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I turned up at the bus terminal in the La Victoria district of Lima at about midnight. La Victoria is a dodgy part of town and so I stayed in the refuge of what was a very pleasant bus terminal until my old school friend, Andy Fyfe, came to pick me up. Andy, for those of you that know him, is now a pilot for Lan Peru, the main airline in Peru. The slight technical hitch was that Andy's flight back from Miami was several hours late due to bad whether in Miami so I chilled out in the terminal and practiced my Spanish!
Lima is the capital of Peru and home to about 25% of the country's 27 million population. As is the case with most South American capitals there is huge disparity in the relative wealth of the city's inhabitants - from the many shanty towns to the ultra slick & very European Miraflores down by the sea.
The city was founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro, the same Spanish conquistador who took out the Incas in Cusco several years earlier, and he is buried in Lima's magnificent Cathedral. In the early Spanish colonial times the
city become one of the continent's richest cities until a massive earthquake wiped out much of the city in 1746. General Jose San Martin, an Argentinian, proclaimed Peruvian independence from Spain in 1821 (San Martin also delivered independence to Argentina).
Over the last few decades Lima has experienced a huge increase in population and what were seperate districts have now blended into a sprawling urban beheamoth. Andy's flat is in Surco, a very smart part of town 15 minutes SE of the town centre. It was so good to see a familiar face and also to be staying in a fully westernised beautiful flat with all the mod cons that I have done with out over the last few months.
In Lima manual labor is cheap. And accordingly it is customary for the middle and upper classes to have maids, sometimes several, and also nannies for the kids. Maids might get paid about US$130 per month and a nanny double that. Household help is not just for families. Carla, one of Andy's friend's girlfriends, a 29 year old also has her own maid!
The centre of Lima is beautiful. There are numerous large plazas with stunning colonial
architecture. Of particular note are the Cathedral, the presidential palace, the Monastario de San Francisco and the Grand Hotel Bolivar. You can see pictures of these attached. Monty Python's ministry of Silly Walks would be delighted to see the changing of the guard out side the presidential palace. Absolutely hilarious (see picture).
The Monasterio de San Francisco is stunning from the outside. However, beneath it in the catacombs is an estimated 70,000 human skeletons. The worst bit is that most have been pulled apart and sorted by types of bones. For example, you can see about five boxes full of femurs! Really quite gross.
The national drink of Peru, other than Inca Kola(!), is probably the Pisco Sour. A mighty tasty (and strong) alcoholic drink that is a bit like a Caiparinia, but more lemony. Whilst the egg white in it might put you off, you should give it a go if you get the chance. I am surprised I haven't seen it in a cocktail bar in London before. We imbibed a few of these at the Grand Hotel Bolivar where it is said they make the best Pisco Sour's in the country.
Andy and I
caught up with some of his mates for lunch: Charlie (a Brit) and his girlfriend Carla (a local Lima celebrity) and Pablo (an Aussie of Peruvian descent). Carla managed to get us all an invite to the 'Premiere' of Oceans 13 for that night and when we turned up at the cinema the five of us had to pose for the paparazzi !!! Fame at last! There is a huge bar scene in Lima and we did our best to get around as many of the bars as possible after the cinema had finished.
Other cultural things to do in Lima include checking out Huaca Huallamarca and Huaca Pucllana. These are two pyramids built in the centre of Lima about 400 AD by the Lima Culture. They are made of Adobe bricks which is effectively mud, shells and clay dried in the shape of a brick. The Lima culture were rather strange in that they sacrificed young women as well as Llamas and fruits to impress their gods.
One other quirky fact about Peru, while it springs to mind, is the rather unusual local speciality dish called Cuy. It is Guinea Pig and it is often served on
a stick with the head still on!
After two fantastic days in Lima Andy was back off to the US on business and I headed 7 hours North with Andy's friend Charlie to Huaraz.
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