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Published: September 16th 2016
Day one After arriving at the hotel in the early hours, I was keen to have a stroll day and do things at a slow place. I decide to visit the centre of Lima to see the colonial buildings. The hotel staff tell me about an app called Easy Taxi. This app is free to download and providing I am connected to wifi I can request a nearby taxi to pick me up using GPS. My hotel is in the popular tourist district known as Miraflores and although the journey is around 12 miles into the centre of Lima I find that the taxi takes almost an hour to get me to my destination. I thought San Jose was bad for traffic, but seems Lima is worse. The taxi drivers English is bad, my Spanish is probably worse, but I learn that Lima has a population of 10 million people with only buses and cars as transportation.
Once I arrive in the centre known as Plaza Mayor, there is hardly a tourist in sight. I feel a bit out of place, but then see lots of police officers around. Prior to my trip I had read that the police
were in the centre mainly for the safety of tourists. As always when at a new location, I immediately get trigger happy and take lots of photos with my camera. Some young polite Peruvian girls ask me to do a questionnaire for them. In Spanish, I tell them my name, age, where I come from, my job and reasons for visiting Peru... Nice to see my Spanish lessons back home come to good use.
The Plaza Mayor is surrounded by the Government Palace, Cathedral of Lima, Archbishop's Palace of Lima, the Municipal Palace and the Palace of the Union. For a small fee, I purchase a ticket that allows joint entry to both Cathedral of Lima and the Archbishop's Palace. These buildings date back to the 16th century and offer impressive Spanish-colonial architecture. Whilst inside the Cathedral of Lima, I hear loud music so head out towards the plaza to see what's going on. I discover that the changing of guard is taking place at the Government Palace. This event takes place at 11am every day and involves a parade of soldiers and musicians. This spectacular show should not be missed.
Not far from the plaza is the
monastery of San Francisco. This building was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991. The architecture inside is truly beautiful. There are English speaking tours inside for a nominal fee, but unfortunately no photos are allowed.
After finding the Plaza Bolivar, also known as the congress of Peru, I eagerly find a shop to buy a bottle of Inca Kola. This drink is the number 1 soft drink in Peru and beats Coca-Cola, however, this drink its actually made buy the Coca-Cola company so they still have the monopoly. I immediately love the taste, although it might look like wee, it tastes of Iron-Bru and cream soda together.
In the evening, I walk around Miraflores. The area atmosphere lively with many locals and tourists. I visit Kennedy Park, a peaceful park that is popular with humans due to a number of stray cats (approximately 80) that live here. Any visitor to the area should take a stroll to this park. I meet for beers with a guy called Cesar who is an independent tour guide for Peru. I learn about things to see in Lima and Peru, and he offers to show me around, if time
permits.
Day two I waste my whole morning trying to find dry cleaners that are actually open for business and so miss visiting the Miraflores beach, as planned. Once afternoon arrives, I request a taxi via Easy Taxi to take me to Callao for a boat trip that involves swimming with sea lions. The taxi driver can't speak English and my Spanish is bad, so I ask the hotel reception staff for assistance. I discover that my booking hadn't been properly arranged despite my e-mails to
Ecocruceros. The hotel staff tell me that I have missed the tour for the day and luckily arrange for me to go on the trip for tomorrow. Not having much luck with the tour companies on this trip so far...
With half the day nearly gone, I contact Cesar to see if he can recommend any places not too far away that I could visit. He recommends visiting Huaca Pucllana, a pre-Inca tribe that existed over a 1,000 years ago. Cesar offers to show me how to get to the ruins and suggests going together and stopping off at a popular Peruvian restaurant on the way for lunch.
My friend
Lucy messages me to see if I am free to meet up. To my astonishment, I had discovered that she was going to be in Lima around the same time as me. We met nearly 3 years ago when travelling Mexico and Central America. I suggest to Lucy that she joins Cesar and myself for lunch and then visit the pre-Inca ruins.
Cesar meets me outside my hotel and we get the taxi to Lucy's hotel and pick her up. It feels weird to randomly see Lucy again and just shows how the world really is a small place! The restaurant we go to is called
La Cabrera and offers an excellent selection of Peruvian food. Next we head to Huaca Pucllana, the pre-Inca archaeological site that was built around 5 AD. This site once served as an important ceremonial and administrative centre with a large pyramid for the pre-Inca tribe known as the Limas. I can't understand how the clay bricks have lasted so long but the tour guide advises that it's due to the limited rainfall in Lima. This archaeological site really should be on your list if you ever plan to visit Lima.
Day three I make sure I am up and ready in time for the taxi driver to take me to Callao and good job too as the driver arrives 15 minutes early. Once I get to Callao, the taxi driver drops me off at the port. I walk around feeling slightly panicked as I see no one from Ecocruceros. Noting that I have arrived almost an hour early, I decide to wait around. I sense I am the only tourist in the area when this guy approaches me. The guy looks a bit on the scruffy side and doesn't speak any English, yet he shows me a Ecocruceros leaflet and tells me to wait near a statue. Feeling slightly wary I decide to trust him and despite our language barrier we actually start to become friends. His name is Mauricio and he tells me it's "cual es tu nombre" not "como te llamas" Spanish is spoken slightly differently in Latin America, as if it wasn't already hard enough!
Once on the boat, we have an English speaker guide to explain about the port of Lima and the islands we go around. The main island is called El Fronton also known as
the Island of Death that once acted as a fortress against invasions from Chile and Argentina. About 30 years ago, it was being used as a prison. Interestingly a man managed to escape the prison and swam to the shore of Lima. The man's survival trick to the cold Antarctic ocean was killing a sea lion, cutting it open and rubbing the fat (blabber) onto his skin.
As we get close to Palomino Island, there is a bad smell of fish and then I see thousands of sea lions on the island and swimming in the sea. Our guide tells us there are about ten thousand sea lions that live on the island. We are told not to go on their island due to male territories and not to touch the sea lions, although they can touch us. Feeling a little apprehensive, I jump in. After all, if I can swim with nurse sharks then surely sea lions can't be any worse? Water is not too cold thankfully as wearing a wetsuit so I start to swim away from the boat and instantly get surrounded by many sea lions who are curious. The guide asks if I can hold
my breath and pushes me under the water so I can take some amazing video footage with my underwater camera and then helps me to stick my feet straight so that the sea lions give me kisses as I feel their whiskers tickling my feet. This is just incredible, here I am in the pacific ocean swimming with loads of wild sea lions.
Apart from the booking mix up, I have to say anyone planning a visit to Lima must book this excursion with
Ecocruceros. For 165.00 Peruvian Sol (35 GBP or 49 USD) you get taxi pick up from and to your hotel, the boat trip to the sea lions with English speaking tour guide, a wet swimsuit, food nibbles and soft drink.
In the evening I meet up with fellow travellers for introduction time as I begin my G Adventures tour called the Machu Picchu Adventure. Next stop; Cusco.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Huaca Pucllana
What an amazing place. And the Limas civilisation, never heard of them, so I'm educated like every other day! Lima and swimming with sea lions. Fabulous intro to Peru. I've been waiting for these blogs Alan, so looking forward to where you head next.