Downtown Lima
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2005
1
114
122
Trip End
Ongoing
Lima,
Peru
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
We left the airport terminal with the driver and saw the taxis waiting outside thinking that our drivers car must be one of them, but he walked past them all and kept on walking right out of the airport carpark towards the main road. There was a makeshift parking lot where he had parked his car on a patch of dirt, where he had a minder watching over it for him. It was no taxi either, just this guys car. We started to worry - the minder guy looked pretty dodgy just to add to our concerns.
Driving through the streets of Lima at night was pretty hair raising, lots of weaving in and out - we saw lots of beat up cars that night
Changing Of The Guards (01)
. We did make it to our hotel though right in the heart of down town (old town) Lima. It was not the north shore Sydney that we had expected from Jason´s description (although we guessed that he didn't stay downtown).We settled into our room and then realised that the bathroom window, well, had no window, but rather just a hole in the wall. Not really a good idea considering that we were meant to be in one of the most insecure areas that we have travelled to. The hotel agreed to let us change rooms, however the new room was right at the top of some very awkward staircases. We got up there, dragging our packs up and settled in again, happy with the view and room. It had a great panorama over the city. Going back to check in - we were then told that there was no key available for the room! We were obviously not impressed. So they gave us a third room, which stunk of smoke and was right next to the hotel restaurant (very noisy), so it was back to the windowless room for us, we´d had enough traipsing up and down stairs for one night, we needed some sleep.
The next day after breakfast and meeting the hotels resident turtle (very cute), we stumbled across a religious procession in the streets. It was quite a sight. Bearers carried a huge float with an image of the saint that they were celebrating, and it was proceeded by women from the church waving smoking pots around
Changing Of The Guards (02)
. We then visited the San Fransisco Church including the underground catacombs, complete with skulls and bones arranged in a pattern inside a well - hard to describe other than "interesting".On the following day we saw the changing of the guards - but armed police in riot gear made sure that everyone was over the other side of the road to watch. Glenn approached one guard and talked him into letting him take a few photos up at fence level, but when other people caught on and tried to take photos as well another guard stepped in and sent them away!
We had a look inside the main cathedral and then spent the rest of the day doing boring stuff like visiting the airline, arranging bus tickets to our next destination (Huaraz) and then buying Glenn a watch to replace the one he lost in the rapids near Baños. (The real story is that Christie insisted that Glenn get a new watch as he was bugging her by asking her the time so often!!!)
Tomorrow, we will head north for Huaraz, the popular snow capped mountain area in Peru, where Glenn is hoping to get a good dose of adventure.
