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Published: March 9th 2011
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On our final morning in Panama our guide Rafael picked us up and mentioned that I reminded him of someone. He was racking his brain until he said "Oh, I remember, it's the guy off Saved By The Bell." I thought he was going to say that I looked like that creepy guy Screech, but fortunately he meant Zack. Although this made Nicola crack up laughing so I take it she meant I am way better looking than him.
Our flight to Lima was with Copa airlines, I can't remember it being bad, so that's a positive. I do remember being on the toilet when it got bumpy and the seat belts sign went on. I remember my mate saying it would be pretty funny if a mask fell from the ceiling whilst on the toilet, if you walked out with it on, the people in the queue might think twice about needing the toilet.
Nic and I both had to fill in a health card whilst on the flight, because it was in Spanish I have no idea what it said, so I hope we didn't admit to having some sort of contagious jungle fever.
Once in
Lima, we'd organised a transfer, I felt very self-important when I saw the sign with Ryan Astle on it. Although the guy seemed to know who I was before I even approached him, maybe he had the heads up to look out for Zack off Saved By The Bell, either that or Tin-Tin according to my mates.
As we drove to Miraflores, a suburb near the ocean we noticed that it felt a bit cleaner than Panama but the driving was still maniacal. Honking is the new black apparently.
If you go by Nic's arrival form we stayed at the Backpackers Friendly House, but if you go by all other sources it was the Family House. Although they were friendly so either one works. This was situated on Tupac Amaru street, the name of an old Incan ruler, not to be confused with a former US rapper.
We had a nightmare with trying to get money out from banks whilst checking out the local main street. Thankfully they use Soles and US dollars, so we had a bit spare - enough anyway to go to Norky's for dinner. I have no idea whether this is a chain
or a one off but it was tasty. I ordered the lomo slatado - a local dish of stir fried beef with yellow rice. I also devoured half of Nic's pollo a la brasa, sounds fancy huh? It's just roast chicken. I'm gonna use the Spanish term from now on though, makes me sound like I'm a world famous chef.
On the way back to the hostel we grabbed a few supplies at the local supermarket. We then learnt a valuable lesson, make sure your crotch is right up against the person in front of you in the queue for the checkouts, because if you leave just an inch the locals will just cut straight in front of you thinking they take precedence. Some old wench did this to us, so I took the only reasonable course of action... I punched her in the back of the head.
I didn't really, but I wanted to.
I also became sick of every taxi slowing as they passed and tooting to see if you wanted a ride. If I want a taxi, I'll be standing with my hand out, okay?
Once my anger subsided, and I had changed
back from green to pasty white I decided to have a wee read of the Lonely Planet for South America and found out a few interesting facts:
- There are still places in the Amazon where tribes have not been contacted by the outside world.
- Argentina once had 5 presidents in 2 weeks at the end of 2001 during an economic crash
- 40%!o(MISSING)f Peru, Bolivia and Brazil's population is under 15
- The Amazon's discharge into the Atlantic Ocean every 24 hours is equivalent to that of the Thames in a whole year
- In the 15th century the Spanish and Portuguese got a bit power hungry and pretty much divided the earth into half each
- in 2006, a German explorer convinced the Peruvian Government to map, measure and announce to the world the presence of the planets third largest waterfalls - Gocta falls in the Amazon basin. Local inhabitants had kept it a secret mainly because they feared the curse of a mermaid should they reveal its location.
(If you like my blog check out a website I've been working on:
www.getfact.co.nz)
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