Finally got here

Trip Start Oct 13, 2007
1
14
Trip End Jan 10, 2008


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Where I stayed
(Lima hotels)

Flag of Peru  ,
Sunday, October 14, 2007

After 30 hours in transit, including a ¨seemed a lot longer than it was¨ 9 hour stopover in Santiago, I have finally made it to Lima, arriving in the early hours of the morning to a storm of paparazzi (I believe the correct collective noun is ´flash´, but i think storm sounds better).
I tried to ignore them, but one of the  locals was even holding a sign with my name plastered all over it, asking for my autograph. Honestly, the nerve!

I was then mildly embarrassed to discover that this was in fact the airport transfer i had organised to pick me up (especially after i got my bodyguard to clear the way). And the rest of the paparazzi may in fact have been dodgy ´taxi´ drivers, which might have explained the lack of cameras and predominance of body odour, but after 30 hours in transit, my mental capabilities and no doubt my own pungent stench made the disctinction a little less obvious.

I was then driven though the dark, uneven and rather deserted streets to central Lima and the Hotel Kamana, where i was greeted with the exciting news via the top story on BBC World News (must have been a slow news day) that I had just left the country in time to avoid the election.


Despite dire warnings about personal safety, walking about the city today has hardly felt dangerous, although admittedly i didn´t make it to the slums rather neatly separated  by a wide dried-up river and bridge, although i had a long distance view.
That it is also Sunday has probably helped because there have been alot of families out and about.

Nevertheless, there are still the stray dogs (we passed a dead one coming from the airport) and the relaxed attitude to road maintenance and traffic signals you expect from Latin America!

Bring on the Amazon...
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