Piscoed on Pisco
Trip Start
Feb 15, 2006
1
54
67
Trip End
Feb 14, 2007
Lima,
Peru
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Not so at Lima airport. It was mayhem, and we did not know who to trust. Anyway, password sorted, we followed this chap, and eventually a car turned up. He proudly explained that it was being driven by his mother (no doubt to avoid the cost of parking). She switched to the passenger seat, and with lots of smiles and buenos tardes we were off. Our chap insisted we wore our seatbelts and we hurried to oblige, as the journey turned into a fast dodgem ride across town. It could have been bumper cars had the mother not helped by reaching out of her window and thumping another car that was about to hit us.
I think they saw a theft, because suddenly, they turned and indicated that we should get our rucksacks down on the floor before somebody broke the window and ran off with them - welcome to Lima.
We arrived at the B and B where a flap in the door opened to check who was on the door step and after the security bars were lifted off the door opened and we were in and safe.
I must recommend B and B Tradiciones, it is a great spot from which to launch a Peruvian holiday. The owner gave us tons of help and advice, eg. always travel on the right hand side of a bus - it is much safer - and what to do in an earthquake - apparently we had arrived at peak earthquake season, missing a tremor two nights earlier. Also, it seemed that my brolly would not be needed,it hadnīt rained in Lima for the past 2,000 years.
We had a week to sort out before we were due back in Lima to join our next tour. Gill rather fancied Ica, which happened to be the epicentre of that earth tremor, on the way to Nazca, where we wanted to overfly the Nazca Lines, or geoglyphs to those in the know!
We booked onto the safest and most expensive bus route to Ica. Now we were talking, leg room, seat belts, hostess, lunch, and even Bingo, which was won by Seņor Eastwood! A prize of a return ticket to Lima. Great excitement!
Ica itself was a bit more disappointing, the museumīs two best exhibits had been "robberoed" a couple of years earlier, and Gillīs guide book was grossly out of date, probably because of the earthquakes! It had recommended a 20 min walk to one of the many bodegas for wine and Pisco tasting. However, after 10 mins, the area became a little rough, and Gill and I were being grabbed by market traders. What was going on? Their charades clearly showed us that we had gone too far out of town and they were trying to turn us round before we were robberoed. Actually, that was very kind of them - but quite frightening.
As gringos go, we do stick out like sore thumbs - two six-footers,one leading the other who walks in a very strange way over the uneven pavements, to avoid any further drainage ditches. So we made the turn, threw away the guide book and got a taxi to a safer destination where we contentedly supped away until sunset on the locally distilled Pisco Sour. Piscoed on Pisco!
