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Greetings from the enormous city of
Lima.
We arrived safely from our 7.5 hour flight. The flight was pretty easy as far as flights go, I could have used some more leg room though. We got to see Wild Hogs (which was exciting because we got to see it before it came out on dvd) and the updated version of The Time Machine. Both weren´t very good - in case you were wondering.
We got off the plane only to be greeted by at least 700 people all looking for their loved ones, passengers, clients and customers. We were a little overwhelmed to say the least. As we stood at the arrival gate dumbfounded we soon heard "Jon?" Victor had found us! For those that aren´t aware, we´ve started off our trip by staying with the family of Adina´s Uncle Jeff´s good friend from Law School. We loaded the stuff into his car and Victor drove us to his home in
San Isidro, Lima.
San Isidro is the wealthy part of
Lima, so for a city of ten million people, it was a very pleasant way to be introduced to the country/city/people. Victor has two daughters, Lucia
and Sofia, as well as his wife, Patricia, all of them have welcomed us with open arms and have been a lot of fun to hang out with. Luckily they speak English far better than I speak Spanish and seeing that Adina speaks no Spanish, it´s been very easy to get along with them. Their home in
San Isidro can be described as tropical and modern at the same time, some parts of the house are outdoors with what seems like an indoor/outdoor garden. It´s very nice here and definitely something you wouldn´t find at home. Houses anywhere in this city aren´t very big as everyone is pressed for space but it´s quite impressive what architects are able to do with such a small amount of space.
On the first day, not really knowing what to do or how to get around, we set out on foot to walk around this pretty area. We saw the Country club, the kosher market, cool appartment buildings, a temple that was older than Jesus, the day was nice as we tried to ease into things. At night Victor and Patricia treated us to a great Afro-Peruvian Jazz concert at the local Cultural
Centre. It was pretty wicked with some stellar jazzed up versions of "Avinu Malkenu" (due to a Jewish band leader) and The Beatles´"Blackbird."
After the concert, we headed out to a fancy restaurant called "Raphael" for Pisco Sours, and Peruvian Japanese Italian Fusion food. Adina was very brave. We drank and told stories, ate some really great food and really got a feel for life in
San Isidro.
Yesterday we started our day with a fine breakfast and set off with a taxi driver for Downtown
Lima. I´ve seen some pretty out there driving, but it really seems to be everyman for himself out here in
Lima. There Ãsn´t any mass public transit system only buses that move all over the city (still haven´t figured that one out yet though) and NOBODY walks very much. If something is 20 minutes away, they´ll tell you its too far, you must take a taxi. So because of this, there are tons and tons and tons of cars everywhere. Not a lot of traffic lights, just a complicated system of honking and dodging.
Anyway, we saw the sights in downtown
Lima, everything is pretty rundown with a couple official buildings
staying in their pristine Colonial elegance. We stuck around for the changing of the guards which took about 45 minutes with short Peruvian brass numbers inbetween each of the changing segments. We saw "The Cathedral" which the Archbishop resides over and looks the same as it did when it´s first version was built in the 1500´s. We saw a couple more churches, some really picturesque plazas and up a mountain called San Cristobal for a birds eye view of the city. What made the drive up the mountain particularily interesting was the Shanty Town of
Rimac we had to drive though to get there. It was the middle of the day and the driver didn´t seem to hesitate when we set out for the area so we didn´t feel overly nervous, we just made sure our doors were locked. When we got to the top, the first thing that came to mind was...smog. You could see why
Lima is the third most poluted city in the world. First off, it´s sprawling - just huge (75%!o(MISSING)f which are areas you wouldn´t go into), secondly, it´s at a point on the pacific where two currents meet causing a lot of mist
and haze off the water and since the city lies in a valley there´s nowhere for the mist to run off into, factor that onto the fact that no one walks and drives instead and you have the smoggiest city I´ve ever seen. The view was neat though - city as far as the eye could see.
We eneded the day, the same way we spent the day today, walking along the coast of Miraflores, another subburb of Lima that´s wealthy and relatively kept up. Lima sits on a cliff of the pacific but the city has beatuful parks and recreation areas lining the tops of the whole coast. You can see kids playing soccer, people playing tennis, surfers far down below and the best of what Lima has to offer. We really enjoyed strolling around stopping in the various parks (including steamy "Parque del Amor" and the Monumental "Parque Itzchak Rabin").
All in all a great easy way to start the trip. We were fortunate enough to have a positive first impression of a pretty gritty city due to our amazing host Victor and his family.
Tomorrow we fly to the high city of
Cusco for
some relaxation before our Inca Trail trek. We´ll write again when we get a chance.
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Eileen Wunch
non-member comment
Lima impressions
Hi Jonathan and Adina, We loved your impressions of Lima and the pictures...Victor and his family are amazing....it was quite the nice entry into Peru. The driving sounds HORRIBLE...stay safe. Now you are in Cusco...hope you are adjusting well. Apparently there is a special tea...coca-tea....that helps with the altitude ...No it is not a "drug". Enjoy did you get on the Inca trail tour?...can't wait to hear all about the trek. Much Love, Mom/Eileen