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Published: October 24th 2009
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A good nights sleep on Cruz del Sur (cool name for a bus company) was a blessing and arriving early in the morning wasn´t great (they´re early when you want to get there later and late when you want to get there early). We took a taxi to some accomodation in the Miraflores district of Lima. The first three places we visited were all full, this is the first time it has happened to us in South America and we were very surprised. We were losing patience and the fact that every taxi driver tried to overcharge about 300% meant one of us was ready to blow a top. We got our last driver to take us to a hotel, we checked prices and agreed on $35 for a room. Which is over our budget but we had had enough of wandering the lonely streets and were looking for a bed. It turned out to be a blessing as Deb has been ill here in Lima and the room was quite nice with cable TV and all.
It felt great to be back in a big city, many people had told us that Lima wasn´t very nice and to move on
quickly. But I assume most of those people have come straight from Europe and not finding too much difference from home. As for us a few nights camping in the Cordillera meant our eyes were lighting up at McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and all the other delights we haven´t encountered for a long time.
We met some friendly people in Lima who were always willing to help, we went out to get a new battery charger which had dissapeared and the people at the Sony shop although they didn´t have the part were able to put us on a bus going in the right direction and tell the driver where to let us off. Very nice. We went to the San Isidro area which was the business district to book for a meal at Fusion restaurant that had been reccommended to us by a friend. Catching a colectivo in to the city centre was an adventure, the streets are literally filled with these buses, end to end, collecting people along the way. It was quite a scene and I can´t believe there aren´t more accidents.
As I said earlier not being in a big city for a while meant we
enjoyed the buzz of the city centre, the grandiose buildings and the modern elements of a city. We had a quick wander but Deb was feeling ill so we headed back. We had to cancel our booking at Fusion and Deb spent from 4pm that Thursday afternoon till 11am Saturday morning in bed with a stomach bug. We think some of the bottled water here has tasted a bit funny and we´re not sure if they are just being filled with tap water and re-capped.
Lima has a constant haze to it apart from a few months in the summer and it does give it a bit of a dreary Londons day feel to it.
On the Friday as Deb watched the TV I went for a wander in to town to take in a few of the sights the buildings on the Plaza San Martin, Plaza Armas, the Archbishops palace and the inquisition museum. I even ventured out to see the horse races in Monterrico which was a nice relaxing afternoon. Back with a delivery of McDonalds fries for Deb I knew she was on the mend.
Saturday we went for a walk down to the ocean at the
end of our street. There is a modern shopping centre called LarcoMar built in to the cliff face looking out to the ocean. We wandered around and marvelled at what a modern city (I guess it has been a long time).
To finish off our modern city adventure we went for some chocolate con churros and had a meal at TGI Fridays.
With our fill of all things a big city can provide its now time to move on, back to the coast of Paracas
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