Blogs from Lima, Peru, South America - page 176

Well after being in Lima for a couple of days, we have come to the conclusion that it is just another big dirty city. We had a little trouble finding our hostel as there werent any signs outside or anything, but none the less we did find it, and it was rather comfortable. We spent our first day walking down the main road towards the beach in Miraflores. The middle of the road was lined with trees, so it was a pleasant enough walk of about an hour. The beach itself was ,bot a becah by our standards, instead of sand there was rocks and there was soo much fog about by the time we reahed there that you couldnt see the city up on the cliffs, about 1km away. We didnt really know where ... read more

Well, we have safely arrived in Lima, Peru, in route to the Galapagos Islands. We have now been without our friend and translator, Jill, for 36 hours, without major incident. Hopefully, this will keep up as we have two more weeks or so until we are reunited. Jill should be enjoying Copacabana at this time, continuing on to points unknown, at least to us. When last we spoke, we were heading out of La Paz, Bolivia on a bus to Juliaca, Peru. After a fitful night´s sleep, where all of us felt the return to altitude, Sara and I left early in the morning for the bus terminal. I, unfortunately, appeared to have (which is now confirmed) the malady other than theft that befalls travellers to this part of the world. I won´t elaborate, other than ... read more

I was pretty hungover today. Last night I went with my mother to their friday night activity which is basically a bunch of doctors (mostly specialists) sitting around trying to act like normal people. (Doctors are a different breed of people, especially 1st World Doctors wanting to work in 3rd World Places). Two of the Doctors showed slides of other countries, I believe both were in Africa. They have been to and what type of conditions there hospitals were in. Watching these slide shows was a mix of inspiration and hopelessness at the same time. Alot of the times the situation just basically comes down to one of fianancing, if only they had more money in these countries the people would live much better lives. One of the doctors commented that if these societys just had ... read more

So today we went to the Museum and then a the Jockey Mall which I believe is the largest mall in Peru. All the malls here are like compounds with giant walls around them and security at the entrances. In fact security is everywhere, and every store no matter where you go is overstaffed, I guess because there is not much money here labour is really cheap. Even at the Karokee Bar there is 6 waitresses, 1 DJ, 2 Managers and 1 security guard on duty at all times. But I think if it was Canada, the size of the establishment would only have maybe 4 or 5 workers as opposed to their 10. Which means half the time alot of them just stand around and don´t do much. I won't bore you too much with ... read more

The Colectivos So today was the first day I rode on the Colectivos. Lima is a chaotic place and one of the quickest ways to get acquainted with this chaos is to jump on one of the Colectivos, they usually hold about 10 to 20 passengers in a small van, have one driver and another guy who basically shouts at anyone he sees to get on, opens and closes the door, tells the driver when to stop, collects fares (not when you initially get on, but at some random stop in the action), and basically shoves people on as quickly as he can once he has determined they wish to take a ride somewhere. Sometimes when stopped at a traffic light this guy will jump off and walk around the intersection and advertise where his Colectivo´s ... read more