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Published: June 27th 2005
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A rather strange strangle mugging technique
Actually, it´s a statue in the Parque de Amor in Miraflores. Ok, we have not encountered any strangle muggers. However, our guidebook talks all about them (for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a strangle mugger strangles his victim to unconsciousness and then steals money and valuables). It´s kinda been a running morbid joke since we´ve been in Lima.
Lima has a reputation of not being the safest place. We had heard lots of stories before we arrived about evil taxi drivers, bag slashers, strangle muggers, etc. But everything has been peachy since we got here. Granted, we are staying in the nice neighborhood of Miraflores and haven´t seen the bad parts of town. Lima is a huge city (8 million people) and it´s very busy, but we haven´t found it scary at all. Parts of Lima actually remind us a lot of Los Angeles, and in particular the Valley. Sprawling city, concrete river, and everyone speaking Spanish. Many of the scary reports might be from people flying to Peru, with Lima being their first dose of South America. It´s easy to see how it could be overwhelming. But after over 3 months of traveling around, it seems like no big deal to us.
This time of year the
city has a thick haze of smog and fog that sits over it. We are still in the desert. Lima gets something like a half inch of rain a year.
We arrived on Tuesday, the 21st. In Cusco, we stayed at the Hostal Royal Frankenstein. When we found a hostal called Lex Luther´s House in our guidebook, we thought we would give it a try. We took a taxi and checked it out, but were unhappy with the "security" for our room (screw eyes for padlocking the door). So we moved around the corner to another hostel with actual locks on the doors.
The first evening we walked around our new neighborhood. The taxi driver and guidebook mentioned that there was a posh shopping center nearby (above the ocean), so we wanted to check it out. We walked down the main street in its direction, but saw nothing except for a plaza and walk where the mall was supposed to be. Thinking we´d somehow misunderstood the map, we turned down a cross street for a couple blocks. Just fast food joints, so we headed back to the plaza. This time, we headed straight for the walkway and discovered
stairs leading down to the mall. It was hiding in plain view. The mall is built into the hillside below the plaza and walkway. Who knew? Larcomar (the mall) has nice shops and restaurants, including a gelatteria which we tried out.
The next day, we were a little more ambitious with our exploration. We took the bus (yes bus, not taxi) to the Museo de la Nación to check out the four floors of displays on the various ancient Peruvian cultures. Quite informative. We also discovered a couple interesting Peruvian establishments nearby. One, Bembos, an overpriced hamburger joint where they make a hamburger that is even less healthy than the usual. Actually, they have a few burgers that come complete with chips (Lays, doritos, or tortilla) inside. Just what the boring old burger had been missing all along, right? The other, E.Wong (like Ana´s aunt), a posh grocery/department store.
Today we ventured further into the heart of the city. This time we took the bus to the very center of Lima. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard at the Government Palace. It involved lots of music and goose-stepping, but was actually a
bit of a let down. We were more amused by the seemingly random method in which certain people were not allowed into the Plaza de Armas while others were allowed to wander right in.
From there, we decided to visit San Francisco Monastery. We had read about the beautiful Sevillan tiles, Mudejar ceiling, and catacombs. Alas, this was also a bit of a disappointment. The ticket lady was quite rude to us. When we asked if there was a student discount, showing our ISIC cards, she shrieked indignantly, "What is this?! It´s only for Peruvians. Maybe it works in other museums. This is a private institution!" After we received our tickets, she told us to run and catch up with the tour that had started a few minutes earlier. Thus started the worst tour ever. The tour guide would tell us a couple sentences of information about each room. As soon as she finished talking, she marched rapidly on to the next stop, checking her watch at each stop on the tour. This continued for a breakneck 10 minute tour. She must have made record time on that tour. At the end, she "showed us the exit" (her exact words) and then we found out why all the rush. She had a lunch date to keep.
And so did we. We went to the Barrio Chino (Chinatown) for lunch. Partly to check it out and partly to wait for the street protest near Plaza Bolívar to die down. After lunch, we headed back to Plaza Bolívar and were happy to see that regular traffic had resumed and the protest was gone. Here we visited the Museo del Congreso y la Santa Inquisición. The Inquisition was brought over from Spain to her colonies in the Americas with tribunals in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. Tortures took place in the building from the 16th Century until independence from Spain (1821). After that, the building was used by the Peruvian Congress for a while.
We are off to Huaraz tomorrow. Two days in Lima has been plenty.
That´s it for now.
Ryan & Ana
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