LIMA - Seaside Capital of Peru

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Lima. A population twice that of NZ, packed into an urban sprawl with a combination of unaesthetic ´upwards AND outwards´development. The continuous paranoid shriek of car alarms going through their repetitive cyclical performance is akin to Chinese drip torture. People from all over Peru aspire to exchange their provincial poverty for this grander scale variant.

Perhaps security was best summed up by one of the locals´ wide eyed reaction to our thought of cycling 31km through and out of Lima to an Inca site of interest. He was less concerned with the tenderness of our lycra clad backsides, than our lives and the possesions we would be carrying. Much of Lima is simply too unsafe for non-locals to visit.

Parked on the coast, the safer and flashy suburb of Miraflores is recommended for us ´gringos´. It boasts malls, seaside strolls, and paragliders gliding silently along the cliffs, within 100m of the heads of well-to-doers sipping coffee - at the flashest mall we have ever seen, nestled into the cliffs soaking up the Pacific vistas. And so we towed the line, and watched ourselves carefully, and didn´t go anywhere too silly. The nice UK couple fresh off the plane only got the second bit right, and were mugged outside the hostel gate, in nice flash and safe Miraflores. The old ´birdshit on the pack´ trick strikes again.

But Lima is Peru´s capital of Museums. And that is saying something, given Peru´s fantastically rich cultural and historic heritage. Once the mastery of the bus and taxi services was achieved, and Arlene got over her futile pre-ocupation with finding a replacement adaptor for her laptop, we basked in the massive history on display - From:

* a photo exhibition of the terrorism of the 80´s and 90´s
* phallic and sex-themed Moche pottery
* an excavation of a pre-Incan pyramid dating well before Christ made from mud
* the colonial-era public burial crypts beneath the Cathedral alone were spell binding, with between 25,000 and 75,000 decomposted on top of each other, until only the big femurs (thigh bones) and some skulls remained to make a count
* the changing of the guard of the Presidential Palace, with a well equiped chess board of armaments keeping the chief of Defence safe from the tourists: a line of pawns with shields, supported from behind by armoured personnel carriers with machine guns, rifles, and even a flame thrower (we think!) - a well planned touch.

So Lima well deserved the many days we had to expend... but the car alarms just wouldn´t stop.

And so, having seen (almost) everything we were able to see, we booked our bus for a little town called Huaraz - gateway to mountain ranges and valleys and lakes. How different could that be?

Adios Lima.

PS

*** R18 content in the photos - viewer caution recommended, and parental permission required ***

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Photos

Beachfront monument
Publically eating each others tonsils is thoroughly accepted in Sth Am (especially in Argentina). This waterfront park caters for this need beautifully.

Married
This person uses the park for much more leaisurely persuits than PDA.

Main Plaza
Being the capital of the newly founded colony, it received stunning architecture.

NZ gets a look in
The last of the National flags atop the palace was the Kiwi.

Pawns
These unarmed guys are the first line of a careful chess board - the rooks flanking each wing are held in reserve.

Packing
These guys are heavily armed with their cell phones.

Hanging out
There were about 4 of these squads secreted through the central area.

Stopped for the red light.
One of these is not like the other.

Spanish Inquisition building
When the roof is this beautiful...

Say argh
This particular technique has actually experienced a revival of late. It is all true - we can learn from the past.

Prisoners art
There is no mistaking the preoccupation of this art, which was discovered behind a remodelled wall.

The ancient and the modern
The massive pre-Incan pyramid of Huaca Pucllana was saved from the bulldozers keen to use its land for more Miraflores development. It is surrounded by city.

Huge
This is the result of so much human effort, it defies belief. Pyramids on top of pyramids.

Gold mask found 3 wks ago
The brown building on the fringe of the site covers archaeologists at work. They are still finding remarkable things.

Handmade
These models are constructively playing in the mud

Looking to the Heavens
With a distant outlook to the coast (now Miraflores´ tall buildings), the Pucllana pyramid was a major religious place centuries ago.