Send your wish to Saint Rose by e-mail

Every year, on August 30th to be precise, people from all over Peru goes to the Sanctuary of Saint Rose, located in Tacna Avenue to pray and to wish for health, money among other issues.

This year and without precedents, the Archbishop of Lima decided to open a virtual mail box on Internet where messages from all over the world will get there and soon after those messages will be deposited into the real Well of Desires.

If you cannot personally go to the sanctuary and make your wish, you can send an e-mail to: grupo_santarosa@hotmail.com, and your wish will be deposited into the well.

A purple passion and how Limeans are 'mazamorra' lovers

 

The first time I made mazamorra morada and arroz con leche in 2008.

Mazamorra morada is a well-known dessert in Peruvian gastronomy. I think personally, when a Peruvian lives abroad, he/her misses a lot its flavor for two reasons: i) There is no natural substitute for purple corn or ii) Chicha morada sachets, mazamorra sachets or vacuum packed purple corn might be expensive.

Following The Royal Spanish Academy - the institution responsible for regulating Spanish language - mazamorra is a very soft liquid mass done with maize and prepared according to the style of many countries from Latin Amercia. So, there is a wide range of mazamorras but in Lima, mazamorra morada is the most well-known and one of the most eaten desserts. 

Limeño/a mazamorrero/a is a colloquialism used since 19th century  which refers the love of Limeans (as myself) to eat a certain dessert. Which dessert would be it?. Dear reader, I let you think a moment...

Ricardo Palma, Peruvian author and librarian whose master piece is Tradiciones Peruanas, refers to this colloquialism in the short story El Rey del Monte (The King of the Hill). Another Peruvian author, Manuel Atanasio Fuentes, writes about the celebrity of mazamorra personified by Ña Aguedita:

The history of Lima will long preserve the memory of Ña Aguedita, whose cooling compounds and mazamorras gave her greater celebrity in Lima than the inventor of the electric telegraph enjoyed. Ña Aguedita sold refreshing beverages in the morning, and in the evening, she also offered her costumers mazamorra morada and champuz de agrio y leche (curds and milk acidulated with lemon)(...) 

Even, during Spanish Inquisition in Peru, mazamorra had such popularity that  was supossedly used for witchcraft acts, as Palma says in his book Anales de la Inquisición de Lima (Annals of the Inquisition in Lima).

Nowadays, everybody knows that there is no witchcraft in order to enchant. Purple corn, the main ingredient of this Limean dessert (as well as chicha morada, the refreshing beverage not the alcoholic one), has antioxidant strenghts, anti-inflammatory capabilities, targets cancer and also has anti-obesity potential.

As a good limeña mazamorrera, I will eat mazamorra.

Excuse me...

Peruvian creativity

Despite the global economic crisis, the construction industry in Peru maintains its growth rate and dynamisn into the market. Sadly, many others cannot enjoy the dream of own house.

The sign next to the dummy says "Sell" 


One day, walking around home I found this building. At first sight, it is not about a desperate person who is trying to sell that apartment. Some real estate agents use this creative campaign to obtain clients.


I was drawn to that dummy because it was the first time I saw it without trousers and it gave me the impression of being a woman.


In Lima, for the record, dummies are not clothing-related exclusive feature.

Sakura in winter

Sakura is the Japanese name for the flower of the cherry tree known in Western countries as cherry blossom.

In many districts of Lima where Japanese descendants live, cherry blossom can be found in the streets. Last time I was in the district of Jesus Maria and I notice its presence.

In Japan, Sakura blooms in April when spring is coming and last - at the most - for two weeks. In Lima, due to its template climate it is possible to see cherry blossom even during winter season (in August for us).

Lima, the entrance door to Peru

Riva Agüero Old House, Historical Center of Lima

January 15th, 1535 the city of Lima was the fourth city founded by the Spaniards in Peru during the conquest and it was baptized as “The City of the Kings”. During the 20th Century Lima was well-known as “The Garden City” due to the amount of great gardens that it had.

Four hundred years later, with more than eight million inhabitants, many of those gardens were lost due to the constant boiling of a emergent city. The cultural legacy is concentrated at its Historical Center (World Heritage Site by UNESCO), but Lima is also a modern and cosmopolitan city.

Larcomar, district of Miraflores

Although Lima was based on the Rimac Valley and being a coastal city its climate is relatively tempered without precipitations even during winter season. Humidity rates near a constant 80 to 100 percent along the year.

You should not leave Lima without an unforgettable gastronomic experience.

Come to visit us...