Lima

Day 1 Lima – Back down to Sea level

Although at a height of 3,400m Cusco wasn’t the highest altitude we had been to, we were both glad to be leaving so we could get a good night’s sleep. The altitude didn’t cause us too many problems in the day but after constantly being woken up each night, feeling like an elephant was sitting on your chest and gasping for breath, we had had enough!

We saw some poor guy sitting in reception on an oxygen tank so we were luckier than others. A shame as you could see why ex-pats opt to settle in Cusco, but it wasn’t for us. However, to help combat altitude sickness you are supposed to avoid alcohol so I don’t think we did ourselves any favours!

Today we were heading to Peru’s capital. The bus would take 22hours but the flights were reasonably priced so we treated ourselves.

Arriving a little earlier than expected as the airport is right in town, we waited to check-in and were soon flying to Peru’s capital, Lima.

I always get a little nervous (Shel not Glenn) when we arrive at a new destination as you are disoriented and have all of your worldly possessions on you. It’s when you feel at your most vulnerable. So, unless there are well organised city transfer buses or shared taxi’s, we always treat ourselves to a private taxi. We did this in Lima and soon arrived at our hostel.

The hostel was recommended to us by Dave and Dori and was in the more affluent Miraflores area. It was affordable as it was around a 20-minute walk to the centre.

We locked up our belongings, consulted the guide book and headed to an area which was nicknamed Gringo Central, a big Plaza and the meeting point for the walking tour we would be doing the following day.  The walk was through a lovely neighbourhood with colonial style houses, a pleasant surprise as we had imagined Lima as a concrete jungle.

We found a little side street full of bars and restaurants and settled at one of them for our ‘welcome to Lima’ cerveza.

We then went for a wander around the area which was quite cosmopolitan with lots of trendy shops and outlets but not much else. Neither of us wanting to part with money for new clothes, plus we are now quite attached to our traveller garb which looks like we’ve been attached to the back of a car and then dragged through a hedge backwards, we decided to head for some food instead.

Lima is famous for its cuisine and has a number of Michelin star restaurants. Clearly this would be outside our budget so we opted for a nice outside restaurant where we decided we would treat ourselves to an aperitif of Pisco Sours (Peru’s national drink, Chile’s too!) a couple of Peruvian fish dishes and a bottle of red.

As it was now getting quite late we headed back to the hostel for a good, low altitude night’s sleep…. Well that was until a couple of idiots in the next room came back in the wee hours and decided to have a natter at the top of their lungs!

Day 2 – Downtown Lima

At breakfast, we got chatting to a very interesting Italian guy who lived in Brazil. He was a football photographer which you wouldn’t have guessed as his eyesight was appalling. He had thick lensed glasses and print on his nose where he held the newspaper so close!

The tour wasn’t until 11am so we took a leisurely stroll to the meeting point where we were quickly escorted to a bar to wait and given a free artisan beer. 11am is a little early for a beer, even for me and Glenn, but it was free so it would be rude not to oblige.

 

The tour would be in the downtown area so we were first escorted to a bus station where we would need to catch a bus. The buses here have exclusive lanes and are colour coded with junctions where you can pick up connections. A bit like an over-ground tube, very effective and fast! There were around 15 people in our group so we each paid the fare to the guide and was hustled onto the bus and on our way.

The tour proper started in the main Plaza where the palace and other important buildings were, very pretty.  We were in time to see the changing of the guard and then headed off to do the usual tour of cathedrals, monuments, the old post office, a snack stop, and the oldest house in Lima. When we reached the oldest house, I asked the guide to repeat what he had said as I thought I had misheard, I hadn’t! Basically, the oldest house in Lima has been destroyed several times by earthquakes and rebuilt. I asked how, if rebuilt, it could be the oldest house but was reassured that some parts of it remain…. Triggers broom springs to mind!

 

The tour was interesting but nothing really stands out when I think back. Apart from how corrupt their government is (like the rest of South America) and that it was difficult to get in and out of certain areas as they were barricaded off due to some demonstrations that were going on.

The guide would have to coax policemen to let us through. At one point though the police Flatley denied us access as the demonstration was close. We did start to worry a bit when a water cannon went by but the guide assured us it was a peaceful demonstration and the cannon was just a precaution.

Managing to avoid the demo, the last stop was at a little stall for Pisco tasting. Pisco and Beer, good tour! We had a horrible one, a nice fruity one and one that tasted like Baileys…..we would have bought a bottle for xmas but thought a glass bottle wouldn’t last long on the many bus journeys we were due to take.

 

We then headed back to the station to make our way back to Miraflores. As we didn’t have their equivalent of and Oyster card, this meant negotiating with a local to add the money to their card and then use it to get through the turnstile. We had the help of the guard so it was a lot easier to do than you would imagine.

We were back on home turf around 4pm and headed off to find some food. We decided to just get a couple of starters and see how we would go from there. We were glad of this when a huge plate of fried fish turned up (plus a cheese thing for Glenn).

We stayed until what looked like the local Mafia turned up. Two fat guys who were shortly joined by a hareem of women. They were greeted warmly by a waiter but the waitress didn’t look too keen and promptly took herself to the other side of the restaurant, muttering as she went.

We headed back to the hostel relatively early. The hostel was out of drinking water so we were pointed in the direction of a shop. On the way back, we passed a funky little bar so popped in to have what turned out to be a ridiculously expensive beer before heading home.

We didn’t get to see much of Lima but what we did see we were impressed with.