Lima

Had a slow start today. Woke at 5am and then dozed for a while. The place I´m at is noisy - I´m near the kithcen but had no problems with the ear plugs in.

Breakfast is included in the room price, and was served at 8am. It was great to catch up with the people who were staying there, swop notes and get info from people who´ve been to places everyone else is planning to visit. It was a fun start to the day - and it´ll be interesting to catch up with people tomorrow.

I then had a wander along to the ruins in Miraflora, which are around the corner from the place. Here´s a few pictures - including one of yours truly - just to prove I am travelling and not in prison on a 1 year jail sentence :-)

They performed human sacrifices at this place - which was kind of creepy.

I then caught the local bus service (basically a minibus that picks up and drop off anywhere on a defined route). It´s about 7km between Miraflores (the posh bit of town) and central Lima (the other OK bit of town). On a slight point of amusement, the steering rack of the minibus was clearly broken, and we weaved all the way as the guy tried to control the bus.

I´m really struggling to describe Peru (or the small bit I´ve seen). Lima at least seems to be split into three bits:

Miraflores - the posh bit of town - reasonably safe to walk around - with a large Marriot down the road where President Bush is staying.
Central Lima - Which is a slightly less safe place, which is the commercial and Federal centre.
The Rest - Which is where the more than 50% of people in Lima who are below the poverty line live. I did go into one of these areas on the above weaving minibus, and you could sense the change as the bus went over a bridge from Central Lima into The Rest.

Lima is hosting the APEC summit - which is causing mayhem. Most of the central area, and a lot of Miraflores are sealed off - inlcuding just about all of the main sites. I asked when it would be open and I was told an hour. Having found this out, I decided to go to a Vege / Vegan restaurant just down from the main area - it was a weird experience.

First - no menu.

I sat waiting for ages, and then they brought this fantastic soup.

Then - nothing for ages - and they brough a plate of rice with veg and what looked, felt, and tasted like meat. It definitely wasn´t Tofu or Satan - I´ve had both - so not sure what it was - but the food was great.

Then I went back to the main area and was told it was going to be open in about an hour.

So, I had a wander around Lima, including a quick look in one of the churches. Here´s some pics of Lima:

This is in one of the buildings overlooking one of the main squares in central Lima:

This is one of the new bit of town where I´m staying - it couldn´t be more different than the rest of the place.

I went back to find out if the main area was open, and was told - come back in an hour. So I went and watched Quantam Of Solace. It was ok - Daniel Craig makes a great Bond - it just seems to lurch from set piece to set piece.

I then went back to see if the main area was open and was told an hour. So I gave up and headed back to Miraflores to find food. And then things got interesting.

I decided to find a seafood place, and asked a Taxi driver if he could take me, showing him where it was on the map - which of course he said he could. So we end up driving around, and he keeps stopping to ask people where to go. I could have driven my own way there - and it was obvious we were going wrong. He spoke no English - I speak no Spanish - so it was kind of hard to explain.

After about 15minutes we ended up at the police check point for the Marriot (Dubbya´s staying here) and he insisted that the Marriot was it. So I paid him and then had to walk back to the centre of town because it was too far to walk to the restaurant!

Well...that´s today - I´m planning an early night - or I was - there´s a great jazz band downstair so I might have a quick beer before heading back to the place.

Until next time...