Lima

Oh hi! We left grotty Piura and got the overnight bus with the Cruz del Sur company to make the 16 hour journey to Lima. Little did we know, as we settled ourselves into our comfy, front of house seats that we would get a crazy aeroplane style meal! Wiji was delighted! Here he is with some different types of 'cat ham' on a cocktail stick. This came in its own plastic container, what a shame. Even though I tried to pursuade him not to eat it he did...and then he ate mine. What can you do?


Immediately after the meal, we were given some bingo cards and proceeded to play this with the rest of the bus. It was quite difficult to avoid becoming hysterical as the numbers were read out in spanish by the dolly a la Berry's superfast. We enjoyed it, but didn't win (possibly because we didn't know what all the numbers were). We also got to see a short film made by the bus company about the marvels of travelling on their bus. It was so badly done it was really fun to watch. The rest of the journey remained pretty uneventful, mainly because we were travelling across desert, in the dark on a very straight road. Neither of us could really sleep though and this was both odd and annoying. Some over the counter valium, as recommended by Al, specifically for such an occasion would have been ideal. Note to self.

Just after 5am we begun the long journey into Lima. This started in the very distant outskirts that were virtual slums. They seemed much worse than the horrific slums of Mexico because everything was shrouded in a low grey fog coming up from the ocean. There was also literally no vegetation anywhere. The slums were in a never ending overcast dust bowl. It was a very depressing sight. We read that in the 1920's rapid industrialisaton brought many people from poor rural areas to the city and created these vast slums. There being mass unemployemt today with vast areas like the ones we were seeing, where people were living with no electricity or running water.

We had wrongly assumed that we could find a place to stay easily and after carting our stuff around a very small but expansive part of Lima, unsucessfully we returned to our first port of call admitting defeat and having to for the first time on our travel, stay in a dorm room. LOL. This wasn't a complete nightmare a the hostel was very new, organised and clean, and we knew we were leaving soon!

Our lonely Planet guide provided us with three large maps of Lima, central, metropolitan and Milaflores, all best reached in the relative safety of taxi's. Lima really was vast and sprawling. We decided to come here to continue or tour of capital cities, change some flights and get on the move to our next destination Cuzco.

Taking taxi's across the city to get the things we needed to do done was quite epic...we were often flying along some multi-lane highway in a 'dad-cab' of sorts.


In central Lima the grass embankments were planted for advertising! Many, many logo's and company names featured by the roadside in this manner. This isn't a particularly fantastic one, some were enormous. It really put the one in Torquay to shame! Lol.


Ahh, Nescafe and beautiful Lima. We could feel the carbon monoxide crisping up our lungs!


After a lot of fannying about with and between LAN and Qantas we used up the rest of our flight quota, as we had planned, for nipping about later in Argentina. This didn't really endear us to Lima and its vast smoggy road system.

But we made up for this by spending a day sightseeing initially by taxi, of course, we headed straight to Plaza de Armas. The oldest part of the plaza is the fountain that was erected in 1650. Its made of bronze and has several plaques around the faceted base. Behind it is La Catedral de Lima. This, like most gigantic cathedral's that we have visited has been destroyed by many earthquakes and has been rebuilt after each. It was on the steps that we got accosted by a group of school children in uniform who wanted to interview us, so we obliged. They also took photos of us on their phones. We never actually went into the cathedral, because we were hot footing it away from floods of them!


On the north side of the cathedral, we peered through the railings at the Palacio de Gobierno, where Peru's president resides. Some super cheerful armed guards enthusiastically nodded at us to take photos!


Next to the cathedral, the Archbishops palace with ornate wooden balconies, dates back to 1924.


And just opposite as I took the photo above, I noticed this nice man in an armoured personel carrier, complete with machine gun. I had to ask for a piccy. He was clearly pleased, stood up straight and put his hand on his gun! I thanked him. It makes a change to see someone in uniform who isn't smoking illicitly or wandering around with an ice cream. Maybe he would have time to do that later...


After the delights of the Plaza del Armas we decided to go for a walk about to the next plaza, taking in some sights and stopping at a parilla for Wiji to have a massive piece of grilled meat. I might get him a collonic irrigation session for his next birthday.


We stopped in Plaza San Martin and caught sight of this small hawk in a tree.


The plaza San Martin with the statue of liberator General Jose de san Martin.


Wandering off away from the plaza's to our next destination, Museo de Arte. Sadly that turned out to be closed! Oh no! Also our walking tour drew a blank because a masive section of land was being dug up to make a metro system. So we headed back to for lunch.


Our hostel wasn't far from the coast so we headed off, on foot crossing some massive overpasses and congested roads, finally making it to Parque del Amor where there was a big mosaic winding wall that seperated us from the massive drop to the sea below...Lol, it was nice though.
Look a pier!


We watched some brilliant, and some rather dodgy paragliding. Not the most inspiring place to do this.


Near the hostel, one of many candelabra cactus's. Love them!


So having sorted a few flights for Argentina, we also got one for Lima to Cuzco. This journey by air being an hour and a half rather than a 28 hour bus journey! Mmm which do I prefer...daddy or chips?

At the airport in customs we came across this cheerful box of confiscated items. Sooo many toenail scissors...and retractable scalpel blades, none of which are really necessary in hand luggage...are they?!


Mmm Lima, doubt we'll rush back...bye then!