Lima
Trip Start
Mar 27, 2008
1
13
42
Trip End
Jun 30, 2008
Lima,
Peru
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Trivia Number one: How many countries are there in the world where you can say "The population is x million, one third of whom live in the Capital city"? This is the third country on this trip where that applies (Chile and Bolivia are the other two), and I know that it is also true of Ireland. I don`t know the answer to the question by the way, but if you fancy a little bit of research, you can mail it to me when you find out.
Anyway.........Peru has a population of 30 million, 10 million of them living here in Lima. That makes Lima quite a large city in the scheme of things, although there are much larger places in South America. My sojourn here only lasted about 36 hours, as I traded a day in Lima for an extra day in Cusco, which turned out to be a pretty good move
View from my room, Lima
. First impressions? Lima is in a different Peru than the one I visited up in the highlands, a different country altogether. The journey from the airport to my hotel in the district of Miraflores took an hour or so, and at one point the road drops down to the coast, and follows the ocean into to central Lima. A whole district is being created from the beaches here, and it`s one massive building site. The rest of the city is (sensibly) built on higher ground, behind cliffs that run along the shore, and the new area looks as though it`s being built just in time for rising sea levels to wash it all away. I don`t think I`ll be investing in property just here.
Miraflores is a pleasant enough place, and feels quite liveable, but like most places in South America, the residents are all security mad and the windows and doors are barricaded against the outside world. Lives lived behind bars......................
This is also the birthplace of Alberto Fujimori, ethnic Japanese ex-president of Peru, who is currently serving time in prison on corruption charges. Peru is home to the second largest ethnic Japanese community in South America, about 800,000 of them at the last count, and they are a very important minority within the country.
One of the most noticable things in this area is the sheer number of casinos - they seem to be on every street corner, and some of them are absolutely huge
A bit corporate, but very nice. Radisson Lima
. These aren`t bow tie and penguin suit casinos á la Monte Carlo, but Las Vegas style places, with rows and rows of slot machines being fed by people sitting on high stools - they open onto the street, and you can see right inside. I went for a pre-breakfast walk round Miraflores at 06:30 on Sunday morning, and people who`d obviously been up all night were still sitting on their stools, playing the machines - this is a part of the Peruvian psyche that I hadn´t been aware of until now.Apart from oxygen, the other big benefit of being in Lima is that the bloody pan-pipe music has finally stopped. It was absolutely everywhere in the highlands, and my ears had begun to bleed......
Weather wise, Lima was a repeat of Valparaiso. Saturday was lovely, blue skies and warm weather, but Sunday morning was foggy with a sea mist rolling in off the Pacific. Not many photos here, and that`s not just because of the fog either. Lima seems to use different electrical sockets than the rest of the country (different than the rest of the World probably, I`ve never seen this type before), and I couldn`t recharge the battery in my camera.
Trivia Number 2: Remember the corrugated iron roofs on the houses North of Puno when I first arrived in Peru? They prefer corrugated iron there because at that altitude there are hailstones so big that tiles just get smashed. With corrugated iron, I suppose you just knock the dents out again.
Sunday lunchtime, and I´m in a cab heading back to the airport. Grey seas, grey skies, surfers and fog......actually in this weather, Lima looks a tiny bit like Cornwall.
My next stop is Caracas, Venezuela, and I´ve got problems before I´ve even arrived. Watch this space.............
Quisiera empujar sus "pan-pipes" encima de su culo!!
Comments
Primate Cities
Can't be bothered to properly research how many cities have at least a third of the countries population, but I'd bet it's more than you'd expect. Also the correct term for these type of cities is 'primate city' (I'm sure you're glad to know that those hefty tuition fees weren't entirely wasted!).
For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primate_city
Re: Primate Cities
I`d have thought a man of your calibre would have just handed me the answer. Thanks for the info though, interesting stuff......