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Another equestrian statue
and again it is General San Martin, a very popular bloke Sunday 8th May 2005 : Plane to Lima
Although I had asked for the hostel to order a taxi to take us to the airport this was not actually the case. After breakfast the receptionist strode into the street and had some difficulty flagging a taxi. Finally he grabbed a ‘chiquito’, what I thought was a Fiat Seicento but was actually a tiny Daewoo. It was cosy with the rucksacks but it was only a short trip to the airport.
Flight fine but our expected airport pickup was nowhere in sight at Lima. I called the hostel and 20 mins or so later Manuel arrived to take us to Miraflores. This was the first taxi-ride I have ever had where the driver locked all the doors once we were in.
Lima was not a pretty site, especially as there was no sunshine. The hostel (Home Peru) was surprising. It was an individual colonial style house, loads of space, high ceilings, decorated floors/walls, attractively furnished. It had a large shaded terrace and (eventually) a sunny garden with lawn.
One block away was the Vea hypermarket. All in all a comfortable place to unwind from Cusco etc
The boys
watched TV and Deb sat in the garden while I went off to explore Sunday afternoon Miraflores. I walked down to the end of Avenida Arequipa then on past loads of meat and chips places full of families celebrating Mother’s Day.
I reached the Pacific, high up on cliffs. The beach was uninviting, maybe due to the lack of sunshine plus the gray sand and lack of people except for surfers in wetsuits.
Monday 9th May 2005 : Lima centre
Breakfast at the hostel was an optional extra. As most of the breakfasts we’d had so far had been disappointing we chose to create our own. We bought piles of fruit, yogurt and granola from the hypermarket - it was superb.
Next into Lima centre for a nosey round. Our hostel was on Arequipa which is about 50 blocks long, running from Miraflores into to the heart of Lima. Dashing along it were tons of buses. All we had to do was stand on a corner and stop one. After several had rushed by, slowing at the corner and shouting their destinations, we got on one.
Following the map we got off roughly where I expected and
made our way towards the Plaza San Martin (yes he is a hero throughout S America).
One thing we wanted to do was change our departure from Lima. First we needed to find the Lan Peru office. The guidebook said it was in Miraflores but we were sure there had to be one in Lima itself. I went into the Tourist Information centre to find out. Instead of a genuine TIC it turned out to be an agency. Nevertheless they pointed me in the right direction and did not try and sell me anything, quite different from Cusco.
We changed our flight (in the office in a corner of Plaza San Martin !) and set off in the direction of the Plaza de Armas to find a decent cup of coffee. No joy - there were lots of ice cream parlours and tacky-looking cafes but we did not fancy any of them.
We reached the square just as the changing of the guard was taking place. The governor’s palace is a u-shaped building with a courtyard facing the square protected by railings. Just behind the railings facing the square were the military band. They played an unusual
mix of tunes including the ubiquitous El Condor Pasa. Just outside the railings were two parties of schoolchildren. They were particularly amused by the trombonist who was deliberately poking his tubes between the railings over their heads.
Once over the boys had a burger at ???. I had intended going to the Philatelic Museum as they had a section on the Inca postal system. This intrigued me as we had heard from many sources that the Incas did not use writing. However it was closed, as was the Desamparados railway station which it was claimed ‘houses fascinating exhibitions’. I never found out of what.
OK let’s walk across the river. It turned out to be a concrete culvert with barely a trickle of water.
We turned around and made our way back through the centre. I had intended visiting Polvos Azules, the recognised black market. By the time we got close we had all had enough of Lima. To make things worse we got slightly lost and ended up walking much further to catch the return bus.
We made up for it with fresh food and wine for tea from the hypermarket.
Even better I
managed to make a wireless connection to the hostel’s internet server.
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