Activities in Lima

Peruvian culture goes beyond opera houses and theaters. It is part of everyday life, with frequent local festivals coloring the cultural canvass. Painting, dance and song belong to the people and are the way that different regions distinguish themselves. La Candelaria dance troupes of Puno or the marinera dancers from northern Peru, for example, can be seen at penas (dance shows) all over Lima.

Teleticket is a booking agency that sells tickets for many events. Alternatively, tickets are available from the venue box offices. El Comercio is a daily newspaper with a good listings section. The Que Hacer section of the website has a full list of cultural activities in Lima. The Canal N 24-hour cable news channel (channel eight) has a daily culture show called Sentidos, as well as Agenda, its full listings service. Cultural events and entertainment highlights can also be found online .

Music: Peru is on the international circuit for renowned foreign performers and orchestras, often sponsored by foreign cultural organizations. Since the Municipal Theater burned down in 2000, the National Symphony Orchestra now performs at the Museo de la Nacion, Avenida Javier Prado . Opera shows are held at Teatro Segura, Jiron Huancavelica 257 . Traditional music is everywhere - from musica criolla, with its Spanish and African influences, to the irresistibly bouncy Latin chicha or technocumbia music, blaring out of every bus.

Theater: Lima boasts an active theater scene, ranging from formal performances of classics to fringe shows in theater bars. The majority of plays are in Spanish. The most professional theaters are the atmospherically burnt-out Teatro Municipal, block 3 or Jiron Ica, in central Lima, Centro Cultural de La Catolica, Avenida Camino Real 1075, San Isidro, and Teatro Britanico, Calle Bellavista 529, Miraflores.

Dance: The National Ballet Company shares the Museo de la, Avenida Javier Prado (tel: (01) 476 9875 or 9897), with the National Symphony Orchestra. However, for the real dance experience, visitors should go to a pena (traditional dance show) in one of the small venues in Barranco, such as Manos Morenas, Las Guitarres, Los Balcones, La Estacion de Barranco, Las Brisas del Titicaca and Pericho’s - all within walking distance of Plaza Mayor.

Film: Peru’s film industry is still developing, hampered by a lack of finance but not by a lack of talent. Young filmmakers abound. Ciudad de M (2000), directed by Felipe Degregori, is a strong example of Peruvian Realism and was shot entirely in Lima. Another is Tinta (2001), directed by Francisco Lombardi, which won the Concha the Plata best actor award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.

Many cinemas show American or British films in their original version with subtitles. Filmoteca de Lima, Museo de Arte, Paseo Colon 125, Avenida 9 de Diciembre , has monthly festivals of foreign films including avant-garde cinema. An excellent multiplex cinema is Cineplanet Alcazar, Ovalo Guiterrez, Miraflores.

Cultural events: The Senor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles), from 18-28 October, is probably Lima’s biggest cultural event of the year. Solemn processions through the center of the capital dominate the religious festival. Traditionally, Lima women wear purple - considered a sacred color - for the whole month. Bullfights, concerts, fairs and firework displays also mark the feast. Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is an Easter celebration, characterized by colorful processions and fireworks throughout the city. A smaller religious festival occurs during Santa Rosa de Lima, on 30 August.

Literary Notes
In a famous essay entitled ‘Lima, the horrible’, Peruvian poet and playwright Sebastian Salazar Bondy launches an attack on a city that has both repulsed and fascinated artists. British author, Matthew Parris, entitles one of the chapters in his travel book ‘Inca Kola’ (Atrocious Lima). The city is the backdrop for many of Peru’s most memorable works of fiction, which have focused on the city as a symbol of the best and worst in Peru.

The country’s most famous contemporary author, Mario Vargas Llosa, has turned to the capital for inspiration for several of his novels. Vargas Llosa, who once ran for president and now spends much of his time in Europe, has made an art of dissecting a turbulent society riddled with contradictions. The grime and stink of Lima, as well as the animosity between rich and poor come through most powerfully in his Conversation in the Cathedral (1969).

Alfredo Bryce Echenique’s A World for Julius (1970), a witty satire on the lives of Lima’s upper classes seen through the eyes of a boy, gives a great insight into Lima life a few decades ago. Julius feels lost in an elegant but ultimately empty world of cocktail parties and golf. Like Vargas Llosa, Bryce lives abroad but his books remain classics for generations of Limenos.

Lima is a city of poets - poetry readings take place almost daily. Miraflores can claim its own 1960s revolutionary poet in Javier Heraud, who left Lima for the Soviet Union, before ending up in Cuba. He returned to Peru to join a band of left-wing guerillas and was eventually shot by government troops in 1963. His best known volume of poetry is The River (1960), a deceptively simple allegory about the journey from youthful adventure towards old age and solitude.

Negro Sobre Blanco and Vano Oficio are two interesting literary review programs, shown weekly, on terrestrial channel, Canal 7.

Sport:

The national drug is football. Limenos are addicted, in their thousands, to the ‘beautiful game’. People paint their faces in the red and white of the flag whenever an international is played at the National Stadium, Avenida Paseo La Republica , in the center of the city. The local Derby, known as ‘El Clasico’, is between Alianza and Universitario, known simply as ‘La U’. Tickets cost PEN11-89.50/USUSD 3-25. Universitario are higher up the Peru football league table, and generally hovers between the first and second place, while Alianza Lima settles in at fifth. The football-only daily tabloid newspaper, Libero provides information on the teams and matches.

Lima also boasts an impressive bullring, Plaza de Acho, Jiron Hualgayoc 332, just behind Plaza Mayor. Built in 1766, once the biggest in Latin America, the ring is in use between late October and early December. The bloody contests are usually on Sunday or holidays. depending on whether seats are in the shade or not.

Tickets for both football and bullfighting are available for purchase from Teleticket. Fitness centers: One of the better fitness centers in Lima is Gym Paradise, Avenida Prolongacion Primavera 1553, Monterrico . The gym, which offers spinning, weight training, step classes, sauna, Tae-Bo, salsa and exercise machines, charges PEN161.50/USUSD per month, plus a PEN18/USUSD 5 joining charge. Weekly rates are PEN54/USUSD 15 for one week or PEN89. Other fitness centers are listed in the yellow ages and a good hotel will usually have its own gym with some equipment.

Golf: Golf courses in Lima are not available to non-members. Some luxury hotels have access to golf courses. For PEN394.50/USUSD 110 per day, guests of the five-star Best Western Golf Los Incas hotel have access to the Golf Las Incas course and clubhouse, Avenida Cerros de Camacho 500, Monterrico, in Surco .

Surfing: Information, equipment, boards and accessories are available at O’Neills, Avenida Santa Cruz 851, Miraflores . Information on Lima’s best surfing beaches is available online . Tennis: The best, most central outdoor courts are to be found at Club Las Terrazas, Malecon 28 de Julio 390, Miraflores . The private club has several courts that can be used by non-members at PEN18/USUSD 5 per hour (daily 0700-1800).