Lapping up Lima

17th September 2007: Day One Lima, Peru


The longest day...

Yesterdy might very easily be classified as one of my longest days yet.. Having only a couple of hours of sleep on the Miami to Lima flight, I arrived groggy and tired at The Point Hostel in Barranco (next to Miraflores), a suburb of Lima.
Being that it was 5am in the morning, I thought that I wouldnt head stright to my dorm room and wake up my new dormmates at such an ungodly hour, so I sat with the backpacker{s bible )the Lonely Planet) and planned a full day of touring Lima instead!
Over beakfast (the ubiquitous roll, jam and coffee, South America is not well-known for doing the whole eggs, bacon and toast, or even muesli and fruit for that matter), I hooked up with 2 girls from suffolk and we decided to do Lima together (pack mentality). Thankfully my new dormmate ended up being saner than I could ever have hoped for (although he is an Aussie so that immediately put him at a disadvantage!), and he has been living at The Point for a week and offerred to play tour guide/ bodyguard for the day.
Good Plan.
I had managed to forget what a scene blonde hair makes in south america.... and even more so in Peru than it did in Argentina! I am wondering if I coud invest in some mousy brown hair dye for the rest of the month.... I feel very very conspicuuos!

So, the 4 of us left the sanctuary of the hostel and made our way down the road to catch a taxi. A tiny mini screeched to a halt on the corner and we negotiated a 9 soles (3 US) fare for the 25 min trip downtown. Have I mentioned how cheap things are here??
The trip was interesting, a total "Africa taxi meets South American drivers" kind of experience. The 2 english girls were white knuckled the whole way... our taxi driver managed to cause one fender bender, but some serious training on the roads of Nigeria and Cameroon made this trip slightly easier to deal with.

The morning was spent at the¨Black market, fighting offfake Addidas and plastic Ipods, and then ontp Lima central- PLaza de Armas. A highlight was a tour through the San Fracisco Monastery. The cathedral sits on top of miles of catacombs.... 25000 people have been entombed below this cathedral! The tour was very interesting and we spent quite a bit of time underground staring at an assortment of bones. I did wonder what would happen to us if Lima was hit by an earthquake at that moment... apparently the church has survived most of the major quakes (only seriouosly damaged twice) because of these large wells underground that are several metres deep and filled with bones (in early years were filled with water) to absorb the seismic activity...

After a quick walk through Chinatown, we popped back to Barranco and I settled into a hammock to spend part of the afternoon catching up on my journal and lonely planet. I did just manage to succeed in freezing my toes before retreating back inside the hostel for a hot shower and then on to hit the nightlife of Barrance/Miraflores. Ofcourse, I had forgotten that nightlife only starts after 1 am, so us girls just took in some more sights before deciding to head back to The Point{s bar.
And so began a rather long night of Cuba Libres! Apparently at some point someone spílt the beans about a certain someone{s birthday coming up this week and so I succeeded in getting one too many free drinks (seriously, I have never turned down free drinks, so you must know I was tired last night!).
Final Impressions on Lima:
Not a beautiful city, missing the awe-inspiring buildings of Old Havana, nor does it have any of the Cosmo chicness of Buenos Aires. For most of the year it is shrouded in fog, with little sunshine.
The Point is a great find though.
Most Impressive Feature of Lima:
The city is built on these towering sandy cliffs that overlook the ocean. The cliffs are literally crumbling away as you walk along them, and the buildings look like they will disappear into the abyss below at any second!

The Caribbean Chickens Backpacking Tip of the Day:
Never admit to a Birthday!