Well I finally made it to Lima after a two hour delay at the airport in Cusco. Apparently Peruvian Air was running late (which makes me worry a bit about my connection to the US when I return, but that is a problem for another day!). There is not much to do in the Cusco airport so I studied Spanish and people-watched to idle away the time. The flight from Cusco to Lima is only about an hour so once we were in the air time passed quickly. As we climbed out of Cusco I looked out the window and found myself staring at the top of one of the surrounding mountains. The flight profile in and out of the valley must be very specific! The climate change between Cusco and Lima is drastic and my body, used to the hot and humid climate in Houston, immediately felt at home as I stepped out of the plane into the sauna like air in Lima. I had my fleece on when I left Cusco but that was not needed here in Lima!
Lima street scene.
It took about 45 minutes to get to my hotel in San Isidro. The traffic in Lima is heavy and while people try to stay in the proper lanes at times chaos rules and clumps of cars form and disband magically. Horns accompany many maneuvers, including expressions of annoyance as someone stops, does not go, or blocks traffic to set up for a turn. Gridlock is common. Lima is yet another city I am happy to not have to drive in!. Crossing the busy streets is fairly challenging as well and seems to be a group activity. At one point I was standing on a street which led into a traffic circle trying to figure out when to cross. The cars were continually feeding into the circle without stopping (there was no light) and no break in the flow was occurring. There was a guy standing on the curb across from me. We eyed each other, trying to figure out who was going to go first and somehow non-verbally reached an agreement to both go. Others immediately joined us and suddenly enough pedestrians were in the street to force the traffic to stop. I noticed this “group think” a couple of times at similar types of streets. Somehow it all works!
View of the cliffs with the ocean and mountains in the background.
After I had checked in and dumped my stuff I decided to take a walk down to the ocean and then find some place to eat before coming back to the hotel. San Isidro is the region right next to Miraflores, which is the suburb that fronts the beaches. It took me about 45 minutes to reach the ocean from my hotel. When I got to the shoreline I found a lovely green space on top and to the edge of the cliffs where the city abruptly ends. From the park along the cliffs it was possible to see down to the road and beaches below. To get to the beaches it is necessary to descend what looks like a hundred feet to reach sea level. The road along the beaches was clogged with traffic. I could hear the roar of the ocean as large waves arrived only to eventually crash and disintegrate on the sand. Even though it was late in the afternoon many surfers were in the water trying their luck on the waves. From the heights of the cliffs they looked like small animated dots appearing and disappearing in the surf.
The park was filled with people, some jogging (the first joggers I have seen in Peru), couples lounging on the grass, parents with kids, people with dogs, people just out for a stroll – there was all kinds of activity. I even passed a barefoot, unkempt looking individual who was strolling along yelling something in Spanish, stopping to point at people and speak directly to them. I have no idea what he was saying because 1) he was yelling and 2) it was in Spanish. Ignoring him, I picked a direction and strolled along the shoreline stopping to snap a few pictures from time to time. It was very peaceful and beautiful and I could see the pull that attracted all of the people. The city seemed very far away.
There were a bunch of tightropes set up in the park and people were practicing on them. Some were quite high!
As it got closer to sunset I decided to head back towards the hotel and also think about getting some dinner. I had not had much lunch since most of the early part of the day was spent in Cusco’s airport. As I meandered back I noticed there were lots of people on the streets and the city remained very busy. Near the hotel I found a Japanese restaurant so I stopped and had some sushi, taking advantage of the fact that I am near the sea. It was very good. After that I called it a night.
Sunset- another beautiful play of light and shadow.
Friday dawned a bit cloudy, which seems to be the norm here- clouds in the morning and then sun in the afternoon. I found a small cafe near the hotel and had a piece of quiche for breakfast. My plan for the day was to take a taxi into the city center and spend the day wandering around seeing the sights. I walked out of the cafe after breakfast and flagged down a taxi. He gave me the rate that I expected, based on some questions I had put to the hotel staff earlier, so I got in an hoped for the best. Taking taxis is always an adventure because you just never know what is going to happen. As it turns out my driver was from Urubamba! He had moved to Lima 9 years ago to find work. We chit-chatted as he drove me to the city center and was kind enough to point out many different points of interest along the way. It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride. I think the best thing about it though, besides the fact that he was a decent guy, was the fact that I could have a conversation, even if halting, in Spanish!!! Wow, what a feeling of accomplishment.
What you see upon entering the Archbishop's Palace.
It took about 45 minutes to get to the city center, mainly due to the traffic we encountered, and he dropped me off at the main square, the Plaza des Armes. Situated around the plaza is the main cathedral for Lima as well as the Governor’s palace. The cathedral was on my list of sights to see so I went there first. Luckily the adjoining Archbishop’s residence was open too so I visited that as well. The Lima cathedral is very nice but rather different than the one in Cusco. The Lima cathedral is a bit bigger, more grand in scale but it also seems somewhat remote and awe-inspiring, not comfortable and accessible as the Cusco church. I found that I preferred the cathedral in Cusco-it had a rather more “warm, homey” feeling to it although the art in both churches was spectacular. Since we could take pictures in the Lima cathedral I took several and have included them to give you a feel for the style of the churches here in Peru.
Inside of Lima Cathedral (I could not use flash...)
It turns out that if you like to look at churches Lima may be the destination for you. The city has beautiful churches spread out all over the place and you could probably spend two days trying to see all of them. One that you should not miss, however, is the Church of San Francisco. The church, which was founded by the Franciscan order, has been a monastery and even has catacombs complete with lots and lots of bones. My favorite room, though, was the library, which houses about 25,000 items including several thousand scrolls. What is unique about this is that you can see all of the volumes stacked on the shelves. It is as if someone took the room as it was about 300 years ago and froze it. I itched to crawl amongst the stacks to look at the spines of some of the books (at least the ones that are readable) but they had most of the library roped off, with good reason. The rest of the monastery was equally impressive and very beautiful including the meeting rooms, dining room, study area and sundry other functional areas of the complex. This monastery/church is a must see if you visit Lima! For more on the Monastery check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_San_Francisco,_Lima .
An example of the wood carvings in the choir. The choir in Cusco is even more elaborate. Both are excellent examples of the art, however.
I had read in my guidebook about the changing of guard at the Governor’s palace at noon every day. The book mentioned that it was somewhat unusual and worth seeing. I happened to still be in the plaza near noon so I stuck around to see the event. After witnessing it, I think the changing of the guard is another “must see” if you come to Lima. Elaborate is probably the right word to describe the ceremony. First a military band marches out, marching with kind of an altered goose-step. They come to the front of the palace grounds, near the fence and play music for about 20 minutes. Then they march off to one side and the changing of the guard ceremony itself begins. On either side of the palace two sets of about ten guards, also goose-stepping, emerge and walk halfway into the yard and turn to join each other. The leaders switch places and the groups return to the palace. In the meantime the band is playing different kinds of songs. I heard latin based music, opera, some Simon & Garfunkel, and believe it or not, the theme from “Star Wars”. It was a very eclectic selection but no matter what the band was playing the soldiers were marching to the beat. The whole ceremony lasted about 40 minutes. I definitely recommend it.
Part of the changing of the guard ceremony. We had to stand across the street and also take pictures through the fence. It is worth seeing- a great display of pomp and ceremony!
I was getting hungry so I decided to wander over to the small Chinatown that is just off the main square. it is also located near the main central market for Lima and I thought that might be interesting to see as well. As I got closer to this area the density of people increased. The number of cars decreased as the market and several blocks around it had all been cordoned off as a pedestrian only area. There were people everywhere, walking, talking, shopping, eating, and resting. It was a lot to take in as I spotted all kinds of items, one after the other, in all kinds of colors, shapes and forms, for sale It was as if a kaleidoscope had exploded across several city blocks. Besides the stationary vendors there were others wandering along the street hawking whatever you can imagine. Another great people watching place!
I picked a place at random in Chinatown and sat down to try Chinese-Peruvian food. As I walked into the open-air cafe an older gentleman, who was sitting with his wife and what looked like a grandchild, stopped me to ask where I was from. When I told him the United States, he asked if I spoke English. I responded that I did. He proudly introduced me to his granddaughter who apparently lives in Virginia and spoke English too. I chatted with her a moment and then sat down to eat. This was by no means an isolated incident. Several times during the day, either as I was walking down a street, or when I stopped to rest and consult my maps (thank goodness for GPS because my maps were inadequate!) people asked me where I was from and if I spoke Spanish and then just wanted to chat a bit with me. I clearly did not look like I belonged there, with my height and coloring. Many were surprised to find out I was from the US and also they were excited to hear I was learning Spanish. After this happened a few times I started paying closer attention to the crowds around me and I did not see too many people who were obviously foreigners once I got off the tourist track. In general I found the people very friendly!
Part of the main market area. I stood out as a tourist because of my looks and I was the only one taking pictures...
An example of how friendly the people are here is what happened when I stopped in at the National Library. I had read that the building was fairly historical and since I like books and libraries, in general, I stepped inside to see it. Upon entering the guard said something to me in Spanish that I did not understand and seeing that, he went off to fetch someone with whom I could communicate. In the end, two gentlemen from their administration office, ended up giving me a spontaneous tour. There were two of them because one did not speak English and the other did. The one who only spoke Spanish wanted to give me a tour in Spanish and dragged the other guy along to translate if I did not get anything. (I ended up getting about 80% of it so I was extremely happy!) It was just so nice of them to tour me around the library, telling me the history of the building and the library itself, and showing me how it works and how it is set up. I probably spent about 45 minutes or so with them. It was a great experience.
Leaving the library I started heading away from the city center towards the general direction where the hotel was. I was planning on walking as far as the location of a ceviche restaurant I had read about then taking a cab back. I ended up on a major pedestrian street that connected the Plaza des Armes with the Plaza San Martin. The pedestrian way also was the location of a multitude of shops and cafes along with a random church or two. It was crowded as the people of Lima were out in force, shopping, walking, visiting, and eating. The Plaza of San Martin was very beautiful and I stopped to consult my map and ended up chatting briefly with someone there too. My Spanish was getting quite a workout the whole day!
I eventually found the ceviche restaurant and had some great ceviche. It was dark, just past 7pm, when I exited the restaurant. Since there were still tons of people in the street I decided to walk a bit and perhaps grab a taxi when I felt less secure. It turns out I walked all the way back to San Isidro, about a 1.5 hour walk, since there were always people everywhere and I was enjoying seeing more of the city (something you don’t get to do when cooped up in transport). I passed through an area with lots of casinos, fast food joints (including McDonald’s and KFC), a karaoke bar, and several discos. This was a happening place and very neon. Needless to say there were tons of people out here as well.
Ceviche- YUM!
As I walked down the very busy street buses were constantly pulling up and taking on and leaving off passengers. There were buses of all types, sizes, and configurations and the only thing they had in common was that they were always full and the bus attendants were constantly yelling out the destinations of the busses as they pulled up. They spoke rapidly and I am glad I was not trying to take a bus anywhere because I had no idea what they were saying. They all had the same cadence and their cries had a musical quality, especially when there were two or more yelling at the same time. It was all quite frantic as the buses would pull over and people would jump on and off quickly in order to not hold up traffic. If a bus stopped too long a series of horn honks from the drivers behind them would burst out, accompanying the chants of the attendants. It was sort of an organized chaos which to the uninitiated (me) was amazing to watch how it all worked!.
Tomorrow I plan on wandering around some more in Miraflores to check out a local Indian market and a craft market. I am also planning some down time and heading for the green space near the beach to simply hang out for a while. Sunday back to Cusco….