Lima, Peru

John....One of the following statements is true; a) Taking a taxi ride or attempting to cross the road in Lima constitutes reckless behaviour and invalidates your travel insurance b) There are many buildings in Lima dating back several centuries c) you can buy cans of Old Speckled Hen in the supermarket in Miraflores

Please submit your answers via the `comment` facility on this website. There is only one correct answer.

We arrived in Lima at around midnight. Not the best time to arrive in a city about which so much scary stuff is written. It would be easy to imagine an airport full of pickpockets, bag snatchers and other such creatures but this wasn`t the case. Certainly it is important, as anywhere, to take sensible precautions and not flaunt your Rolex or Nikon but what greeted us was a huge crowd of people waiting for friends and family off the incoming flight from Los Angeles, LAN Chile 601.

The immigration queue had been well tempered but slow, the customs formalities over in a few moments. When we got to the desk we were greeted courteously and wished a pleasant stay in Peru by an immigration lady who actually smiled at us. Some other airports (Sydney leaps to mind straight away, and New York for that matter) could note that it is not considered a sign of weakness to smile at visitors as they enter your country, nor does it aid the war against terror to scowl, be rude and contemptuous to passengers (the TSA in the USA in particular). The airport in Lima did well or as well as airports can do.

The planning time we spent at Pete and Margaret`s house in LA paid off as the taxi pickup we arranged with a reputable, licensed taxi firm ran smoothly. We came out on to the concourse amidst hundreds of people to see a sign that proclaimed Jacie Kooper. I`m not sure who that is but we took their taxi anyway and hurtled across Lima. By this time it was about 01:30 - 02:00 and parts of the city were still buzzing. I was surprised to see so many casinos, each one dressed up in peposterous clothing, flashing lights, faux marble exteriors and gushing waterfalls. They all seemed to be doing a roaring trade, as did the many fast food outlets that seem to cluster around them; the usual suspects Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, McDonalds and so on, rather like those little parasitical fish that hang around big sharks.

Some parts of town looked fairly grim as we shot through. Poorly built brick structures tottering above equally poorly brick structures. Ersatz offices for continuously failing businesses. People standing around in the warmth of the night. What was clear, even in the relatively light traffic of early morning, was that this is not place to drive for the faint of heart. Zebra crossings mean nothing, if anything they provide a target for car drivers to aim at. The right of way at crossroads, or any other junction for that matter, is a place where luck favours the brave, deranged or biggest. More of this later.

We got to our hostel in the comfortable district Miraflores. The importance of this tourist district to the city is underlined by the number of private security people, cars, motorcycles constantly on view. The private security people are all armed. Any infringement receives a loud blast on a whistle for starters and the implication that worse, much worse will follow is very clear. Our room is comfortable, clean and secure and the hostel has a very friendly atmosphere (not to mention a small swimming pool) and a couple of computers. Our arrival at the hostel at 02:30 was the first clue that learning spanish ASAP will be the only way to get around Peru (thanks to Pete who took hours downloading spanish lessons onto an MP3 player for us). .The reception chappie does not speak any english at all and amongst the staff only one person speaks english better than I speak spanish. For those reading this blog who are planning to travel to South America I can´t over emphasise the importance of being able to speak spanish. My gift for languages has already put me on course (although I did say `no thankyou`to a chap selling things on the pavement and as I noted his puzzled look realised that I had said it- Habana Assante- in Kiswahili; not often heard in these parts) for success in this area.

Our first few days have been spent in Lima, beginning with a tour of the city involving a bus, a walk around several museums and the catacombs under the huge monastary. A great way to get orientated to the city. A vast city with 8.2 million people and with some places not too safe to walk in alone it is good to use the plentiful taxis to get around. They can be cheap to use although both Jackie and I got caught for a few extra dollars overand above what we should have paid. In Jackie`s case the guy wouldn`t give her the change from her note and in mine I ended up paying twice the going rate. In both cases it amounted to a couple of dollars only and taught us both a lesson. The taxis are so plentiful that they are constantly on the look out for pedestrians, either to pick up or run over. When walking to the laundrette this morning, a distance of about 500 metres, I must have had a dozen or more opportunities to get a cab. At the supermarket I met the taxi driver that diddled me. He greeted me like a long lost brother proclaiming `KIWI`in loud voice. I suspect that he wants me to fund his retirement. Not a chance.

Last night`s excursion was a real treat. We headed into the centre of the city to the Parque de la Reserva where we watched an extra ordinary display of dancing fountains. Now even as I am writing this I can see how corny the whole thing sounds but it was genuinely wonderful. The park has in the region of 15 water features on a big scale. They include a water fountain tunel of 100 metres that you can walk through, a dozen or so con centric circles of fountain jets with the outer most circle having a a diameter of 20 metres or more, a pyramid and many others. The biggest display became the main attraction 3 times per night as a light/water/music show lasting half an hour played out. Jackie described it as a firework display with water and that pretty well sums it up. Lasar lights, the water jets turning to fine spray with pictures of Peruvian wildlife, scenery and people projected on to the spray screen. The whole thing was `choreographed`to a wide range of music from Beethoven, The Beatles, Abba, Queen, Delibes, Mozart and numerous Peruvian pieces by people I have yet to discover. El Condor Passa did not feature (but I did hear a man playing it next to the roadworks on the corner of our street today) at the showing we attended. Special effects aside the most pleasing aspect of the whole thing was to see so many people from the city attending. Whole families, teenagers in love, elderly couples. A very nice place to be. Interesting that a city that would be, like much of the south-western side of the american continent, desert if it were not for big water trucks driving through at night has a water feature as one of its big

I mentioned our respective taxi swizzes. Whilst I ended up paying over the odds for my taxi ride to the docks I wouldn`t have missed it for the world. Having secured the job the driver revved the heart out of his old Datsun before spinning the wheels into 3 lanes of traffic whilst looking at the map he had just borrowed from me. Numerous driving manouvres ìnterested`me but the best was taking the inside line around a 2 lane roundabout, becoming the third car and pulling out across the outer two cars with hand on horn. Early on in the trip I had instinctively reached for the non-existant seat belt. He saw my move and it was as if I had said that I would rather go to the ballet than watch the bull-fight, would rather wear a dress than blue-jeans. He shook his head and said `no belt`. It was one of the most exciting car rides in my life.

On that trip I found the Peru naval museum; a very interesting place. I was shown around the museum by an Indian naval rating with the improbable name of Gladys who took great pride in explaining the history contained in the museum. Whilst not exactly the Greenwich Maritime Museum it was put together with pride and clearly well looked after. There were wars I had never heard of - Peru vs Chile, Peru vs Colombia and more (some of these wars are still going on, thinly disguised as football matches). The Peru Navy has ships on the River Amazon and Lake Titicaca as well as at sea. Each artifact was polished within an inch of its life and Gladys stumbled gamely through her limited english whilst I nodded and fluently ran through my 5 or 6 phrases of spanish.

We have enjoyed excursions to various parts of the city but focussed mainly on Miraflores. The restaurant area around Larco Mar is particularly good. The seafood is excellent and the cost of meals very cheap. A cooked breakfast at the hostel comes to 7 soles, about 2 dollars NZ whilst a very fine paella with crab, prawns, fish, squid, octopus, mussels a little saffron came to the equivalent of 15 dollars NZ. It is easy to eat well and not pay a lot to do so. In fact it costs more to eat at McDonalds than it does to eat at some of the small family restaurants.

Just on the edge of Miraflores is a huge pyramid construction, now thankfully being restored and preserved after a long period of neglect and abuse. A nice young guy showed us around the site and explained really interesting things about the Limas and the use of the site. I´ll share a couple of interesting facts with you:

South American ´flat topped´pyramids are solid. No tunnels or secret chambers at all. This is because they were used as alters, unlike the Egyptian pyramids that were used as tombs.

The Limas (pre dated the Incas) worshipped the moon and the sea. Symbols appearing on pottery include dolphins and sharks to represent the sea.

A lot is learned about earlier civilisations in South America from pottery pieces because they had no monetary value and, therefore were not stolen. Ceremonial pots were broken as tokens of good luck in much the same way as a bottle of champagne is sacrificed on the bow of a boat being launched.

O.K. enough learning for now...

I have been surprised at how few buildings in Lima are very old. The frequent and occasionally severe earthquakes have seen to many and, as in any big city, the battle between ´progress´and conservation is a difficult and often uneven contest. The tyrany of traffic seems to hold sway and the city is criss-crossed by several large roads. The Avenue de la Republique runs from the metropolitan heart of Lima down through the edge of Miraflores to the sea. Construction of a mass transit rail system is now well underway and runs down the centre of the 4 lane highway. This (the train) may give the machismo fuelled taxi drivers something else to race once it is up and running!

We have just completed the work on our Peru itinerary. Starting tomorrow we head off to Cajamarco. A 16 hour bus journey overnight arriving at 07:00. The service includes a meal reclining seats and, surprisingly, bingo and a running commentary, in spanish, on the journey. I´m just hoping for a sober driver who won´t fall asleep on us. iPods were invented for such journeys and mine will be well used.

We´re both struggling to keep up with our reading at the moment. I´m less than a quarter through ´The Scramble for Africa´ and have only just started ´I Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans´ so I´m 1 whole continent behind and we have been lured into a bookshop and purchased some books on Peru. Perhaps we should have more long journeys. Anyway our itinerary in Peru is as follows:

Lima to Cajamarca

Cajamarca to Trujillo

Trujullo to Huaraz

Huaraz to Lima

Lima fly to Araquipa (Culca Canyon)

Araquipa to Puno and Lake Titicaca

Puno to Cusco (Machu Pichu, Sacred Valley)

Cusco to Juancao

Juancao to Lima

From there we leap into an Air Canada plane to head across to dear old blighty via Toronto.

I will do my best to keep the blog going throughout the Peru expedition. I´m not sure what internet facilities will exist in some of these places. Lots of love to family and friends. To those lucky few heading off to see Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe together in Christchurch have fun. It should be a great gig.