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Published: August 2nd 2010
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To get to Lima, we took an overnight bus from Cusco. This time, our entertainment comprised of a preacher standing behind our seats, trying to convert us to Christianity (at least, I think thats what he was talking about) and a woman compulsively vomiting into a shopping bag in front of us. After an eventful and somewhat stinky journey, we arrived in the early hours of the morning in the sprawling metropolis of Lima, capital city of Peru. From April to December, Lima is blanketed in a garua (coastal fog), so when we arrived the city appeared very grey, as opposed to the sunny Cusco, we had left behind. We shacked up in a hostel in Miraflores, on the coast of Lima, with plenty of restaurants and bars to choose from and the impressive LarcoMar (American style shopping mall), built right into the oceanfront cliffs. After checking into our hostel, we went down to the LarcoMar and stood in awe of the sight of the Pacific ocean, that lay before us. We had not seen the ocean since we were in Argentina and were looking forward to jumping in again. We were interrupted from our dreamlike state by a young student,
who, immediately recognising us as gringos, asked us if we would do an interview for a college project he and some of his classmates were working on. At that moment, we both reached to check we still had our wallets, to ensure this wasn't some sort of scam. But, we then saw he was legitimate and his classmates were giggling girls, cowering behind him with a video camera. It turns out they were tourism students and wanted to get an international opinion from tourists visiting Lima. By the end, we were flattered to be asked to participate and berated ourselves for our initial scepticism. That evening, we called over to an Irish friend of ours, who is now living in Lima with his boyfriend. We ate and drank and had such a good time, catching up on gossip and sharing traveling stories.
The following day, we did a city tour of Lima, a double decker bus took us around the city, taking in the sites of Plaza Mayor and downtown Lima. Our tour bus stopped outside Monasterio de San Francisco, a Franciscan monastery famous for its catacombs, a site of an estimated 30,000 burials, creepy yet fascinating. There are
several people selling birdseed outside the monastery, so this makes for a phenomenal amount of pigeons swooping high and low at all sides of the monastery. For many, this would be revolting, but I thought it was a nice touch, birds swooping and perching all over St Francis of Assisi's monastery. Even his building's attracts the animals! We also went to a PopArt exhibition, while in Lima. Both me and Simon are big fan's of this cartoon style, in your face, modern art. While the exhibition had some excellent pieces, it was so small, limited to two rooms, which was hard to believe, judging by the size of the massive building in which they were housed. Just before sunset, we visited El Parque del Amor, overlooking the Pacific ocean. In the middle of the small park there is a sculpture of a man and woman in an intimate embrace, namely the sculptor and his wife. The sculpture is larger than life, but intimate and romantic, in a beautiful setting overlooking the ocean. A perfect way to watch the sunset. That evening, we went to a German bar with our friends, Steven and Rodrigo. My mouth was salivating at the idea
of having a German beer for the first time in months. Unfortunately, they only had dark Erdinger, which isn't exactly what I was looking for, so I stuck with Peruvian beer!
We left Lima, in search of some sun and surf and found this about seven hours north in a small village called Huanchaco. We stayed in a plush hotel, probably the nicest accommodation of our whole trip, with a swimming pool, cable TV and delicious breakfasts. Huanchaco was a beautiful, quiet, fishing village. We set out for a day of surfing. I have been surfing many times before, but have never quite mustered up the strength to stand upright on the board. Usually, I use the Catholic method of getting as far as kneeling on the board before wobbling and nosediving into the water. Sad but true, a surfer chick, I am not! This time I decided to fork out the cash, about $10, for a surfing lesson and finally stand up on a surfboard. The surfing instructor promised I would stand up, or else I would get my money back. I thought, this is a pretty good investment, either way, I will be happy. Simon rented a
board and within minutes was ripping up and down the coastline. My surf instructor said 'He is good, but you will be better'. So, we set out towards the beach full of hope, both of us carrying my surf board, the biggest surfboard in the world! However, the fact that my instructor was leering at all the bikini clad women on the beach, didn't do much for my confidence in him. We warmed up on the beach and just as we moved into our second warm up movement, he ran off! I sat on the beach, disgusted that I had wasted my money on this lecherous creep. But he came back five minutes later, explaining that he was talking to another customer, a bikini clad girl, I imagine! Either way, he was back and my surfing lesson began. We practiced standing up on the board, on the beach first. He showed me a much easier method to stand up that didn't involve an amazing amount of strength and we set off into the water. I paddled out on the board and he swam behind me using the board as buoyancy. When a wave came, he would swim and push the
board from behind and yelled for me to stand up, to which I failed and careened into shore, my body, at first on top of the board, then, at the side of the board and finally underneath the board before being washed up on the beach, spat out by the unforgiving sea. Unrelenting, I waded back out and paddled past the crashing waves and we tried again, to which I was met with another failure, this time returning to my holy method of the surf kneel. He had little or no English, but one phrase he did know was 'Stand Up!'. He said it with such hope that I felt, next time, I can't let him down. I coaxed myself on and as I paddled and he pushed me onto the next wave, I stood up, albeit for one second, but I did it! He cheered and I cried with happiness. I was warming to this lecherous surfing instructor. By the end of the lesson, we were old pals and I even caught one wave for about 3 seconds before spinning headfirst into the water. It was a momentous day for me.
The following day, we went to visit
the many Chimu archaeological ruins that surround Huanchaco and the town of Trujillo. The Chimu people were a Pre-Colombian culture that were defeated by the Incan's in the 15th Century. Up until this point, a part of me was disgusted with the Spanish conquistadors that wiped out the Incan culture and subsequently imposed their Spanish way of life in Peru. However, this is just what the Incan's had previously done to the Chimu people. It made me reflect more on how empires were formed and the torment the people must have went through who were living through these tumultuous periods. The first Chimu site we stopped at was called La Huaca Esmeralda, a stepped platform Chimu adobe temple. Following this, we visited La Huaca Arco Iris, meaning Rainbow Temple, a fascinating temple, slightly pyramidal in shape. Following this we visited Chan Chan, the most famous of the ruins. The site once formed the largest Pre Colombian city in the Americas and the largest adobe city in the world. It is a massive complex, with impressive designs of fish and birds, adorning the walls.
The rest of our time in Huanchaco involved taking in glorious sunsets by the beach and chilling out in our plush hotel by the pool. We had got to the sea again and we were happy!
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