Walkin' the coast
Trip Start
Feb 27, 2009
1
60
73
Trip End
Sep 13, 2009
Lima,
Lima,
Peru
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Having finsihed with the intrepid tour in full, we spend the morning saying proper goodbyes as we wave noe after another of us away in a taxi back to our hum-drum lives. Well all except me that is. For I'll just get back to my travels.
Paul and Gillian are here for one more night and at last I'm getting out of Lima downtown and going to flash Lima - Miraflores to be exact. Paul and Gillian decide to join me. I'll be there for 3 nights and Miraflores is apparently Lima,s tourist district - beside the coast and lacking murders and crime.
The taxi which picks us up has no choice but to call ahead and hope that we co-ordinate our arrivals at the dodgy street corner well
Lover´s Park - Nuns not pictured
. It turns out we do. The taxi driver is like someone straight out of a Los Angeles crime movie and like most people in Lima hasn't a word of the english. We're whittled along a disgusting highway in the hope of arriving at a beachside paradise. About two blocks from the disgusting highway and we've arrived - in Miraflores and not a palm tree in sight.Checkin' In
Things go from bad to worse as I check into the hotel - Casa Nostra - to be precise. Cynthia had phoned ahead and booked me in. It appears this was dealt with at Casa Nostra by ignoring the request and moving on. This again is all playing out in two different languages like a stand off between two people having challenged each other to a duel at dawn - me huffing loudly in english and the staff bemusedly retorting in spanish. After some time it becomes clear I'm not staying in Casa Nostra which appears like a beautiful little idyll among this mess of Miraflores side streets.
Eventually they indicate that they've called up the street to a competitor and booked me in there. And so I find myself negotiating a spikey security gate and checking into Oro Blanco - might as well be in downtown Lima
Lover's Park, Miraflores
. Well at least its a bed for the night.The three of us make our way to the main thoroughfare Larco Avenue and head west along the street. Even though it is clearly more modern and developped than downtown Lima and clearly dotted with more tourists, it is still far from the modern world as we know it. Touristy shops vie for position along the pavement with department stores which clearly think the best way to display their goods is by throwing them randomly on makeshift tables. Finding a dinky little number for a saturday night here ladies would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Negotiating our way through the street vendors (No Gracias) and passed the tacky casinos (often with hotels attached) we get to the end of the avenue and expect to find the oasis that is the Larco Mar shopping mall - lauded by many a tourist as a place to get away from it all. Between us and the ocean there is nothing - no shopping mall - jsut a couple more vendors on a paved park.
A few more steps reveals that the mall is beneath us - carved into the cliffs and minded by security guards at every entrance. It truly is a little bit of respite from the hectic lima way of life. We chow down on some average grub in some sort of chain restaurant called Mangos and have a Pisco sour or 3
Lighthouse, Miraflores
. Paul and Gilli succumb to the higher priced stores and make last minute instinctive purchases for family and friends and selves. I simply watch - knowing that my rucksack is refusing to take another single item unless i ditch something else.As the three of us are heading back to my place so Paul and Gilli can grab a taxi to whisk them back to Crime Ville for the night we stumble upon some of our American camp mates frm the Inca Trail. I arrange to meet them for a drink the following night. Paul and Gilli and i say our parting goodbyes and here I am - all on my own again. In Miraflores - jaysus!!!
8 July 2009
Awakening to the morning sounds of police sirens, busy streets, hoovers and a few gun shots, I make my way to Starbucks for a coffee. Starbucks is on the main square beside a park dedicated to John F Kennedy and somewhat bizarrely called Parque Kennedy! I couldn't be assed dealing in espagnol at some dirty side shack whose idea of a latte is strong coffee with powdered milk. After stocking up for the day I make my way back to Larco Mar and decide to walk "the riviera" as the locals call the boulevard which follows the coast along a cliff top
Miraflores - Sea View
. I walk Northbound. You cannot walk along the beach at the foot of the cliff as it is hugged by a big dirty motorway. The "riviera" (a term used quite inappropriately when you consider such beauties as the French and Italian rivieras) is actually OK. It's a pleasant one hour jaunt passed various parks separated from highrise affluent apartment blocks by a quiet residential road. It is clearly where the rich people in Lima live. The parks are packed full of paragliders - jumping off the cliff, skateboarders, statues of Mary (in case you ever forget what religion you're to practise here), nuns ( just in case you forget to worship the statues of Mary), old folk and the odd tourist who has also been duped into coming to the Peruvian riviera. The best of the parks is Lover's park where I sighted the two nuns of all places. The park had various couples snogging the face off each other under a huge stone statue of two lovers embroiled in all sorts of no goodness. Perhaps the nuns just wanted to experience what could've been. I personnally think they are criminals dressed up in disguise awaiting a nice Irish innocent to mug.Back at Larco Mar - a big shappin centre in Miraflores, Hi - I sit down to a feast of sushi. It is actually really good. I make my way back to the hotel and then after a half hour of english TV (Bridget Jones to be precise) I head off to the other side of Miraflores and meet Ted and Sarah from the Inca trail for a drink before they head home too
Peruvian Flag, Barranco Square
. Ted used to work in trade in South America for the States - all sounds a bit "let's milk these suckers for all they've got in the name of our powerful economy" to me. He therefore loves the place and thinks its wonderful. And although I know it has its charms when you can avoid the vendors and the murderers, I can't wait to get back to Cusco whic also has loads of vendors but charm oozes out of its every orifice.9 July 2009
One more day in this shithole. Today I decide to go mad and head back to Larco Mar and instead of heading North - yup you guessed it - I head south. To Barranco - a student district - somewhat bohemian - where the best of Lima's nightlife is supposedly situated. The main purpose is to get a walk in. I negotiate the south side of "the riviera" and then a huge bridge over a highway before I stumble into Barranco proper. Surprisingly it is a little gem of a place. It's packed full of old colonial buildings and a charming square where an old tram now serves as a restaurant with a library and a church. I am trying to locate a littel watering hole called Juanitos which is a great little bar according to the yanks from last night which has kept its oldenn day charm. I can't find it anywhere and after taking in the atmosphere, head back in the late afternoon to - you guessed it - the big shopping centre where I find a nice seafood restaurant and given the mood wasn't great I decide accompany my meal with a bottle of wine
Barranco - Church
. The waiter seems somewhat shocked at my doing a bottle of wine solo. He clearly is not present in my place in Blanchardstown of a Friday evening.Night falls and I'm back in the hotel with a smile on my face and taking it all in.
That was Lima - but not Peru. Lima is worthy of a night or two - it certainly holds enough to interest you for that long if you avoid to get mugged. But its now time to return to Cusco where I'll be for a week. Now even Cusco may run out of things to do in a week especially given I've spent a few days here already and thoroughly enjoyed all of the surrounding area. However, I've a little inkling in my head which is saying spanish school. A week of spanish classes - 4 hours a day in a group of new people. Will research it when I get there.
On my iPod
Dirty Old Town - The Pogues
