquakes that a lot of the buildings fell down. They were rebuilt each time. You can see that some of the buildings are pink and yellow. Lima is in the tropics so there a lots of palm trees too.

People in Lima speak Spanish. They like to eat seafood, rice, corn and sweet potatoes. They drink Inca Cola. It tastes like bubble gum.

Lima is right on the ocean but it is in a desert with no trees or grass at all. It has two rivers that are filled during the summer with the rain water from the far away Andes mountains. When it is summer in Lima it is winter in the United States. More than 11 million people live in Lima. That is the size of New York City. Lima has some islands and a short boat trip takes you to see wild penguins and sea lions that live on the islands.

Charisse Phillips

Visiting Lima, Peru

First, I better explain how you pronounce the capital city of Peru.

It is spelled L-I-M-A. It is pronounced LEE-ma. (So it is not like the beans that we all hate. Those are pronounced LIE-ma.)

Charisse Phillips and her family did a great job showing me around the city.

Lima really has a lot of history.

It was founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, as La Ciudad de los Reyes, or "The City of Kings." It became the most important city in the Spanish Vice-royalty of Peru and after independence in 1821 became the country's capital.

Independence was not easy to earn.

The Spanish wanted to keep all their colonies in South America but more and more South Americans wanted independence. Two famous independence leaders were Jose de San Martin and Simon Bolivar. (If you go to Washington, DC you can see statues of these men not far from the U.S. State Department.)

Even though San Martin proclaimed Peruvian independence July 28, 1821, it still took another four years before the Spanish were kicked out of South America and all the countries could have their own governments.

And what we know today as the many countries of South America is not what was around in the 1800s.

What the Spanish thought of as Peru is what we now call Peru and Bolivia. And large portions of Chile. (And if you think the name of the country BOLIVIA sounds like the liberator BOLIVAR, there is a reason. The country was named for Simon Bolivar.)

In 1837 Bolivia and Peru tried to have a joint country but that failed after a couple of years because of attacks from Chile.

Peru is also along what is called the "Ring of Fire." This means that a lot of earthquakes can happen -- and do.

In 1940 most of the city was destroyed by an earthquake. Other earthquakes happened just about every 10 years in Peru.

Dani's aunt Lisa was in Lima in the 1970s when another powerful earthquake hit.

Earthquakes in Peru have been recorded back more than 400 years, to 1553. The first real description of an earthquake, however, came in 1582. The tales told of a terremoto that killed 30 people and destroyed much of Arequipa.

You can learn more about Peru and its earthquakes here.

For the Catholics among the readers, Lima even has its own saint. St. Martin de Porres was born in 1579 and canonized in 1962.

So, with lots of history to the city of Lima and to the country of Peru, you have to figure there are lots of interesting places to visit.

And you would be right

Here I am at a crypt in the national cathedral. Charisse says this is always a popular place for kids to visit.

And below is a picture of me in front of the cathedral. This was church was started in 1535. So it is really really old.

Because of all the earthquakes the cathedral was damaged a lot and then fixed up. There were also times when money was tight and so some important repairs had to be put off. And we all know that when a problem is not fixed right away it becomes a bigger problem later. So there were times when the cathedral had be be closed because it was too dangerous to let people in.

The cathedral is in the city's main square called the Plaza de Armas.
This is the place where San Martin declared Peru's independence. And when he did that the plaza was already about 300 years old. So the plaza is almost as old as the city.

I'm going to stop here because this is a lot of information for just one posting.

I'll have some more pictures and facts including a neat picture of me with a solid gold mask!

How cool is that?

Goliatha enjoying Peruvian charms

(Here is a note from Charisse Phillips in Lima, Peru. Charisse is Goliatha's host in Peru.)

Goliatha went to the beach for a summer day, just like most Limenos do.

Here she is at Bikini Beach in the town of Punta Negra.

These black rocks were formed by volcanic activity are are super sharp, so Goliatha had to be pretty careful.

The Pacific waves are not at all peaceful here - the waves are quite wild and there's a strong undertow. But Goliatha got to see pelicans, sea gulls, cormorants and Peruvian boobies, which dive deep into the sea for fish. Goliatha couldn't believe that there's a great sandy desert right on the edge of the ocean in Peru. There was nothing green growing on the hills along the road to the beach.

She thought it looked like the Sahara.

Made it to Lima, Peru

Just arrived in Lima, Peru, after about a month of traveling from Lome, Togo. (And some people think the mail is slow when it takes a couple of days for a letter to get across town!)

I am now the guest of Charisse and Greg Phillips. They both work for the U.S. embassy in Lima.

Peru is on the west coast of South American. It is next to Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. (If you click on the map on the right, you can see a bigger version of it.)

The Andes Mountains go right through the country. And these are very very high mountains.

One of the most famous places in Peru is at the top of the mountain range.

The place is called Machu Pichu.

It was the ancient home of the Incas.

Here is a picture of the place.

I have already learned there are lots of interesting things about Peru.

To begin with, Peruvians claim the potato was first cultivated here. Not in Idaho or Ohio or Michigan but in Peru.

Pretty cool huh?

Peru also has some very weird animals. Here is a picture of a llama. (If you say that word in English the first two letters sound like an "L" but in Spanish the sound like a "Y." So in Spanish what English speakers call a LAMA, the Peruvians call a "YA-ma."

Goliatha and Embassy Wheels in Togo

Here I am on the hood of one of the U.S. embassy cars in Lome, Togo.

Don't worry. I did not take a ride ON the car, just in it.

Dragon sunbathing in Africa

Here is Goliatha taking it easy at the U.S. ambassador's swimming pool in Lome, Togo.

A note from Togo

January 5, 2009

Hello everyone. Goliatha arrived here in Togo just in time for the end-of-year holidays. Togo is a very small and poor country in West Africa. It is on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital city is Lomé (pronounced Lo-mey). Togo was a colony of Germany, Great Britain and France, one after the other. That is why the official language is French. It has been independent since 1960 and has been striving toward democracy ever since. Since 1963 it has been ruled by the same family, the Gnassingbé s, first the father, Eyadéma, and now the son, Faure.

I am the American Ambassador to the Togolese Republic, and a friend of Danika’s Uncle Dan and Aunt Lisa. We all served together in the Dominican Republic. Goliatha joined me and my husband and daughter here at the Ambassador’s Residence for some vacation time – which she needed after all her travels. We lounged around the pool, and went shopping. It was hard to take pictures out on the streets, since most people in African countries don’t like to have their picture taken and won’t give their permission. (They think it diminishes their souls.) Also, since Togo has many military sites there are restrictions on taking pictures in public places. We did get some good shots of Goliatha at the U.S. Embassy and riding in the Ambassador’s car with the official flags. We wanted to take her with us on a quick trip to a neighboring country called Benin, but she did not have a visa (a stamp in your passport that gives you permission to visit another country) so we didn’t want to smuggle her across the border illegally.

I am going to send Mr. Kubiske the pictures we took so he can put them on the web site. I can’t do it from here because Togo’s Internet communication infrastructure is not developed enough.

Patricia M. Hawkins

U.S. Ambassador to the Togolese Republic

Lomé, Togo, West Africa