Monumental Lima
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2008
1
100
125
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008
Lima,
Peru
Sunday, October 19, 2008
- from the plane and the first drive, the capital of Peru look a lot more dusty and "third world" than Santiago.
- the people look a lot less Spanish and a lot more "Incas" with their color and profile.
The first feeling is that they are as nice, welcoming and helpful as the Chileans.
I spent the 18th visiting Lima and it was a shock. Santiago was only a starter. The city is absolutely huge and it took me almost 2 hours of bus to reach the city centre. To put its size into perspective, Lima agglomeration is four times bigger than Santiago agglomeration or almost twice as big as London agglomeration. Paris is a dwarf.
It was a tiring day. In Lima, you really feel in Latin America. The traffic, the pollution and the crowd are overwhelming while a bus journey is simply chaos. Moreover, I arrived in the middle of a religious festival on a Saturday. It is a mess and there is no time to rest. I just loved it. Another thing I like here is that with my 174cm, I am easily taller than the average Peruvian and it feels good.
And my Spanish is better than first expected so I can have proper chats with people in the hostel, on the bus...
I have to say something here: To everybody speaking English as a first language, stop being lazy and learn another language like Spanish!!! You will not limit yourself when traveling and will enjoy it 10 times more. I have met Irish, English and American people here and none of them had a clue about Spanish and somehow expected the locals to speak some English. True that English IS the international language but the locals of every country in the world will absolutely love you if you try few words of theirs.
By the way, my English friends need to be careful when ordering meat. Peruvians, like the Chileans, eat their steak very well done and when you ask "A la Inglesa", you get as close to uncooked as possible. I do not know where they got the idea than the English love uncooked beef since it is exactly the opposite.
