For our second day in Callao, we had a better sense of where things are and how we could get around. Today’s activity was chosen to be different from what we did yesterday. We explored the natural world outside of Callao yesterday, and the plan was to investigate its historic center today. I found a tour which called itself “City Tour of Callao” and booked it.
We arrived early. The Uber dropped us off at 250
Constitucion, the appointed meeting place. I was immediately intrigued. The
building was a classic arcade, though far smaller than the more famous examples
in Milan or Paris. It had the classic iron and glass ceiling. Busts of famous European painters and composers lined the walls.
We looked around a bit in the building and wandered around the surrounding neighborhood. The was a small church on a square. I imagine that at one time this had been the center of the small community. Workmen were disassembling some kind of scaffolding that had completely covered the square.
There were some charming side streets off the square. I have seen this parasol thing a couple places in South America.
We returned to the meeting place for our tour, and a few minutes later our tour guide showed up. He was young, probably in his mid-thirties, and had the usual assortment of tattoos. I was not surprised by that. I was surprised, however, when he made it clear that he really did not speak English and that the tour was going to be in Spanish. That was not indicated in the listing on Viator, and although I figured I could mostly follow this, it was not particularly fair to John. But we went ahead with it.
He explained to us that the arcade, named El Monumental, is the center of an effort to revive Callao, and particularly its historic core, through the arts. Visual artists from all over Peru apply to has a three to six month residency here. The small storefronts in the arcade serve as both workshops and showrooms. Right now, they are in the middle of welcoming a new group of artists, This was what we had guessed, and it explained why so many were empty yet in reasonably good shape.
He took us to look at the giant sculpture at the far end. I had noticed it before and knew that it was a reference to the Transformers movies. But he explained that the robot in this case had originally been one of the three-wheeled little vans that are so popular in parts of Asia. They are also used in some parts of Peru.
There were a couple other pieces near the statue that he considered important. This one was salvaged from the wall of a building that had been torn down.
And this one, less technically impressive, commemorated a prison break during some political crisis.
On the upper floors there was a significant collection of art from the Amazon regions.
Much of this, he explained, contained references to Ayahuasca, the Peruvian psychedelic. Mostly I just saw a lot of mermaids and vines. I guess they were "trippy" like a lot of similar stuff from the 1960s.
From the top floor, there was a nice view of the harbor. Just beyond that statue is the place where we caught our boat to see the sea lions.
From here we went to look at some things outside the arcade. He brought us by the church, but not inside. He did say that his grandmother was baptized and married there, so he thought about the place with a great deal of sentiment. We went into a couple of studios along the street with the umbrellas. Most of what we saw looked terribly sixties retro including a lot of black light art.
With that, he left us on our own with a couple recommendations for lunch. We chose a place that specialized in ceviche, and had a good, if rather spicy, meal. John liked the waiter, too.
One more stop in Peru tomorrow. We'll be looking at penguins again there.
