LIMA, PERU

The flight to Lima took about 3.5 hours and was very pleasant as I had an open seat next to me. We landed in Lima and walked down some stairs and into a giant airport bus, which took us to the terminal. I got through immigration quickly and stopped at the official tourist info booth to book a hotel. Countries all over the world have these types of booths, but not in Central America that I could see. It’s a relief to get mainly unbiased info and be able to book the hotel of your choice. The helpful girl working there called three hotels I mentioned for their rates and I chose the last one, which was centrally located in the upscale suburb of Miraflores, and cheap at $30/night including tax, breakfast and free internet.

As civilized as the hotel booking was, the taxi situation was like the Wild West. The info girl told me which taxi company to use outside and how much I should pay, but actually doing that wasn’t easy. Evidently the taxi market is completely unregulated in Peru and anyone who puts a taxi sign on his car is a taxi driver. I was told to use Green Taxi and to pay $10 with no tip expected.

Once you get through customs, representatives of every cab company assault you immediately. I tried not to make eye contact and made a beeline for Green Taxi, which had the last booth in the row. Everyone is so aggressive with their salesmanship that it really seems shifty. I quickly agreed to 20 Soles (about $6) with my English-speaking driver and we started walking to a car. About 50 feet later his boss confirmed that it was really $20 so I stopped walking. We then agreed to $10 and I was handed off to another driver who spoke no English at all.

The thing I immediately noticed about Lima was that everything was much bigger than in Central America. The roads were 3 lanes in each direction and lined with gigantic stores of every kind. It was a strangely comforting feeling to be back in a consumerist society. When we finally arrived at my hotel I had planned to give the driver $12, which was lucky because that’s what he announced I owed, with the extra $2 something about parking (huh?).

The hotel was a lot fancier than I expected for the price. The room was also very nice and the fact that it overlooked a fairly loud street didn’t really bother me as I can usually sleep through typical city noise. The location was also perfect as I was about 100 yards from the famous “pizza street” so named because it is a pedestrian way completely lined with restaurants and bars, many of which serve pizza. It’s a very posh neighborhood and yet the food and drinks are consistently cheap. I had a couple of draft beers and a mini pizza and called it a night.

The next morning I got an early start and took a $2.50 cab ride into the historic center of Lima, and booked my flight to Cusco/Machu Picchu in two days time. I also decided to take a bus tour of the city, as it’s quite large and my time there was limited. I signed up for a 3-hour $20 city tour at the same travel agency. I walked around the city center for a couple of hours, then walked about 10 blocks to the 5-star Sheraton Lima where I would be picked up for the tour.

The tour wasn’t bad, but it moved kind of slow for my taste. The explanations were alternating and repeating back and forth in English and Spanish, which didn’t leave much time for going off script. It was a large tourist bus with 21 people aboard from all over the world. I would have preferred in this case to see the city from the bus window, but we spent about half of our time an archeological museum, then a cathedral. I was one of the youngest on the tour so when we were on foot the elderly people really slowed us down.

I jumped off the tour just before the end at the ultra-swank Larcomar shopping center, which is a very modern outdoor mall built into a cliff overlooking the beach in Miraflores. I found a tourist info booth and they called the Hipodromo (horse racetrack) on my behalf to find out the racing schedule. My guidebook said they’d be running that evening, but evidently they ran during the daytime that day. I was glad I called instead of just taking a taxi there. Someone at the track told the info desk girl that I could bet on “simulcasting” in the evening there though, on the races from California!

Instead I took a cheap cab ride down to the fashionable “bohemian” district to the south called Barranco. It’s another really nice area, but I think it’s more about late night bars and clubs and it was too early for that. After a good dinner there I walked by some bar on the main strip and some local guy literally pulled me in the door and introduced me to two Australian hikers he’d been chatting with. I started comparing notes with the Ozzies as they had just come back from Machu Picchu, which was my next destination.

We were soon joined by a 48-year-old guy from Baton Rouge who had just gotten in from La Paz, Bolivia and was heading home the next day. Stories were traded back and forth and the Louisiana guy kept ordering more rounds. I kept trying to leave, but I outlasted the Ozzies, who had to get to the airport for a 0130 flight to Chile. I was getting anxious, especially about the mounting bar tab, but was relieved when the Louisiana guy insisted on paying the whole tab in the end. Another cheap cab ride and I was soon asleep at my hotel, a bit after midnight.

The next day was more relaxing as I had my laundry done at a place two blocks away, while I had an excellent lunch of Ceviche, which is the national dish consisting of raw fish soaked in lemon juice and spices. I then went on what turned out to be about an 8-mile walk. I walked down to the beach and along a beautiful path on the edge of the cliff that overhung the beach. There were expensive houses and apartments for miles along that road. I then had to cross down over a highway and was soon literally walking along the sand on a crowded beach full of locals. Further down I found a series of staircases that would cut up the cliff and put me in the center of Barranco, which is where I was heading all along.

I thought about getting a taxi back to my hotel, because I had walked a long way and cabs are very cheap there, but I just kept walking until I was too close for a taxi and just walked all the way back. I had dinner and a few beers at one of the dozens of restaurants on nearby Pizza Street and called it an early night.