Day 2 - Lima and surounds

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After we both slept for around 5-6 hours, we had some quick breakfast at the lodge and decided to walk into down town "Miraflores" which is the better part of Lima. Around 20 minutes from our Hostel you come across the the cliff tops over looking the Pacific Ocean, the coast line is always surrounded in a sea mist this time of the year, other than that a very spectacular coast and a top spot for surfers. The beach is not sand but very large black pebbles, caused by what I haven't figured out yet and wouldn't think about sun baking here. Even though it's winter the weather is mild and we're both wearing T-shirts (so much for thermals) which is a change from when we left Albury yesterday. (or the day before, I have lost all time)
We walked up along the coastal cliffs into Miraflores and found a nice Cafe where Jeff had to have his hourly feed. We settled on an Omelette of some kind for a snack which was huge but we managed to get through it a large Iced coffee and a bottle of mineral spring water for around AU$12.00.
There are some very nice trendy food places around here with some lovely decor unfortunately we would go broke eating in them all as they are certainly catered for the tourist.
We headed back to the hostel and we decided to head into Lima which is about 40 minutes away in a "Safe Taxi". The drive into Lima was certainly interesting, the traffic the clapped out old heaps (has me dumbfounded why they still run), the fumes and sights were an eye opener to a country so different, yet the same as ours. Not saying that all cars here are old as there are plenty of Prados, Audi's etc and other cars which don't display any sort of manufacturers name driving around.

On the out skirts of Lima is was like driving through downtown Beirut and you could see why the Taxi driver locks your door when you get in, so many old and falling down building, mechanic shops that do a roaring trade on the so called Taxis, and people just going about their normal lives. The traffic is chaos but that is to be expected in a City of 6 million people and the conditions some of these people strive to live in.

We were heading into the central part of Lima to see the "Plaza de Armos" this is the presidental Palace and upon arriving we happened to turn up on the changing of the guard and the roads surrounding the Palace was guarded with heavily armed riot police with pistols and machine guns and enough ammo to bring down a herd of elephants and with a small heavily armoured vehicle by the gated entrance. (I told Jeff to stop pulling faces at the guards). they do this every day where the guards in the palace change to a formal procession of a full blown band, bit like buckingham palace I presume.
The plaza itself and the Palace are an impressive sight and all the people milling around to watch makes it a worthwhile look. We tried to get into the the cathedral called "Monastrey of San Francisco" there but they wanted to charge us just to look around, so we gave it a miss (we'll regret this later) the huge wooden doors and the size of the cathedral was amazing, must hold something important in there, we were a little confused around here as the other place we wanted to look at was the Museo of de La Inquisicion" and was closed until 3pm and it was just turning 1pm by now so we decided to head to of the largest museums in Lima called "Museo Del Banco Central De Reserva". After catching the "safe taxi" we ended up on the doors of the Museum only to find it was closed on Mondays....nice reading Jeff!

With the taxi's here, you can become a Taxi driver by pulling over to the side of the road and buying a plastic Taxi sign which you can stick on you roof and charge what you like, thats why you go with "safe Taxi" or the Green company, or something that resembles a taxi.

Luckly or not this older man swaggers up to us and proceeds to tell us the Museum is closed and we should go to this other one called the "Museo Larco"which is "more better Muchos better" and he would drive us there, he pulls out this map which is well worn soaked in water and everything else he was holding and was gives us his sales pitch, but he did have a ID tag on that was also well worn and showing a fainted outline of his photo so he must be....what?
He tells us he is a Taxi driver and for S/12 (12 soles about AU$5) he will take us there, so we decide why not we can always do a runner or ruby tackle him.
It turns out he was a cab driver (or thinks he is) and ushered us into his so called cab with the plastic "Taxi" sign , mind you it took nim four attempts to open the back door for me of this Toyota Corolla wagon, Jeff has other ideas, he was jumping in the front.
This old fellow could speak broken english and knew enough about Australia and everything else in the world and worked out to be alright and proceeded to tell us about everything and everyone we passed along the way to where we are going, it was like having your own private tour guide. We arrived safely at this old 18th Century white house, which holds the largest private collection of Peruvian and Inca artifacts" This old man who we work out later is called "Pedro" leads us through the main gates and up to the entrance area (seems to know everyone here). We pay our S/30 each and spend around about an hour inside looking at all the old Incan pottery that has been collected of the years, the gold head dresses, the tools they used their adjust through the Spanish take over and the history behind this magnificent civilisation dating back to 800AD. It also made us wonder about our indigenous people and why they weren't advanced like this or what had stopped them? (this could get political so I won't say much more).

After the tour we went into this other part of the building which housed thousands of original pottery artifacts enclosed in glass cabinets which were not on display in the Museum but were found at the time this one person did all this excavation for his private collection. we then had a couple of Peruvian Beers in this lovely court yard surrouded by bouganvillias and pottery and high white walls.

They also had a collection of old Incan Exotic pottery and makes you wonder why? from sexual positions, to the male and female organs they were all pottery drinking vessels...hey kids have a drinks from this!..."yeh right mum!"

After the tour "Pedro" was waiting for us and he shuffled us back into his cab and took us back into Mirraflores where we found this cafe that sat on the high cliffs of the Pacific ocean called "Havana" and tried to explain in our very limited Spanish we wanted coffee.

I figured if I ever go over seas again I would try and learn some of their language. In the time we have been here you can figure out most things, like counting, beer, welcomes etc. But you do learn quickly.

It was getting late so we got lost on the way back to the Hostel due to Jeffs sense of directions and my GPS couldn't pick up the signals. Anyway we eventually made it back. I said to Jeff, do you remember the movie "I am legend" with Will Smith. I said if we don't get back by dark you know what happens, thats why every place in Lima has iron gates, security camera and electric fences...haha

We got back to the hostel and decide to head back out to eat again so we researched our faithful never to be wrong Lonely Planet guide which I borrowed from people back in Albury and it showed us a couple of nice seafood places and one not to far from here, we walked up to another part of Miraflores only to find that the place is not there, so we headed back down towards the main centre to this other one, which was also not there because there was huge appartment building in its place.....I am going to throw this book when I get back.
We walked down what Jeff decribes as "Pizza Street" you get hassled and asked to eat in their dwellings as you walk down you don't even get to look at the menu, so we settled on this one place that looked good and we couldn't read the menu so we saw the word "Pollo" which meant chicken so we gave that a go. Really nice grilled chicken in some garlic butter sauce with chips and salad.
For some reason it's very hard to find any original Peruvian dish...does it exist in the cities? I don't know it seems they all eat Pizza, chips and Chicken and the American influance has certainly hit them. Which is a shame or not, who knows.

After our meal we found this "Beer house" influenced by the good old Poms. Music from the 80's blaring away, drunks at the bar, the owner kissing some sort of hussy so we decided to call in and a have a 1 litre beer, then we left and made our way back to the hostel on Jeffs directions again....we got lost again.

At no stage did we feel unsafe walking the streets, as long as you have your wits about you and stay in lit areas it's not a problem. Not only that about every 4th dwelling has a security officer or an armed Policeman out the front which seems very strange, are they expecting something we don't know about?....no it's not that bad the books make out.

We got back to the Hostel around 11:00pm and brought a few beers from the service station and played a stupid game where you have to pull blocks out and don't make the tower fall over. A couple of people here were heading out on the town and wanted to know if would like to go, but with a 15 hours Bus trip in front of us we declined.
Jeff was asleep within 10 minutes and snoring like a bull, I tried kicking him (he's on the top bunk) but he still kept going. Around 3am the vistors come back to the Hostel and having a skin full of drink decided to play the Bongo Drums and guitar in the lounge here. Nothing like trying to drift off back to sleep with that noise and Jeffs snoring. I swear I would wake at 7am and play the drums outside their room.
I have still yet to upload any photos and will try again shortly, this will probably be our last entry for about 3 days.
We are both doing well and having a ball.

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Photos

Miraflores
Our bedroom at Miraflores house

Lima Cliff Tops
Sunset at Lima, Paragliders taking to the air

Kicking Back
Jeff just lazing around

Guard
Dont mess with him he carrys a pistol and machine gun

Cliffs
View from Miraflores

Nuns
Luncg time in the Monestory

Meals
Lunch time, this is all Jeff does...EAT

Coffee
Coffee time at Havana over looking the Pacifis Ocean

Comments

[Helen]

Enjoy reading about trip keep it up!
Hello I know you are both fine, I am enjoying this and don,t forget to bring me back a present!!