Life on the street and history lesson
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
19
20
Trip End
Oct 10, 2007
Lima,
Peru
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
I jump in a taxi and in perfect spanish, which I have practised as it is a bit of a mouthful, ask him to take me to the aforementioned museum. He nods, we agree a price and off we go. I know the general direction the museum is in and when he pulls up opposite a grand looking building, I pay him and jump out. I cross the major road towards the museum and as I arrive at the other side I am hassled by a big group of street kids. Even in the huge city of Lima I stand out and they all want money from the gringo. I feel sympathy for their plight but am aware that I have my camera and wallet in my pockets, I firmly tell them no and push through the crowd. I often give change or food to kids in need on my trip, but this time, there are too many and they are too close.
All the kids seem to understand my tone and leave me to focus on the next person, however one young lad is very persistent. I am walking fast and he is keeping up with a bag of sweets pressed to my stomach, constantly pleading for money. I push his arm away many times but it comes straight back, this is not the way to get money from me. I stop and shout at him to go away, he ignores me and continues to shove his sweets against me. I give him credit for his stubborness and perseverance, and no doubt this tactic works on many tourists, however his stubborness is matched by mine and I refuse to give in.
He finally quits his attempts once I begin to walk up the museum steps, realising his time is up. As I enter, I quickly realise that I have been dropped at an art museum, either they are all the same to my taxi driver or he was just after a quick win. I get directions from the desk and I need to head back down the main road I arrived on, to avoid the stubborn kid I take a walk through a nice park next to the museum to bring me out on the road parallel. I walk for a good 45 minutes in the midday heat and by then I am hot and sweaty. I jump in another very cheap cab and within another 5 minutes I am at the entrance to the correct museum.
After cooling off in the foyer and then purchasing my ticket, I begin to make my way round the old building. Most of the exhibits are explained in Spanish and some in English too, I decided against paying for a guide to translate and instead try to guess myself what is what. The museum route goes in pretty much chronological order and charts the history of Peru by regions and its most important periods, displaying tools, ceramics etc and lots of decorative items. The period of the Inca's and the Spanish colonisation that followed was the most interesting for me as the pre-Incan stuff was very basic, although the burial practices and processes to alter skull shapes were different!
Deformed skulls - no doubt to wear silly hats!
Mummy!
After nearly 2 hours I have seen everything and am ready to sit down, relax and eat a good meal. As is my habit when away from jb....I decide to treat myself. I walk for another half an hour towards a large church dominating the skyline in the distance, expecting and finding a main road with taxis passing. I jump in a cab and ask for Las Brujas de Cachiche, a restuarant recommended by someone at my hostel for the lunchtime buffet. I arrive at the doors of a very swanky looking restuarant with wild windblown hair and sweaty sun crisped face, I am dressed in sandals, denim shorts and a scruffy t-shirt. I smile warmly at the smartly dressed doorman as I advance towards him and whilst looking me up and down he opens the heavy door for me. I walk into the entrance hall of the cool, airy restuarant and remove my shades. Right in front of me is a group of 7 or 8 well heeled people in business dress waiting for a table. They part either side of the entrance hall to let me through, I can feel their eyes on me, the sweaty looking gringo who looks like he has become lost looking for the beach. I ask for a table for one and am led to a very central position, surrounded by tables full of suits having business lunches. The waiter informs me that the buffet costs 89 soles, (about 14 pound) very expensive in Peru, most meals I have paid for cost between 4 and 10 soles. This gives you unrestricted access to the 5 course buffet and includes two drinks of your choice. This sounds like a good deal to me and I order a glass of red wine to kick off. The food is fantastic, mostly traditional dishes with modern twists and I am determined to try as much as possible. I have no other plans for the day so I pace myself and after each plate have a good twenty or thirty minute break, I use this time to write out some postcards. Every time I look around to see whats going on there is someone watching the lonesome surfbum dining amongst executives, I hold their gaze and smile, some nod and smile back but most look away.
Tasty ladies!
Swanky restuarant
After nearly three hours in the restuarant I cant eat another thing, most of the other diners have left. I pay my bill, have a good look at the beautiful breast-focused artwork and leave. I am only five minutes walk from the cliffs overlooking the beach and decide a good walk along the coast would help me digest the epic meal I have just treated myself to. The coast section of Miraflores is made up of nicely kept parks full or runners, cyclists, skateboarders and hanggliders....all above an ocean packed with what must be a couple of hundred surfers. I know the water is pretty filthy so I am not envious, especially with that many surfers competing for pretty poor waves. Whilst living and working near Manchester, constantly aching to be closer to the coast and the waves, I often dreamt of living and working in a city with its own surfbreaks.....that dream has now been shredded. Already on this trip I find I can only truly enjoy surfing fully without big crowds, in clean water and away from the hectic city life. The fast growing popularity of our sport together with the disregard many governments have for the health of their coastlines is making this harder and harder to find.
Hangliders in Lima
Whats black and white and 50ft high?
That evening I wander a few blocks down to a German style bar I have noticed which serves good European beers. I pick out a stool at the bar and enjoy a cool pint whilst watching some Bundesliga footage. A fat, moustacheod dapper looking fella sits at the stool next to mine and says hello. He asks me if I am German, presumably becuase I am watching the football, I turn to tell him I am English and notice a large bandage around his big neck. He introduces himself as Ricardo, he has lived in Lima all his life. Without prompting he proceeds to tell me how he grew up in the roughest neighbourhood in Lima and along with his brother has built up a successful car trading business. He speaks Spanish to me but inserts what English he knows when he can , I can understand most of what he is telling me. After five minutes or so, he stops telling and starts asking....whats your story?...where have you been?...how long have you surfed?...you have surf in England??!!...the usual stuff. After this initial exchange of information, we have a short period of silence whilst we both stare at the football. I break the silence with the obvious question....So what happened to your neck? I am also talking in a Spanish/English hybrid.
He laughs and offers to buy me my next beer whilst he tells me, sounds like a good deal to me... The day before Ricardo had been downtown doing some business and was returning to his three week old Mercedes. As he opened the door he felt a strong arm grab his right arm and twist it behind his back, at the same time he felt a knife pressed to his throat. The mugger demanding he hand over his wallet, car keys and watch. Ricardo sat back and smiled at this point, he was obviously a practised storyteller...he took a good swig of his beer and told me what he said to the guy who had a big knife to his throat. He calmly told him where he grew up, the business he was in, the contacts and people he knew and then told him where to shove his knife....a brave man! The mugger thought this through and increased the pressure on Ricardo's throat, repeating his demands....Ricardo gave him more shit in return and only when the attacker ran the sharp knife along the length of his neck, opening up the top layers of skin did he hand over his wallet and watch. The guy took them and ran, leaving a fuming Ricardo with his Mercedes, he was angry he couldnt get a look at his face. He tells me that the mugger had been wise not to take the shiny new Mercedes after all...with his contacts he would have had a good chance of tracing it and punishing the thief. He takes off his bandage to show me the long line of stitches round his neck.
When his story is finished I tell him that he really should have known better given his background, he agrees and says that he plans to use a less conspicious car when visiting the less desirable neighbourhoods. He has also grown less wary and cautious with his age and success, this has served as a wake up call for him and it wont happen again. He says he is ready to fight fire with fire now...I can only assume he has procured a weapon of some sort! He assures me that Lima is very safe, providing you stick to the right areas and use your head, the strong police presence I have noticed on the streets of Miraflores is certainly reassuring.
We talk about other things and he is a really funny and friendly guy, but there is always some comment or look that reminds me that this guy has certainly been involved with heavy stuff in the past. I get the next and final round and as we clink glasses I warn him to make sure it doesnt leak out of his neck! He cracks up laughing and slaps me on the back with his big meaty hand...telling me how much he loves English humour and has learnt a good deal of his English from DVD's of Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses and more recently The Office. He invites me to his house to eat and meet his family the next day, which I am sure would have been an enjoyable and interesting experience. In his broken English he actually did invite me to come and eat his family, another meaty slap to the back when I explained the comedy of his mistake! However, I have to decline as Eva is arriving the next day and we want to get straight to San Bartolo.
