Lima
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
68
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Lima,
Peru
Monday, November 24, 2008
Well, when we arrived in Sao Paulo from Rio, it was at some ungodly hour when even the birds were still snoring. The next day our onward flight to Peru was at a sensible 9am so Livia, who arranged our trip for us, booked us into a Hotel right near the airport. The room was grim, soul-less and the size of a matchbox but it was a bed for the night...well, I say night, by the time we had been collected from the airport and got to our room we had approx 3 hours sleep before our flight.
Our flight was good and we got to Lima around midday. Peru was David's bag. i.e. his turn to book hotels, excursions etc so I had no idea where our Hotel was or what it would be like. (I organised Rio....well, when I say organised...I wrote down some activities for us to do and took immediate control of days itineraries. However, when my navigational skills were needed, it all went predictably and exasperatingly dire so David stepped in and rescued me from sending us into some crack-den district!) (David: But that's where I was trying to get us... maybe I need to re-examine my navigating skills.)
Well, we thought drivers in Sao Paulo were mental
Miraflores seafront!
. Lima makes SP drivers look like old age pensioners out for a gentle cruise. Most cars in Lima, we noticed, had at least two panels of their car dented and at least one light smashed. It was a bit like India with hooting, hooting and emergency braking. Lima, I have termed, 'Whiplash City'. The Hotel David had chosen seemed wonderful. It was in a district called Miraflores which looked really pretty and green. Our Hotel was a modern 9-storey and our room overlooked the street below. The boy did good!After an afternoon snooze, we ventured out in the evening for a walk and dinner. A 5-min walk from our Hotel led us to the golden sandy beach. This beach was below us though, down a steep cliff and across a busy duel carriageway. At street level were lush, tidy gardens abundant with flowers and trees, benches where locals kissed or chatted as the sun set over the ocean and a dog-poo free pavement (woohoo! Unlike Buenos Aires..). Really pretty area. We walked along loving the cleanliness and people-watching as locals roller-bladed, jogged, sat under trees laughing etc before we were getting hungry.
The Hotel map recommended a restaurant nearby. Situated by a fountain with night lights and more greenery. This restaurant was absolutely fantastic. It had a bar area and a separate restaurant area. We sat down in the bar area and the waiter approached and asked if we'd like Pisco Sours. I had entered Heaven. The bar area was a big room with swallowing sofas, a tv, mirrored walls and murals of naked Peruvian women with spears and feathers
Me watching para-gliders over beach
. Interesting....My Pisco Sour came in a ceramic 'bowl'! Brilliant! We had the most delicious meal and called it an night early as David had a bad cold. (David: But we went back via a pharmacy, where - with various charade-type gestures - they gave me 'Lergium Plus'. They called it a decongestant - or more accurately: a decongesteeon-arooeeo or something. Anyway, one to be taken a.m. and one to be taken p.m. I took one immediately. Twenty minutes later my cold had completely gone. Completely. I googled 'Lergium Plus' and surprisingly discovered it's an anti-histamine as well as decongestant. Whatever, I love them.) Our Hotel was lovely. However, as our room was facing the street, the noise was flaming ridiculous. It was like sleeping on the M25! It wasn't a main road just a side road and we were nowhere near Miraflores town centre but nevertheless...closing the windows did nothing. We managed to sleep though but then at about 3am I woke to bang, slam, thud, bang, slam.....inside the Hotel! God only knows who was doing what and to whom but was it really necessary to slam doors at 3am?! This went on for at least 30mins while I effed and blinded to my pillow and David snored his way through Hell. At some point I must have stressed myself out into a coma.
At breakfast, which was really great, we discovered they now had a new coffee machine which must have arrived at...3am!!? Which must have been where all the flaming noise was coming from. For pitys sakes....don't delivery men work during daylight hours?
We decided we needed help to organise our Peru trip
Beachside shopping mall
. Rather than do it ourselves we felt that to get the most out of Peru in the time we had we should get some help, like we did in China and India. David was in charge for this one so after a bit of internet-research we decided to head into town to nearby PeruVision. (David: They had leaflets around every hotel, they had their address in the small print. Their head offices). Their website was good, at the very least we could chat to them and bounce some ideas around. Miraflores was lovely. The streets were so clean. Drivers were mental but the minute you wanted to cross the road they stopped immediately and let you pass with a friendly wave. Unlike Sao Paulo where you had to write your will before you crossed. There were little residential squares dotted about which were abundant with flowers and trees and the sun glinting through the leaves, people smiled as you passed by, houses were a variety of storeys and periods and colours. (David: There were loads of posters around the place advertising various Beatles or John Lennon tribute bands. There was even a statue of John Lennon overlooking the sea. If Cyprus is the spiritual home of Elvis tributes then it seems Lima is the home of the Beatles... weird). It was just a lovely place to be. I didn't feel threatened, nervous of being mugged, it didn't feel dangerous. We got stared at but we're used to that now. I mean, we're beautiful creatures after all........... (David: Either that or you had your trousers on inside out again, darling...)
We found PeruVision
Naked Peruvian mural in Miraflores bar
. It was a wooden door in a plain brick wall halfway down a back street without any sort of sign. But we rang the bell anyway and were relieved to find a busy office off of the tiny front garden. The Manager, I assume, was called out to see us as he was the only one who spoke English. We had a frustrating first few minutes with him. PeruVision organise lots of tourist trips. You just look in their brochure and pick one and book it. However, we wanted several trips which would be costly and stupid since it meant coming back to Lima each time so could they organise one big tailor made trip? But this just wasn't really coming across. The manager kept frowning and pointing to the brochure saying, "Si, Si, you choose trip, we book for you". Sigh! An hour later, we managed to convey our "one big trip around Peru" and we had to return in a couple of hours while his assistants drew up a draft itinerary. Excellent.David and I went for coffee. I felt nervous. PeruVision wasn't instilling confidence in me. I wasn't sure they got what we wanted so I thought it would be a good idea if we nipped over the road to the smaller Tour Agency we spied from the café, just to see what they had to say. The woman in there was great and instantly understood that we wanted a tailor made tour encompassing all major highlights of Peru. She also said she would draw up a draft itinerary and told us to return the following day. Great! I felt much more confident with her on the case.
Two hours later and now back at PeruVision, the manager handed us a sheet of a day's tour that he had just printed out
Mmmm...tasty....
. He hadn't got his assistants to 'draw up a draft itinerary' so we were back to square one. Sigh! We sat down with him and explained, one by one, the specific things we really wanted to see in Peru. Then we asked him if he could do an itinerary for us accounting for the distances between each attraction, whether he could book hotels and flights too. Eureka! The light shone long and wide over his face! Which route though? Considering altitude changes. All worked out after a couple of hours and he gave us a price and we went away to think about it. They were actually really lovely in PeruVision but perhaps they just hadn't had anyone requesting a personalised tour before, like the ones we had had in India and China. (David: At least, not two English tourists turning up at their offices out of the blue and demanding to be whisked around Peru the next day.)The next day, we went straight to see the woman in the smaller tour agency just to see what she had come up with too. I liked this woman. She was proactive, confident and seemed to be singing from the same page as us. Or so we thought. After 10mins David and I both realised we were wasting our time with her. Her idea of an itinerary made no sense. She was suggesting night flights where we'd then only have a 2-hour kip at the Hotel before we'd have to be up and out for another tour or alternatively suggesting a bus ride of 11 hours where again after checking into the Hotel at the other end we'd then be straight back out for a tour with no sleep and furthermore suggesting a route that would mean us backing up on ourselves geographically
Miraflores Church
. David came up with a far better plan while she sat and nodded and I clarified. Who was organising who, here??! More to the point, we found no customer reviews/feedback about her on the internet and there were no 'awards' or certificates in her small office. At PeruVision, there were lots of awards on their walls and a few positive customer reviews on the internet (David: And since it wasn't a walk in agency, but rather their Head Office, the awards were there for the staff, not to impress the customers). We decided to give PeruVision another chance.At 11:30a.m we walked into PeruVision with the itinerary we wanted. At 5:30pm we walked out with a bundle of documents and big beaming smiles!!! We were exhausted but it had been the right decision! We sat down with the Manager, went through every single thing clearly and he got his two female assistants on the case immediately who were absolutely fantastic and friendly. They booked our hotels and flights, they typed up an itinerary, printed out information sheets for us, booked tour guides. They ran around constantly, all day, with no lunch break! The only thing we weren't particularly impressed with was the fact that we were in there for 6 hours twiddling our thumbs and not once did they offer us a cup of water or coffee!!! We toyed with the idea of going out for food but every 30mins or so the girls needed to ask us something about a hotel or a flight and we didn't have a mobile on us so if we'd have gone out they may have organised something we would have hated! At the end when we were paying by credit card, then a colleague appeared with a plateful of biscuits, two cups of drink for us and a massive smile! Great but we could have done with that several hours ago!! Anyway, we were really impressed with everything they had organised for us so fingers crossed it all pans out well!
Our flight to our first stop the next day was a place called Arequipa
Isn't there a shopping mall around here...??
. Our flight was leaving at 4am so we decided to have an early supper and go to bed for a half decent sleep. We went to Miraflores shopping mall. We were told this was underground. It was if you looked from the main road. No evidence of any shopping mall at all, just a big open grassy space with flowers and benches and a metal balcony overlooking the golden beach below. However, walking towards the open grassy area revealed some stairs that led down to a discreet space heaving with shops and restaurants. Very cleverly designed indeed. Below ground level was a plethora of shops, restaurants and bars. We decided to have supper at Some American burger / diner type place done Peruvian style. As we sat right next to the window, we sipped Pisco Sours and watched para-gliders soar past over the stretch of golden beach. Afterwards, we walked back to the Hotel as the sun set over the ocean and all the locals strolled hand in hand, roller bladed, jogged, caught up with friends or did some tai chi facing the sun. Such a fantastic, beautiful place. We would be sad to leave. (David: It's a fantastic place. If you want to experience an essence of India, but not the dangers, hassles and filth of India then come to Peru. There is a similar level of poverty, but the people seem to have a deep respect for themselves and the environment).As we got into bed for an early night's sleep, we switched on the tv and found CNN news. Our hopes of an early night were obliterated thereon: Mumbai had been the target of terrorist? gunmen, blowing up parts of the Taj Mahal Hotel and Leopolds Café, a famous tourist hang-out as well as other places around the City. Many people were dead or injured or held hostage. Only back in July had David and I stayed for one night at the Taj Mahal Hotel and had also spent an evening drinking at Leopolds Café. Now the very room we stayed in at the front and top of the Taj Mahal Hotel was ablaze with angry orange flames and several tourists at Leopolds Café had been shot within. To say we were lucky is an understatement.
Love, us xx
