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Published: August 7th 2007
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After Another luxury bus journey we arrived in Lima 2 hours early at 6am and wasn’t very happy for it. For one I was fast a sleep and it took us a while to work out what was going on and for two we had to hope the hostel we had pre booked was open! Luckily it was and it was a very nice hostel and it should be for 12 pounds a night one of the most expensive places we have stayed at, but little choice as it was the usual of capital city prices being a rip off!
Our second day in Lima was finally to meet Michelle’s Uncle Alan, our first bit of family since home, 11 months ago! Shell hasn’t seen him in about 8 years as he now lives in the States and just happened to be over here on business and was great to meet up with him. He organised a city tour for us and lot more expensive than what we would pay, about 50 pound and with lots of other holiday makers who think that it’s fairly cheap! Alan was brilliant and paid for the whole day, so happy days! It turned
Pachacamac Temple
In the background you can see the slums of Lima. Very starange seeing ruins over a thousand years old and then the slums so close by. out to be a rip off and we could have done exactly the same for a fraction of the price. The highlight which we wouldn’t have got on a backpacker tour was the all you could eat buffet lunch at a posh restaurant. All very nice and we got to try lots of national Peruvian dishes. One shock was I had to pay 1.50 for a bottle of coke! I thought I was in London not Lima! On the street it would have cost me 20p, if I knew the price I would have just gone outside and bought one!
On the tour we went to see Pachacamac, a complex of Temple Pyramids which pre date the Incas by a 1000 years. They were very similar to the ruins we visited in northern Peru, lots of huge sand dunes as the temples have been covered by nature or the adobe mud bricks have returned to nature, what ever way you want to look at it. There were parts of the Pyramids that have been partly excavated and restored but still needed to use your imagination. The ruins in the north were a lot more interesting and impressive.
The
Skull
A skull in one of the temples. second part of the tour was Monasterio de San Francisco. A beautiful church with a Moorish influence but more famous for its catacombs with an estimated 70,000 burials! There were huge holes everywhere filled with skulls and bones. It was like walking through an open grave yard but slightly spookier because it was under ground.
A few days after saying bye to Uncle Alan was the FA cup final and we got to watch it in a British bar. British spurs owner and the bar had about 20 others, mostly expats and it was their local pub and mostly supporting UTD as they hate Chelsea mainly to wind up the one Chelsea fan, a guy about 50 and a proper cockney gob shit and didn’t shut up through all the game. He was good for a bit of banter, well until they scored as he jumped all over the place standing on chairs and wouldn’t shut up! Muppet! Most people were gutted as they were saying they wouldn’t hear the end of this and have to look for a new pub! The game it self was not worth watching and I was bored watching and it wasn’t worth getting
Toast anyone?!
Not sure of the taste! They should get the cheerleaders to advertise it!! out of bed for. I was sure UTD would win, I thought after losing to Arsenal last time that they would be well up for it and especially Roon and Ronny as didn’t think they wanted another losing medal and Giggs only chance of lifting a trophy as captain. Both teams were shit and there was more passion in the recent 0-0 which was a nothing game. I think its one of the few games in my life when I wasn’t arsed and didn’t sit about moping. I think it would have been best if it went to penalties as no team deserved to win it in normal play.
The same day of the final we also went to watch a local game in Lima. Sporting Crystal Vs Universatario, it was a local derby but no real importance as Sporting were near the bottom and already out of the running for the league.We still got to the ground a few hours early in the hope to get tickets as the game had already been moved from Sportings original ground to the national stadium for the bigger capacity. We didn’t need to worry; as soon as we got out of
Estadio Nacional
Sporting Cyrstal v´s Universitario the taxi a tout approached us. I had a list of prices from the local newspaper and the guy from the hostel told us which parts of the ground were best for tourists, the tout started at a high price and I managed to haggle all to quickly to the face value of the ticket (4 pounds), which to me just seemed dodgy as how is he making any money? He was an honest guy though and shown us to the turnstile with the ticket and I paid him through the fence once I was through so all nice and easy!
The ground only ended up with about 35,000 fans, 10.000 short of the full capacity. Even so the atmosphere was brilliant, constant cheering, fireworks and fans just going mad and miles better than home. We sat in the safety of the equivalent of the south stand, but it was a good place to see both sets of fans. The game ended 4-2 to Sporting, so lots of goals which always help, we missed the fourth as we left a few minutes early as the fans were winding the police up and they started to get a bit heavy
handed with the batons!
What was strange was it was played on an artificial surface, just like the 80´s in England! This was the national stadium, but never knew that Peru played on an artificial pitch. It makes sense as Lima is the equivalent of Vegas, in the middle of a desert so it will be expensive to keep the grass green. One of the added bonuses which they should bring to the Premiership was the pre match and half time entertainment, the cheerleaders! Very skimpy clothes and walking around the ground advertising the local beer which just happens to be the name of the team Sporting Crystal (the brewery owners bought the team back in the 80´s and changed the clubs original name!). They were popular with the fans and I hope the boys back home like the pictures! The idea of the owners changing the name made me remember a joke email I got when Liverpool were bought by some Americans and the joke was saying they will now be called the Steelers!
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