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Published: March 25th 2013
Well, I have a feeling if you either know me or have read several of my blogs that you realize I am no Saint; however, I do love that my namesake is the patron saint of travelers. No wonder it is in my blood. Today’s blog is covering Lima and wrapping up my trip to Peru. I am home again looking back on one heck of a great trip, so thought I would wrap up Peru 2013. As with all things, there are times I will remember and smile at as well as times I will look back and wish had gone down differently. I saw some of the most beautiful sights imaginable, experienced things I had not expected and saw people proud of their heritage and living it as part of their everyday lives.
As I went to pay the taxi driver for taking me to the Ica bus terminal, I realized I had forgotten to leave my hotel key. Crap. So, off we went through the nightmare traffic back to the hotel to drop it off and one more time back to the bus terminal. Fortunately I had allowed enough time for any such mishaps, so
Freak Out 
Cathedral
Plaza Mayor, LimaBrendan was kept under wraps. The bus ride was uneventful and honestly un-scenic. We passed through miles and miles of desert. About 4 ½ hours later I was in Lima, into a taxi and off through the nightmare traffic. (Notice that the traffic is the same here but with much more of it.) One thing that I thought was interesting was that the public transit platforms in the center of the expressway were not for light rail, but for buses on roads separate from the regular traffic. When I saw the stations, I thought the Lima must have a subway or light rail that I had not read about, but this is actually a pretty slick system. The buses pass the stop and go traffic and the infrastructure is not as costly or extreme.
I checked into the hotel and took some time to organize pictures, luggage, blogs and for a few minutes, I just sat there in the cool, quiet room listening to the fountain in the courtyard below my window. How satisfying was that? Once it started getting dark, I took a taxi down to the Circuito Magico del Agua, a beautiful park filled with fountains of
every size and color. There was an extensive water and laser show set to music that was amazing. The fountains at Bellagio in Las Vegas are one of my favorite things to see in Vegas, so it was natural that I would gravitate to this park. I think my favorite fountain was a long tunnel of pink water through which people could walk. Unless someone put a finger in the streams of water disrupting the flow it was nice and dry inside. Walking through the water made me feel like a kid playing with the garden hose, except that there would be at least 200 hoses I would imagine. Darn if I didn’t go back and do it all again. Unfortunately I did not take my good camera with me. I had read that Lima isn’t the safest city and was fine with that, but as I was waiting for the tax,i I saw that my serene hotel was not only gated, but also had several layers of electric fence running on top of the fence. It was enough to make me rethink wandering alone with a bulky camera to advertise that I was a tourist, as if I don’t
look like a tourist naturally. The water park was very safe and filled with families and well worth the trip down to the Center. For dinner I ended up at Larcomar, a shopping mall built into the hill overlooking the ocean. Food was crap, but the view was incredible.
The next morning I had breakfast in the hotel. What a good thing it was that I did. I was planning on having coffee, mango juice and a pastry, but when I sat down, I was offered a menu. Naturally I chose the Peruvian Corn and Chicken Tamale, or should I say luckily or fortunately? Regardless, it was so incredibly delicious. Honestly, something as simple as that can put a smile on my face and get me ready to take on the day. Today was another one of those days when I had to check out of the hotel and stay out until it was time to go to the airport, around 8:30 PM. The day was hot, but I had to wear my traveling long sleeve shirt so that I would be warm on the plane. Not the best option, but once again, lemons = Lemonade, so I dealt
with it. After a long, hot taxi ride down to Plaza Mayor, I went to the Presidential Palace, to watch the changing of the guard. For security reasons we had to stand all the way in the street (closed to traffic) and watch from way across the large sidewalk. I could still see everything, but my pictures have bars in them as if I were watching this from my prison cell. It was very impressive to watch, so I was happy to have been able to catch it. From there I went to the Convento de San Francisco to see the catacombs where over 75,000 bodies were interred. The bones have been counted, organized and placed back in the catacombs, but not in such an in your face way as in the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. These were in the dark, earthy ancient tunnels under the church. For a very long time this was the only cemetery in Lima, so bodies were stacked with lime to do their thing and then the bones were tossed into a pit. Hey, it may not be on everyone's tour agenda to see this, but it was very interesting as well as
nice and cool in the catacombs.
I had been told that the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Anthropologia e Historia was a place I needed to visit. My day was wide open since I had no hotel to go back to, so I grabbed a taxi and headed on over to the museum. Yes, it was interesting, but it also reinforced what I keep saying. I am not a museum guy. The whole museum took me about an hour, and that was really pushing it for me. It probably would have taken longer had most of the information been translated into English, but only about 1/3 of it was, so I was content to look at the artifacts and keep on moving. The last site I really wanted to see was the Miraflores park along the ocean. I enjoyed walking way up above the ocean. Miraflores is on a cliff high above the actual coast. It makes for great views, but that is about it. I won't bore you with the rest of my afternoon. It was a lot of walking, wandering, sitting and generally killing time until it was time to head to the airport.
This is the
Parque del Amor
Reminiscent of Parc Guell in Barcelona. place where I should wrap up the trip and go through all of my favorite places and sights, but I am not going to. Part of traveling, at least in my opinion, is that a person needs to take all of the great times, awesome experiences and beautiful sights while remembering the drama, dilemmas and ugliness that inevitably happen on a trip. Without both of these sides of the trip, I don't feel that the experience would be as rich. I hope that you have enjoyed following along with me and look forward to seeing where I end up next. Until then, ciao!
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Magic taxi rides!
I'm always so impressed by how you just hop in taxis and visit difficult-to-get to places! Oh, a water park, a museum, a restaurant with great views, ancient canals or ruins--just jump in a taxi, and your magic carpet whisks you to amazing places. Congrats on visiting such impressive sites and on experiencing so much even when tours weren't available--you really made magic happen--congrats! Looking forward to your next adventure....