Posted 9:38 AM by MelanieandSteve
LIMA, PERU, 12-17 MAY

LIMA, LIKE IT AND LEAVE IT: Since last time, we looked around, learned about Lima, and left on a long flight with even longer delays.

INTRO INTO LIMA

BIG AT FIRST SIGHT: Our first feelings about Lima were less than love at first sight. There was an impersonal largeness typic of starting out in many big cities. But typical too was what taking time to get to know it would do. After looking around and learning more about Lima, it grew smaller and sweeter, the buildings bolder and more beautiful, and the Liman people grew profoundly more personal too. We had a headstart getting acquainted with Lima since friend John had been here before. We checked into his favorite hostel and ate at his corner cafe and got settled in right away.

SPOOKY SPANISH INQUISITION:

MUSEUM AND MORE: Inquisition means investigation, so we investigated the Inquisition in its Lima museum. The all-in-Spanish written displays were under-whelming but a better exhibit awaited us right in our own hostel.

HOSTILE HOSTEL ESPANA: Our ornate, mansion-like Hostel Espana with wall-tall gold framed mirrors and spiral stair cases was once where the Spanish tortures took place. The roof top garden`s terrace decor once included mannequins hung in nooses. Maybe too macabre they have since been removed, but other things still kept the place spooky. A guy in the room next to John´s would moan and scream every night. When John banged on the door the screaming would stop. In proper English accent the man would say ¨Sorray¨... before he would be silent. Steve figured the moaner was sensing the spirits of old Spanish victims. Still more Spanish relics haunted our hostel. Glass cases by the reception displayed sculls and mummified heads. And beneath the church across the street were the catecombs where we are told many bones from our hostel building were buried.

HOSTEL BRIGHT SIDES: It was not all macabre in our Espana cabana. Constrasting the dark side was the relaxing rooftop terrace. There eats and sweets were served up, a resident turtle crept and slept, and a squawky parrot was heard with no shortage of words.

PERUVIAN CAPITAL AND MIXED IMPRESSIONS:

POOR PRESENTATION, CITY TOUR: A city bus tour showed us a Lima we did not see from our feet. Primarily Peruvians were packed in the seats becoming acquainted with their country´s capital. But the tedious tour with long waits in traffic made the city seem somewhat poor and unattractive. After a lecture on history that pointed to Pizarro for pretty much everything, we ascended the Cerro (steep hill.) It had narrow precarious roads more like ledges in disrepair. Then from the top we looked down through the haze at a huge cemetery, a circular sport stadium, and dusty gray expanse of simple square shanty-like houses with caving in roofs. The tour was enlightening but not the best for Peruvian propaganda. Other Lima explorations left us with better impressions.

A DIFFERENT IMPRESSION ON OUR OWN WALKING TOURS: Lima made its best impressions on its own without guides and buses. Once, in the early twentieth century, Lima thrived as a wealthy metropolis. Miles of amazing architecture sprung up during those glory days and remain to remind us. Our long walks led us down brilliant boulevards of Renaissance, Colonial, and Baroque style buildings with periodic plazas and pedestrian-only passageways. It felt like today in 2005, we could still feel the spirit of the past days of decadence.

THE PERSONAL SIDE, PERUVIAN PEOPLE AND PRIDE: Peruvians were interesting with their strong indigenous heritage. But the personable people were equally interested in us. People often initiated conversations with us about who we were, what we thought of Peru and what the U.S. was like.

CAN`T MISS CUZCO: Most all Peruvians are proud of the city of Cuzco. Almost all conversations commenced with the same inquiries ¨Ïs this your first time in Peru?¨, and ¨Äre you going to Cuzco?¨ Even a Cuzco flag flies on the Presidential Palace in Lima. Now we know Cuzco calls for extended attention, and we are glad to say we have plans to go back.

CURIOUS LOCKER ROOM STALKERS AND TALKERS: Mel visited a gym and could barely get a weight lift in edgewise when curious locals kept calling for her attention. Mel got lost in her lifting and MP3 music when she noticed Pamela patiently waiting to catch her eye. Mel put her weights down, turned off her music, and Pamela proceeded to ask lots of questions like where was she from and where in Peru has she been. Then, intros complete and ¨mucho gusto`s¨ all said, Mel returned to her music and weights. But soon someone else came back and again silently stood waiting. Mel put her weights down, turned off her head phones again, and fielded further concerns, ¨Are you married?¨ and ¨¨Do you have babies?¨ These encounters continued, and in sixty minutes Mel met with these inquisition intermissions no less than six times.

CURIOSITY IN ALL CORNERS: Similar curiosity came from all walks of life in Peru. Steve thought one waiter seemed like secret service when along with his dinner service came a swarm of small questions. And Mel was questioned galore by a curious curator on her peruse through the Peruvian Museum of Post.

TWO NIGHTS ON THE TOWN AND AN EXTRA NIGHT ON THE GROUND:

TWO NIGHTS ON TWO TOWNS: With friends John, Kaye, Vinnie, and Tara, we explored Lima´s suburb scenes. Coastal Miraflores felt like coming home when we met Kaye and Vinnie at the Flying Dog hostel, the same one we had stayed at on our first day in South America four months ago. We revisited La Rustica, Mel´s favorite ambiance restaurant from back then. The next day in Baranca, it was a bit more barrish, but it was in a mid week lul so John´s favorite spot was closed up, and the restaurant scene was short of selection. Still it was good to see more sides of the city.

ONE DAY DELAY ON THE GROUND: A nooner flight that we had out of Lima turned into a snoozer. Complications calling for a completely new plane made blue skies turn to red eyes with a fourteen hour delay.

DECADENCE OF DELAY: Luxuries come with lateness. LAN Peru Airlines rented us a room by the hour at the high class Hotel Sheraton. We basked in its bounty first by feasting at a fine buffet, then by savoring the soaps and sweet stuff of our room´s private bath. Always traveling light, we don´t even own towels, so the fluffy hotel whites were a scrumptious sabbatical from backpacker lifestyle.

FINAL HOURS OF FUN IN LIMA: A buffet, a bidet, and a nap hitting the hay made us somewhat refreshed for the all-nighter flight ahead. Then the last hour was loud in the hotel lounge. Three wireless karaoke mics were passed around tables and nobody stood on a stage which made karaoke communal. Some English soldiers poured it on, but soon the whole lounge was singing along. It was all pretty funny, so despite a dead day of dismal delays, we were glad to have laughed last in Lima.

NEXT TIME: Starwars, surprises, and quick hello´s and goodbyes´s.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS to: Lucinda G., Scott K., Olga B., and Rude Dog.

Posted 4:32 PM by MelanieandSteve
CUZCO AND NASCA, PERU, 9-12 May

COMO ES LA CLIMA FROM LIMA, PERU: After we bussed from Copa to Cuzco Peru, we hated to eat (sleep) and run, but we did when we were steimied by high season road blocks to trekking the Inca Trail. Instead, in a prop plane in Nasca Peru we circled over ancient lines that were sketched in the sand and we speculated what they were for. Then we sped straight to the capital, Lima, Peru.

CUZCO IS FOR SQUARES or Square lovers. Plaza del Armas, Cuzco´s central square was one of the prettiest plaza´s we have seen. It was built broad and groomed green and circumscribed by cream colored colonial buildings with brown balconies. Behind the cathedral with weathered majestic gray domes were big mountains and beautiful skies. The downside of this touristy town were the throngs of solicitors vieing for visitors. Between ¨Please come in´s¨, we
could barely partake of our own conversations.

PIERCED DREAMS IN THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD: Our dreams of the Inca Trail trek went way back in time but our planning did not. We expected a wait but not as long as we got. New government controls cut off Inca Trail traffic for two months to come. So we put our plans on a shelf and passed through to new parts of Peru.

NASCAR DRIVER TO NASCA: On our night bus to Nasca there was no nodding off. It was more like a Nascar race than a public bus ride to Nasca. Hard turns were interminable and our driver was driven to take each at full tilt (sharp breaking and accelerating accentuating the sway). For fifteen hours of centrifugal stomach scramble we cinched down our seat belts and secured all our things, but still stuff kept sliding from aisle to aisle. By the time we reached Nasca our guts were in knots and Steve´s shoes were some six seats
away.

BEE-LINE FOR THE N-LINES: On arrival in Nasca, as if our stomachs had not had enough, we piled in a prop plane joined by friend John. The tight-squeezed three-passenger plane puttered over ancient pictographs and undeniably deliberate paths in the sand. The Nasca Lines were pre-Columbian, Pre-Christian, and even Pre-Incan, but were only first seen from the sky in the 20th century. Since then, speculation and mystery have surrounded the network of hundreds of
lines, figures, and plant and animal designs. A condor with wingspan the length of a football field is famous. More perplexing were the whale and the nine-fingered monkey since whales and monkeys did not live in this land when the pictures were drawn.

EXPLANATORY THEORIES were as many as there were grains in the sand. The long lines did look like landing strips so space travel was a recurring subject of speculation. We ended with more questions than answers, but we balanced out thinking with thrill when our pilot pulled out all stops. On a short show of airplane aerobatics our cheaks sagged with ¨G´s¨ on the ups and our stomachs came up on the downs. Full of mirth back on Earth, we slipped back into the
speculation of ¨Who´s lines were they anyway?¨

LINES TO LIMA FOR NEXT TIME: Leaving unsolved mysteries behind, we linked up with John and we left on the next bus to Lima.

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO : Paeder K., Niels V., Renatus M., Lucinda G.