We
checked out of the lovely Hostal El Amigo after watching City’s lacklustre
performance against Stoke. We had said
that football wasn’t going to dictate our plans but so far we’ve just happened
to be in town when City are on telly – hmm.
It’s great that so many, even basic rooms, have cable TV as standard and
the early morning kick-offs means we can watch a few games without the expense
of having to go to the pub. Besides
which we’re not known for having a pint with our toast and jam!
We
declined our friendly host’s offer of an expensive taxi to take us up to the
Panamericana and decided to lurk on the street and see what happened. Sure enough a taxi pulled up but he already
had a passenger and we made it clear that we didn’t want to pay the inflated
fare to the highway. Instead of chucking
out his original fare we and another chap got in a paid the Soles3 each to
Pisco where we could catch a shuttle collectivo to the highway. Pisco looked grim and we were very glad we’d
changed our plans and not stayed.
Besides Steve and I had already tried a Pisco sour someone had given us
for free earlier in the trip and we didn’t like it – no reason to stop
then. Our helpul taxi driver flagged
down the vehicle we needed to get to the Panamericana and he in turn pulled up
in front of the Lima bound bus so we could hop on. It’s great when people help you out and save
you a small sum in the process. The
easy, luxury, convenient coach from Paracas would have cost us Soles100 but
doing things our way meant it cost us a grand total of Soles39. Using public transport is more fun – remind
me I made that statement should we end up having to use a charabanc for a long
distance journey!
This
section of the Panamericana was nowhere near as interesting as the stretch
before Paracas and as we neared the city it gradually got grimmer. Lima is a huge, sprawling urban conurbation
housing 8 million people with the suburbs starting a good 20kms from the
centre. The weather was grey and
miserable so that didn’t help us to be endeared to the place however, we could
see plenty of well-preserved colonial buildings.
We
checked into Hostal Espana http://www.hotelespanaperu.com/ingles/home.html
which is located in an old rambling colonial building and best described as a
living museum. There are paintings, odd
artefacts like skulls, statues, busts and rickety furniture scattered around
the corridors and amongst the rooms. Up
on the roof they’ve added on a little café where you can buy breakfast and the
whole area is covered in plants and creepers.
Just to add to the melee there are birds in cages, parrots and peacocks
plus; it’s not every day that you’re sipping your early morning coffee and a
tortoise happens along.
By
this time the afternoon was almost done so we went for a brief wander to look
at the main square; the ubiquitous Plaza de Armas dominated by wonderful
buildings. In one of these grand old
buildings was a football bar so we decided to pop in – in the end it wasn’t as
good as it could have been. Instead of
just being full of a mishmash of paraphernalia gathered over the years it was
all way too carefully laid out. We
should have walked away when we had to wait to be seated; an Americanised theme
bar not a funky pub. Fortunately on the
opposite side of the square was a normal gaff serving cheap beers and great
people watching tables on the street. We
then walked back to the area we were staying in and people watched in a local’s
bar while tucking into home-made pork sandwiches. Granted not very cultural but an enjoyable
afternoon / evening.
The
following morning we moved to a room with private bathroom that was right up on
the roof and would have afforded good views had the weather not been grey and
miserable again. We therefore decided
there was no point going to the Miraflores area of town to look at the view of
the ocean. Instead we decided we would
have a cultural day and our first stop was the Museo de la Inquisicion where we
were given a free guided tour and learnt more about 250 years of Spanish rule. We then walked towards Chinatown for a fix of
Asia but were surprised at how small the area is considering there are 200 000
people of Chinese descent living in Lima.
We’d been craving something different to tantalise our palates so tucked
into menu of the day which proved to be very tasty, extremely filling and all
round excellent value at only US$4 a head.
Feeling
very stuffed we waddled our way across the city to the Museo de Arte de Lima
which is set in a lovely building in quite a nice park. With it being Sunday we could only gain
access to the special collection that was on display but then it did only cost
us a Soles each. We’d never heard of
Carlos Baca-Flor who transpires to be Peru’s most famous artist. He was prolific using a variety of styles
(not much of it to our taste) and he was one of the few people from his era to
actually get commissions for portraits and make some money.
We
simply had a picnic tea up on the roof that evening and got ready to continue
with our journey. The family who run the
hostal may seem a bit haphazard but they organised us bus tickets and a taxi
for the following morning. It would have
cost us more than the commission they added for us to take a taxi and back to Movil
Tours ticket office so it was a good service.
Hostal Espana may be odd and rickety but it’s the kind of place you
don’t forget in a hurry.
