Blogs from Lima, Lima, Lima, Peru, South America - page 12

Someone blocked the toilet - no naming names! Also the toilet seemed to leak during the night. Fortunately, the two incidents were unconnected........ May update the situation tomorrow. Took a taxi in the rush hour to the Cathedral. Every 7th car apparently is a taxi and each one wants to charge a different price. One refused to take us, just shook his head in disgust as he said it was the rush hour and would take him too long.. Had a wander round the Cathedral - a mishmash of styles and ages and restored so many times down through the years due to earthquakes. We have discovered that unlike Spain, very few people speak English. Fortunately, Ed's Spanish lessons have stood him in good stead and he relies on Jo to translate for him despite Jo ... read more

After our Machu Picchu adventure we spent another 1,5 days in Cusco before boarding a bus to Lima. This was our longest busride so far: 21 hours. If you look at a map, Cusco and Lima are not that far apart from each other but they are divided by mountains, so most of the trip was just up- and downhill zigzaging through the mountains. Pretty boring. We strongly recommend the Norwegian approach to overcome mountains: bridge, tunnel, bridge, tunnel, etc. For the long travel, we booked a very nice "cama suit" bus with comfy seats, blankets, pillows, dinner, breakfast and onboard entertainment. It felt like being on a business class flight or what we imagine a business class flight feels like. The movies that they showed however ranged from mediocre to really really bad and scored ... read more

On Thursday, I went into the central part of Lima and had a look at la Plaza de Armas, Catedral de Lima, Palacio de Gobierno, the San Francisco Catacombs (no picture-taking allowed inside), and more. On Friday, I went to Parque de la Reserva, where they have 13 different fountains. I really enjoyed this park and stayed all afternoon, watched the laser light and fountain show at 7:15pm and then left. (Photos in next post) Today, I flew from Lima to Iquitos, which is on the Amazon river. Tomorrow I will head to a jungle retreat for about a week! ... read more

We've been in Peru for almost a week now, we crossed the border from Ecuador to meet our new guide and were taken to our first stop which was a fishing village called Zorritos. We stayed in a gorgeous beach resort which consisted of rustic huts right on the beach. We had traditional Peruvian cuisine cooked for us and hung out on the beach for a day and a half. We were happy to have a break from transit as the trip has been pretty hectic so far. After only the one night there we boarded yet another bus and headed to Chiclayo for one night and then down to Trujullo, a town in the middle of the desert which is famous for it's ruins of the Sipan people. The ruins were a bit crap but ... read more

Today we explored Miraflores - the Lima suburb we are staying in. Miraflores is on the coast and the coastline is unlike any I have ever seen...Black cliffs of dirt, rocks and corral turned to stone. It appears they Peruvians have filled in the area between the cliffs and the ocean to create a coastline appropriate for human use. The coast is rock and a highway runs along it. In typical Sam and Liz style, we slept in our first full day. Then we headed over to La Mar - a cebicheria we had read a lot about. It is a sister restaurant to the infamous Astrid y Gaston. We may have slept late, but we were there first people at the restaurant - literally. The doors hadn't even opened. When they did open, we were ... read more