Hello Hello from Lima... After an early start yesterday at 4am we left Holambra I was off to Lima Peru.. a much longer flight than I thought but everything went well.. The hotel is right in Lima downtown which once again according to Lonely PLanet is not the best part of town... But being out there on the street it doesn´t really feel that unsafe... but then again there is police everywhere and at the main plaza , Plaza de las Armas you even have police with those big plastics things which are used during demonstrations and stuff.... also loads of police officers with dogs which I guess are for finding drugs.
My first impression was that I am a head taller than everyone and seem to be the only blondi in a one block radius , that is until you bump into another tourist... So far my experience with the Peruvians are that they are a lot more reserved than the Argentinans, Uruguyans and Brazilians.. but hey this is the first stop so that might change. The centre is a bit of a mixture between nice old buildings and not so nice ones... The main shopping street is a block from my hotel and directly leads to the Main plaza.. A little further on you get a glimpse of the poor Lima Chanty towns with coulourful houses piling on the mountains outside the city... Generally the roofs of the houses are flat which is as I was told because it hardly ever rains in Lima.. This is unlike Cusco where we are in the middle of teh rain season upsssss I think that will be a wet 4 day hike in a couple of days.
Food is incredibly cheap I paid less than 2 pounds for a quarter chicken with fries, salad and a drink... The place looked really clean but guess my stomach didnt like it too much... I shall have a second go at it today.. Also tried the local national fizzy drink... Inca Kola, which is bright yellow and tastes like bubble gum.. I love how Coca Cola seems to be number 2 to this drink, similar to Brazil where the local fizzy drink Guarana is quite dominant as well.
Tonight I will meet my group and as of tomorrow I think I will be back into the Travel mode... It was nice to have a bit of a holiday in Brazil... Renato´s family was really lovely and the fooood so good. I miss my morning passion fruit and mango...
Hope you are all well
Stef
