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Published: December 3rd 2007
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Flight to Lima Our flight from Quito to Lima was delayed an hour, but this was no great hardship as several people we got chatting to in the airport had been stranded there all day, poor souls. Jase decided to treat himself to a massage while waiting to board the plane, and instantly regretted it because the lady pummelled him to death and he had a sore neck for hours after. It was a nice, easy short flight and passport control and baggage collection was a breeze for once. Our driver soon arrived and whisked us off in Lima, to our hotel. Whenever you arrive in a city at night, you get a bad impression of the place. With its narrow streets and barred doorways, Lima seemed like the scary South American city we had dreaded. The Hotel Kamana was a clean, ok 3* hotel, conveniently located near the old city. Our room was slightly depressing because the window looked into another corridor, rather than outside, so we swapped rooms for some daylight the next morning.
Ricardo, our tour guide, arrived early to say hi and meet us, before the briefing in the evening. He seemed really friendly and we
were surprised to discover it was just us two and a German girl for the entire tour. Talk about personal service! We decided to go for a mooch around the historical district, and it was much friendlier and prettier in daylight. We got accosted by various religious blessing sellers outside the Catholic churches and then lots of tourism students as we sat watching the world go by in the plaza. In the evening, we met Ricardo and Margarita at our briefing. Our young German companion proved to be great company and spoke better English than lots of people we know back home.
Miraflores After the briefing we grabbed a taxi to Miraflores, which is the posh, touristy area of Lima. We were really surprised how trendy the shops, bars and restaurants were - quite a contrast to old town. We looked over the beach and then went to Pizza Street for a meal. We started the meal with a Pisco Sour, the national cocktail of Peru, made with pure Pisco, lemon juice, sugar syrup, egg whites and ice. It arrived with a huge frothy head and a dusting of cinnamon and tasted very refreshing! After scoffing lots of food
and drinking the largest steins of cerveza ever, Ricardo took us to a salsa club, where a live band was playing Cuban music. It was very different to going to a club back home, because everyone was dancing ´properly´as old folks would say and not just jumping around like lunatics. Margarita had already had a couple of salsa lessons at her Spanish school in Cusco, so got up with Ricardo, who then insisted on teaching Rach a few steps. Rach got the hang of it and even Jase had a go! Poor Margarita was pursued by a sweaty guy who kept wanting her to dance, so we left for another club, together with another German/Peruvian couple who were friends of Ricardo´s. This was more of a conventional club playing lots of R´n´B and dance, but still we had good fun drinking and watching the crazy boys shaking their asses on the dance floor! We rolled back into the hotel about 3.30am and Ricardo woke the 24 hour cafe man up to serve him a rum and coke. Great first night!
Old Town Amazingly we were not hungover the next morning - must have been the food and dancing! Ricardo
joined us for brekkie at a nice cafe, overlooking the plaza, where a special Avon breast cancer fund-raising event was taking place. Lots of ladies in pink were doing aerobics, competing with the band doing the changing of the guard on the other side of the square. Next we went to the Inquistion Museum and amused Ricardo by tormenting lots of wax dummies in silly tortured poses. Then we visited the San Francisco catacombs, which housed thousands of human bones underground - we saw lots of skulls and femurs artistically arranged by the archeologists who had been studying them. We looked at lots of paintings and carvings of various priests and martyrs and as we walked past some huge doors separating the monastery, were we heard lots of music and laughter. Sounds like the monks were having a party! As we left the catacombs, we encountered a big Catholic procession through the town, in honour of an important local saint.
Bus Tour In the afternoon, we went back over to Miraflores and joined a tourist open top bus tour of the area. It wasn´t particularly fascinating, but at least the commentary was in both Spanish and English, and we
saw some interesting Inka ruins. We went back for food at Pizza Street but no Pisco Sour today, just the soft stuff!
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Debra
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CSI Miami
I'm sure Delko, Calleigh and H have an Asalto. Nice dress.