Lima!

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When we arrived in Peru after flying from Panama City, we landed in Lima. Here we spent about three or four days (our minds have become a bit hazy now!).

To be honest, Lima wasn´t our favourite place! Luckily we were staying in a district called Miraflores, which is just outside of the city centre. We say lucky as we felt pretty unsafe when we were in the centre! Lima is a huge, busy and noisy city, and although the centre does have some impressive architecture, on the whole it is pretty ugly and there is so much pollution that there is a constant smog cloud over the entire city. A city without sunshine, no less. Besides losing our tans, the change in temperature from Panama to Peru was a bit of a shock to the system, having been used to about 30 degrees everyday and then plunged into 10 degrees! In fact, our first purchases in Peru were two of the warmest (and cheapest) coats we could find.

Still, we took our guide book´s advice and went to visit all the main plazas and architectural attractions, although unfortunately we can´t provide you photos of these! The reason being that we didn´t want to take the digital camera into the centre as muggings are apparently common (we could have just been overreacting of course, but we didn´t feel at ease the whole time we were in Lima and weren´t willing to take any chances!) However, we bought a disposable, so when we get home we can develop the photos and you can all see them then!

The only exciting event that happened during our time in Lima was el Dia de La Patria, which is Peru´s national independance day. There were lots of military processions and parades in the main plaza and down the streets, but the sheer number of people, and police barricading almost every other street, made it pretty hard to catch much of the action!

In fact, it´s fair to say the highlight of our trip could well have been finding an english cinema and watching the Simpson´s movie. Yes, we are so very cultured...

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Photos

Miraflores shopping centre
Overlooking the beach, this is about as scenic as Lima gets

Miraflores beach
didn´t sunbathe on this one...

Paddington Bear
He comes from Lima, doncha know?!