Here's a tip for the aspiring traveller: Don't eat raw fish ceviche from a beachfront restaurant when you've booked an 11 hour bus ride. Fortunately we broke open Chris's travelling pharmacy and ate every medicated item we could find, and somehow we held it together until Lima but it was touch and go there for a while. On reflection we probably should have worked this out hypothetically but I suppose this is how you learn and Chris now has good reason to avoid fish forever.
My expectations for Lima were low. The books in general are not kind to Lima. Apparently Herman Melville called it 'the saddest, strangest city on earth' which seems very harsh when you take Hull and Bognor Regis into consideration. All the guidebooks we read heavily implied that we would be murdered, kidnapped and otherwise inconvenienced more or less upon arrival. No traveller we had met to date had had a good word to say about the place, including 'Unbelievable' Oscar who gave us a long list of don'ts for our visit. 'I live in Lima now, but I lived in Toronto for 20 years'. 'Really? What's Lima like? 'Well... I really miss Toronto'.
So I'm going to break the mould and go on the record here: I liked Lima a lot. We went on a free walking tour with an engaging Australian guy called Timmy who provided us with some thoughtful insight into the place. True, it had some odd bits. A man tried to sell me drugs at 10am. There is a pavement full of old men with typewriters and kitchen scales in which to weight your household gold (huh?) Elvis is alive and well and selling rock cakes from a tupperware container near the Plaza San Martin, where, incidentally, there is a statue of the Virgin Mary with a llama on her head. (For the record, I didn't buy those drugs. This is all true)
But Lima also had an impressive array of historic buildings in the colonial style, some nice looking restaurants, a couple of great churches and what looked like several convivial drinking establishments which I was whisked past. The hostels are cheap and friendly. The gringofied area, Miraflores, is cleaner and safer than its corresponding sector in Quito. We had a nice meal and then checked out some impressively creepy catacombs under a church. Lima also has an array of cool stories from its past that are well worth a read, from the conquest of the Incas to the more recent civil war. Apparently during the cvil war in the 80s and 90s the Maoist group Shining Path surrounded the city, cut the electricity supply, surrounded the town and then lit up the Cerro San Cristobal hillside with a giant hammer and sickle in burning torches. Pretty cool stunt in a scary as hell kind of way, no? Anyway, the long and short is, there was some good stuff here and I think it's time Lima got a bit of good press for a change.
Heading south we have spent a few days in some dusty desert towns lying in hammocks, drinking beers and playing frisbee in swimming pools. It might sound weird but I think we both needed a holiday from travelling. We have answered to the best of our ability all questions put to us by the locals on the subject of the monarchy in general and the Royal Wedding in particular, which got live coverage even in the desert town- population 200- we were in for it. Hope you all enjoyed the bank holiday back home. We're now heading towards Arequipa where we intend to immerse ourselves in culture and tip the contents of our rucksacks into a long overdue washing machine.
The only other news to report is that for a few days I had a mysterious bump growing from the left side of my forehead and for a while it seemed I was growing a horn in the manner of Venger from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon (look it up). I am pleased to report that it seems to be subsiding but if anyone wishes to send ice creams or get well gifts these can now be mailed c/o the British Embassy in Lima.
I thought you were far too young to remember Venger! Did someone buy you the DVDs?
ReplyDeleteAlways wondered about Lima - the South American Handbook and Paul Theroux were both pretty unkind about it, IIRC.