Blogs from Lima, Lima, Lima, Peru, South America - page 27

Turning down the Colombian and his repeated begging to stay in Cuenca, I was off to Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city. My friend Andrea lives there and I was so happy to be seeing her, I was smiling and bouncing down the street when I finally heard her voice on the phone! It just happened to be the perfect time for both of us, and we had a lot of catching up to do. Andrea lives in the newly formed American-style suburbs of Guayas. The house she lives in is a long structure with 4 'apartments' belonging to her family and their help. So even though they are together in a sense, they all have their private space. Andrea's space is bare, hardly any furniture, white, with lots of windows overlooking the yard which runs the length ... read more

Hey all, we had a good lazy last day in Huanchaco, after heading out the night before to celebrate Laura's birthday. Only five of us managed to surface for breakfast, and lazed by the pool until lunch. I tried Ceviche, a classic Peruvian dish consisting of raw white fish marinated in lime juice with herbs and chillis, and served with corn and sweet potato. It was nice but a bit too acidic for just after a big night out!! We left Huanchaco at 7am, and slept for most of the morning as usual. We stopped for a break at the Sechin ruins for a tour. There wasn't a lot to see at the ruins but the museum had a good selection of mummies!! The front and sides of the ruins were engraved by the Chavin civilisation ... read more

We both woke around 0700 and headed into Barranco to fill in some time until breakfast was served at our hostel at 0800. As in Argentina, the Peruvians are late risers so whilst the traffic heading towards Lima Central was heavy, most of the shops were closed and there were very few locals hanging around. I had an empanada from a dairy that cost S1.00 (NZ$0.50). Empanadas are the local equivalent to a meat pie and look like pasties. They are deep fried usually and can have mince or chicken. The one I had was pretty good and the right price. Back at the hostel for breakfast, we asked one of the staff about getting a taxi into Lima central and were told that the local price was S10 (NZ$5) - we expected to pay the ... read more

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 ... read more

Tour of Miraflores, San Isidro, Lima Centrale, Barranco After a late night to sleep and a very quick continental breakfast, I was on a morning city tour that the Mami Panchita Hostal arranged with onsite tourist agency named Raymi Travels. My simple and room 11 faces Federico Gallesi street, and the traffic began with raucous earnest at 6 a.m. Earplugs kept me at peace until 8 a.m., a time almost too late to make the tour, but the sleep needed. There was but one other tourist along, a stout gentleman in his middle 50s Jorge from, I think, Venezuala. Our driver Jorge and guide Jason picked me up at 8.30. Jason is a native of Callao, Lima´s seaport and airport district 20 minutes north and west of both Lima center and the San Miguel district, where ... read more