Adios El Salvador... Hola Peru

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Adios El Salvador... Hola Peru
Saturday, August 7th;

Out last day in El Salvador started at 6am, as usual, and after breakfast we were on the busses heading to the airport. We arrived in the airport, safe and sound by 10:30 or so. After the long bus ride, the restrooms were our first priority! Although there are restrooms inside the airport's departure area, the only place outside was at the end of the arrival area. San Salvador's airport procedures are definitely a bit different than we are used to. You have to do the usual passport and ticket check followed by the usual scan of all items, removing shoes, belts, etc. Here, my only problems were the lighter I forgot about in my fanny pack (which they unbelievably saw on the xray and knew exactly where it was) and that with all the electronic equipment I had in my backpack they had to open and thoroughly check it out. The strange part happens when you reach your boarding gate. Unlike the U.S., you can bring bottled water thru the 1st checkpoint, but then you have to go thru another one at the boarding gate where they don't allow food, water, or much of anything else! Since my wife and I were not returning to the States with the rest of the group, we hung around their boarding gate to make sure all went well. While there, we watched the security people literally paw thru everyone's carry on bags, taking everything out and oftne confiscating items including tubes of suntan lotion, water bottles, and other packages of whatever. Since none of our group wanted to leave the area to get something to eat and go thru the search again, we made a couple runs to the Subway for them. Once we were sure they were all taken care of and were getting ready to board, we headed to our gate for Taca Airlines. I was a bit worried because I'd noticed "cables" on the list of items that weren't allowed and I had a bunch of them in my backpack's electronics pouch. Strangely enough, and I assume it was because of different restrictions for flights going to the U.S. and ours going to Peru, we did not have to pass thru another checkpoint like they did. phew! Situation averted. Our flight was a couple hours later, so I had a delicious grilled chicken sandwich at a bar and then we just chilled out at our gate. The flight was pleasant and uneventful, with Taca even serving us a nice dinner of chicken and veggies with rice, a roll, a small salad and a muffin... for free! Pay attention Delta! Granted, our flight was a bit more expensive I think than the groups, but still...

Leaving El Salvador just after 3pm, we arrived in Lima just after 8pm, with a one hour plus time change. At the Lima airport, we passed thru a short passport check and stamp, then headed to baggage claim. After a rather long wait for our luggage, we headed to customs with our baggage and discovered that apparently they use some sort of random check process, having each passenger push a button. Neither Manoli nor I had our bags checked at all, but I did see some having their stuff checked. At the exit, we easily found our prearranged taxi ride by locating our names on a board by the Green Taxi stand. Actually, they used our first names only "John and Manuela", but we figured there couldn't be two such people and we were right. A very pleasant older guy named Eduardo told us we could go with him and so away we went. They airport pick up had been arranged thru our hostal, AJ Turistico, and cost $20 US. The driver was very helpful and talkative, especially once we told him we both spoke Spanish. During the trip, we unfortunately mentioned that we would be coming back thru LIma on the 23rd early in the morning and weren't leaving for the U.S. until after midnight that night. I mentioned it because I wanted to know if there was some way we could leave our luggage at the airport and spend the day in Lima unencumbered. He promptly offered to take us around for the day, with luggage onboard, picking us up at the airport and returning us later that evening. We weren't sure that was a great idea, financially, especially after he wanted us to name his price! When we tried to avoid naming a price since we weren't at all sure we wanted to do that, he said he would be willing to do it for $100. Now, that may seem like a lot of money, but if you keep in mind he was going to pick us up at the airport, run us around Lima all day showing us the sights and return us to the airport that evening... it really doesn't seem so bad. We told him we'd think about it and he gave us his name and phone number to call from Cusco before we left for Lima.

One of the first things we noticed on our trip thru LIma was how very different it was from El Salvador. It felt very much like Spain to my wife and looked like a very busy, very big, city... of 14 million people! Lima is divided into many "neighborhoods" each with a different flavor. Travelling thru the city at almost 10pm, we were shocked at the number of cars and people scurrying about. It probably rivals New York City in that respect, but with a heavily weighted younger crowd. After a brief sidetrack to show us the nearby Kennedy Square, or Parque Kennedy, we arrived at our hostal. Thank heavens we had an address and I recognized the HI sign out front, because the name was nowhere to be seen. AJ Turistico is a very nice place, as are all the HI Hostals we've ever visited, with lounge areas, kitchen, a nice courtyard and decent rooms. We checked in, paid the night's fee of 30 some dollars, left our luggage and backpacks in our room, and headed out. Our first stop was Holly's Coffee for a decaf and caramel macchiato to go. From there we headed towards the busy Parque Kennedy, and I say busy only because it was even more busy then the rest of the areas. The place was packed with people and not just tourists. There appeared to be so many natives, mostly younger, and nobody even gave us a second look. People didn't seem nearly as friendly as they were in El Salvador, but then the crowds were huge and we saw very few non-affluent people. After a nice long stroll, we returned to the hostal to call it a night. I didn't take very many photos today, especially in LIma since it was already nighttime when we arrived, but I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Tomorrow we head for Arequipa and Puno on the Cruz Del Sur bus. We still haven't figured out how we are going to get to the bus station, but I suspect with size of the city and the distance involved we'll probably end up taking a taxi again.

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Photos

Group Departure
Here is our group at their gate waiting to board. I wasn't supposed to take this photo, so enjoy!

Atlantic City, Peru
Nighttime photo of one of the casinos in Lima.

Kids at Play... at night!
Parque Kennedy... at 10pm!

Comments

[Zpet]

Staying Up Late
I think the late hours are mostly in Lima, since so far Puno has been pretty dead by midnight. Cusco might be different. As far as Europe, I think the more touristy places keep late hours too. Don´t wait too long for those trips... we are getting older!