Shrouded with fog or was it a combination of fog and smog. The arrival into lima at about 530pm was an eye opener. Apparently lima is covered with fog for 8 months of the year and August by the looks is one of them!
It was a long drive taking about 11hrs. Lots and lots of desert. Mountains with large sand drifts that, if replaced with snow, would not look out of place. Beaches with pounding waves from the pacific ocean and covered with thousands of birds. Ancient ruins of a pre inca fortress perched on a hill...and most importantly lunch in a forest of wattle.
Lunch was rather interesting. We pulled off onto a side road and onto a minor dirt road by some wattle. Up on a nearby hill was a guard. Guarding what we do not know. Anyway he was well dressed in yellow shirt, tie, white hardhat and safety glassed. Bear in mind that he was just a lookout on a hill not a construction worker. He came down to the truck looked concerned got on the radio and in minutes a second similarly dressed person arrived with a clipboard. He also looked concerned then another vehicle arrive with another person then another vehicle with the local policeman. In total there were five concerned outsiders and we, of course, were just as curious. Continued eating, finished our lunch, packed up the truck, gave them the remains of our lunch which they refused and left. Much ado about nothing. Must have made their day somehow....
Yes puctuation is a problem with a random keyboard. For example pressing the forward slash key gives a minus sign and i can´t be bothered cracking the code.
The city is almost a discrete step from poverty to an insular suburb. We travelled through a dry and rough looking set of suburbs for about an hours through dense traffic seeing nothing but cars,people and dirt covered buildings. Everything was brown. Just before the turnoff to the city was a suburb of pastel coloured houses on a hill which really gave great contrast. There were plenty of armoured trucks and armed guards around the government buildings. Guess they have something to be worried about. At a guess it would be keeping the poor away from the area....
Will be here for another couple of days.
Adios,
Vanessa and David
