Last day in Lima/Peru - Final Random Thoughts

---

Tomorrow I leave Lima and Peru ... so thought I would write up some final thoughts, but first ...

Spent the 2 or 3 hours this morning at the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia Del Peru. The National Archaeological, Anthropological, and History Museum of Peru. It is a around a 10 to 15 minute taxi ride from Miraflores, and as I have probably made aparent before, there are plenty of taxis willing to take you anywhere. (As well as honking their horns for any reason, (and perhaps as an alternative to slowing up when going through intersections, or using indicators when turning or changing lanes) they also honk their horns to tout for business.

Anyway the Museum was pretty good, covers some of the Archaeological and Anthropological history of Peru, and also the more recent history, with sections post independence, (around 1822). Also had what I think is a restoration or reconstruction of a house lived in by the South American Liberator, Simón Bolívar.

Could not make out all of the different displays as some of the information about them was in Spanish only. As I said before my Spanish is not really up to it, so could only get the gist of things.

Were quite a lot of school groups in the museum, making it a little noisy, but it is their country, and they have every right to learn about their history.

FYI, cost of taxi from Miraflores to Museum 8 soles, (about $2.70 US), cost of entry to Museum 11 soles, (about $3.70 US), cost of taxi back to Miraflores 15 soles, (about $5.00 US). Reason for the difference in taxi fares is that on the way there I hailed a taxi from the street, but on the way back I was hussled into a tourist taxi by a driver ready to pounce just outside the museum. I should point out that the tourist taxi was a lot neater, and the driver was wearing a shirt and tie, and probably is part of a reputable company. You get what you pay for. Nevertheless, I had more of a conversation with the first taxi driver who did not seem to mind me inflicting my terrible Spanish on him.

Anyway back in Miraflores, went to an Ice Cream and Cake shop near Parque Kennedy (Dove Vai) which I had been resisting over the last couple of days, for about 10 soles I got a latte, plus a massive piece of chocolate cake, it was so big I could not finish it. (I know that I paid a tourist price for the coffee and cake, as I have been to places where I have had a three course meal - (Salad, Soup, Main, Desert, and a drink) for less than 5 soles, but it was worth it. The cake and coffee was good, service was quick, and a lot less surly than your average Starbucks.

Anyway here are my final thoughts about Peru. Please bear in mind that I have only been in Peru for about 2 and a half weeks, and obviously this is not long enough to even scratch the surface. My thoughts are based on this short time ...

1) Country - It is an awesome country, with amazing natural and human history. It is a lot more than Incas and Machu Picchu. This trip and in particular the group tour and its local guides have made aware that Peru had varied and amazing cultures, each with their own histories, languages, and technologies before the Incas.

2) People - When you are part of a tour group you are somewhat isolated from the local people, so can´t really comment on whether they are good, bad, or indifferent. I can say that the people that I have tried to speak to (taxi driver, local tour guides, a local shop keeper, Uros Island girls rowing the tour group, policeman moonlighting as a taxi driver, host at the B&B) seem friendly enough to talk, I guess you have to make the effort.

3) Traffic - I come from a small country, and a realatively small city by world standards, so I am blown away by the number of cars on the streets, even in realative small places. To me the noise and volume of traffic is hard to get used to.

4) Poverty - I come from a relatively well developed country, so it is very hard for me to comprehend poverty. I have studied Development Economics, but until you visit a developing country it is hard to get your head around. Of course Peru has roads, shops, shopping malls and the trappings of the developed world but within that there are peole on the streets begging, or doing any sort of job they can to earn money ..., kids in tourist places selling postcards, or finger puppets or little dolls, or shining shoes, mothers with babies on thier backs selling woven belts, or knitted hats or socks, or any other type of souvenir you could think of, people standing on the foot path directing a car into or out of a parking space, (although this is probably quite a useful service considering my comments about about the traffic), farmers seemingly sratching a living supplemented by the sale of handy carfts or showing a bus load of tourist their house and lifestyle. Of course I could have it all wrong, and I am thinking of poverty in monetary terms ... it may be that the people here are rich beyond my comprehension, in an amazing cultural history, in spirit, in family, in lifestyle, in hope for children, and in a million other things that you can´t put a monetary value on.

5) Street vendors - I find them hard to resist. It must take great energy to wander the streets trying to sell things. I find myself not barginging with street vendors, and just accepting the price they ask. The probably laugh at that as soon as I am round the next corner. (In Cuzco, I turned down a woman down selling her "unique" paintings, only to have her find me a few days later when in a weaker moment I ended up buying something. About an hour later, someone tired to sell me a very similar painting for about half the price ... argggh, but it is my own fault ... buyer beware and all that stuff ...)

6) Tipping - Seems to be natural to round up the bill or leave something for the person who makes your bed in the hotel, or carries your bag to or from a taxi. I find it much easier to tip people here in Peru than in other places I have been. (Western developed countries.)

7) Shinny shoes - There are heaps of shoe shine people around the place, and as I said I find it hard to resist this sort of thing.

FYI:

Cost of shoe shine in Arequipa 1 sole, (I gave the guy 5 soles, sorry for spoiling it for other tourists, but the 4 extra soles is only about $1.30US),

Cost of shoe shine in Cuzco 10 soles, (it was a kid, and he got me outside a hotel where I was told they charge $800US a night, (I was only looking at the colonial facade), good luck to him for charging what the market will bear, I did not give him a tip, but ended up giving 1 sole to his friend who was selling postcards.)

Cost of shoe shine in Miraflores Parque Kennedy, 2 soles, (I gave the guy 5 soles). Okay I admit it, am becoming addicted to shiny shoes, or perhaps it is because I get to talk to the shoe shine people, and they can´t get away from my bad Spanish, or perhaps it is because everytime I see a shoe shine person I see a Kiwi on their polish tin, and it reminds me of home. (I know that Kiwi shoe polish is not a NZ company, but it does have a NZ name and symbol.)

8) Safety - I have only been to the main tourist places, and it seems fairly safe, so cannot say that I have felt unsafe. Sometimes have felt uneasy, but that might be the strangeness of the place, and fact that I am not used to crowds of the scale here. Perhaps the unease comes from seeing security features on houses, and shops, and all the security guards, and that is just something I am not used to.

I would say that it s a good idea to take the usual guidebook precautions, - don´t wear flashy jewelly, take money from ATMs when there are plenty of people around, (it is at a bank there is usually a police officer or security guard around), don´t flash money around, that sort of thing...

9) Spanish - I think that knowing some Spanish has helped, and would strongly suggest that it make things a bit easier, even if it just to be polite, to ask where the bathroom is, or to know how much you are being charged for something. Nevertheless I am sure you could get by only speaking English, and pointing to things you want. However I think that the night classes I did in Spanish have helped heaps, and I wish I knew more.

10) Tour group or by yourself - Can´t really comment here as have not had to do much by myself, however in the last 3 days have caught a few taxis, checked myself into a hostel, bought a few tickets to museums, sent mail at a post office, bought food, bought souvenirs, changed money in a bank, all of which seemed relatively easy with my limited Spanish. I think if you were here by yourself it would be a good idea to as well as learning a bit of Spanish to do a bit of research, I think that would mean more that reading one guide book, talk to travel agents, other travellers, internet, etc. If you don´t like organised groups it might be easier to travel with a friend or hook up with someone travelling to the same places as you.

I have to say that travelling with a tour group was really excellent. It was good not having to arrange transport to places, and good not having to worry about booking into hotels etc. It was also good to have a guide who could give you some insight into things, and help you get the boring but nessessary things done, laundry, changing money at banks, buying airline and bus and train tickets, which of course meant more time to do the things you really want to do. Spending time at Machu Picchu, going to the Uros Island, ride on reed boats, going to Museums, etc ....

The other great thing about have a guide as part of a group is they are able to help you if things go really wrong. The group that I was with had a couple of people get sick, the guide was able to arrange a doctor, and get the person on a drip, were able to help rearrange their travel while they recovered, and arrange for another person to be taken to hospital to be put on oxygen ...

One final thing that I think was useful about travelling in a group was to get a shared insight on things, and have some people to reflect with about what you had seen at the end of the day, people from different backgrounds who have travelled different places to yourself will have different perceptions of things whch can be interesting to discuss. (It would probably stop you from making excessively long travel blogs to no one in particular ... :-)

11) Where to stay - Apart from the last 3 days, I stayed in the hotels provided by the tour group, so can´t really comment. The hotels seem to be just like any hotel of a similar standard in the rest of the world - cooly efficient, get the job done with minimum fuss. The B&B Hostal (http://www.bnbtradiciones.com/) I am staying in at the moment is more friendly, literally like staying in someone´s house, the owner was the person who checked me in, and was only too willing to do things like hale taxis on the street, call my airline to confirm booking, give me advise on what to see, and how to get there, ... I know that most hotels would do this, but this guy seems more genuine, he even suggested that we go out for dinner at a local restaurant to try local food ... (Definitely a step up from your backpacker hostel.)

12) Toilets - I knew before I got here but my room mate from the group tour did not know that the little basket beside the toilet is for used toilet paper. It is not a good idea to try and flush it as the sewage system cannot handle it, and you are liable to end up with an overflowing toilet... (Needless to say there was quite a big tip left for the toilet unblocker.)

13) Research - Strongly suggest that you do some reading about Peru before you come here. And when you do, go to some of the Museums in Lima before you travel on to other places. In my opinion this will help you get a handle on the things that you will see and they won´t become just a blur ... I have to admit it has been a bit like that for me. If I was to come back to Peru I would definitely try harder to read up on the things I was going to see ...

14) Best things about my trip ...

The country´s scenery and history, magnificent. And, people, the Peruvians I got to have conversations with, and the tour leader and people on the tour I went with.

---