Lima, Peru

19th August – 21st August 2017

After a much better nights sleep, I was awake at 6.00, ready for the final drive day of this part of the trip. I got up and ready and had a little time to relax before back locker, as David had gone to get the truck from where it was parked. Back locker was at 6.45 and it was the last time I had to do it for a while because next leg I want an easier job (some people barely did their jobs for the entire leg of the journey). We were meant to leave at 7, but some people were waiting for coffee, so we were a little late leaving.

After just over an hour, we had a quick photo stop, appreciating the views before we started back down the mountainside, towards Lima. After the photo stop, I decided it was time for a nap. I also wanted to take advantage of the double seats one more time, before we have 20 people on the next leg. I didn’t get any sleep but it was nice to close my eyes and have the sun shining on my face. We had a toilet stop at half 10 and then we carried on back down the mountainside.

About an hour later, we arrived at Fortaleza de Paramonga – a fort which I don’t really know much about. We were greeted by Victor when we arrived and he was very happy to see us – I think we were his first visitors in months! We had half an hour to look around the fort before we had to be back on the truck. However, Victor would not let us leave without multiple photos; he told Rianne that he takes pictures of all his foreign visitors (but Rianne said the last one was two months ago), so he took some on his phone and ours. He stood there and waved us off as we drove away, pretending to cry!

We carried on driving for about half an hour before we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch. I didn’t eat anything because I didn’t feel hungry and I didn’t really like the look of anything. I sat with Ruth and Rianne though, while they ate.

After lunch, we had 200km to go, to get to Lima. I slept for most of the next bit of the journey, until we stopped again.

At the last toilet stop of the day, we were right on the coast and had a coastal road in front of us for the next part of the drive. Rianne said that this was now the opportunity for the people leaving in Lima (Ruth, Judie, Elisa and Anke) to have a go on the roof seats if they wanted to. There are eight roof seats and Anke didn’t want to go up, so this left five spare for the rest of us. I wasn’t particularly bothered about going up because I will probably get many more opportunities along my trip and it was cloudy and not very warm but Ruth insisted that I went up with her and considering not many others wanted to go up, I had no choice. Although it was cold, I spent most of the time holding onto my clothes so they didn’t blow away and my eyes were streaming (despite wearing my sunglasses), I had a great time up there! It was a great view over the coast and we had a laugh trying to take photos. We got back down into the truck after about 20 minutes, as we were arriving into the city.

With about 40km to go to get to the hotel, I sat watching the busy, but still very dirty city (like the rest of the country), go by.

We arrived at the hotel, just before 5, so we had a couple of hours to ourselves before we met for the final group dinner. Me and Ruth spent this time in our room; while Ruth packed her things ready to leave, I repacked my bag (again) to make it easier to close and had a shower.

We met in the lobby of the hotel at 7.15 and walked to the restaurant that Rianne had booked (El 10). It was a nice restaurant and very fancy, but no one passed this message on to us, so we weren’t exactly dressed for the occasion, but it was okay when we were sat down! It seemed so expensive to us, as the prices started from 35 soles and we have never paid that much for a meal over here, but when it’s converted to pounds, it was less than £10 (which actually is quite expensive for Peru).

After the meal, we sat and had a chat, while some people had a drink. We walked back to the hotel and got ourselves ready for bed.

It was good to be able to have a lie in (kind of) the next day. We didn’t have anything planned as a group – it was a free day – but as it was Ruth’s last day, we decided to get up quite early so we could have a productive morning. We were both tired though, so didn’t get down for breakfast as early as planned, but we were still down there before 9. We ate breakfast and planned our morning. During breakfast, we met one of the new girls that was joining the tour, she seemed nice enough but didn’t stay for long.

After breakfast, me and Ruth went out to explore the city. As we were walking towards where the markets were, we realised it was probably too early for a Sunday morning, as not much was opened. We went into the main square (where we had dinner last night), because we wanted to kill some time before things opened.

As we arrived, we noticed a parade coming towards the square. We weren’t sure what it was for, but we stood and watched anyway. There were lots of different groups of people dressed in different traditional outfits by the looks of things. We weren’t sure if it was a religious ceremony because they were heading towards the cathedral, but then they carried on past it, so we couldn’t decide.

After watching the parade for a little while, we carried on walking towards the markets. We found a few souvenir shops that were open along the way, so stopped in them to have a look. When we eventually made it to the markets, there still wasn’t much open because we arrived too early. We had a look around what was there and bought a few bits, but thought it would be better to come back when more stall were open.

To pass some time, we went to find a cafe to get a drink. We found the nicest little chocolate cafe that we were very impressed with. We sat down and both ordered a ‘make your own’ hot chocolate. Our eyes were much bigger than our bellies, so we also ordered a brownie with ice cream too. Sadly, after we ordered, we were told there were no brownies left, so our waiter said we could have chocolate cake instead for the same price – we obviously agreed. He then came back to tell us that he had also run out of ice cream – which he thought was pretty funny because he suggested the brownies and ice cream in the first place. We got our chocolate cake with melted chocolate dribbled on top and our ‘make your own’ hot chocolate which included a pot of melted chocolate, a jug of hot milk and a pot of marshmallows. Our eyes lit up, but they were 100% bigger than our bellies! We had to take half of the cake away in a box – it was a poor effort.

After we had finished in the chocolate cafe, we had to walk back through the square to get to an ATM. On the way back, there were lots of police and barriers around the palace, so we stopped to see what was going on. A marching band came out from behind the palace and played within the grounds. The doors to the palace opened but not much else happened. We stood and waited for a while but still not much else happened, so because we were on a time limit, we left.

We went back to the markets to see if much more had opened and to see what last minute bargains Ruth could get. I was also looking for my ‘Lima’ patch, which was a struggle! Lots of stores had patches with countries on, but when I asked for a Lima one, I got strange looks. I then changed my strategy and decided to look for purses or bracelets instead, but I got the same response; some shop owners even laughed, which was rude. It really felt like I wasn’t even in Lima!

After rushing through every stall, we had to head back to the hotel for Ruth’s taxi. On the way back, we got stopped by the parade, which was still going on hours later. Ruth was in her element, stopping and taking photos and videos like she had all the time in the world.

We got back to the hotel and Ruth got all her things together just in time for the taxi. We said our emotional goodbyes and off she went – there will now be a lot less selfies in the blogs!

After Ruth had left, I was determined to find my Lima patch, so off I went back into the centre. I went in every shop and through every stall looking carefully at patches, purses, bracelets, anything I could sew, but there was no luck! I must have asked every stall owner if they had anything with Lima on and it was literally postcards and magnets – I got very fed up.

I decided to head back towards the hotel, but couldn’t find my way exactly. As I wandered up and down streets, I thought I would walk in the direction of interesting buildings – this led me to a market, still with no Lima merchandise. I then spotted more of the parade and could see something happening at the top of one of the streets.

As I walked in the direction of the parade, I found a third market, so thought I would try my luck. The first stall I went to had patches – good start. However, I was now in a very fed up mood due to being abandoned by Ruth and struggling to find what I wanted. I asked the stall owner if she had any patches with Lima on and she was the opposite to every other stall owner I had come across all day; she found me a Lima patch – I couldn’t believe it! As I carried on through the market, every single stall on it had patches – I had been in the wrong place all day.

I carried on up the street, in the direction of the noise and found more markets, but I wasn’t bothered about looking at these. The area I was in, was a lot less tourist like and full of locals. There was music coming from one area with lots of people crowding around. I went to investigate and found lots of locals just dancing together in a group, to the music – nothing fancy, professional or organised, just people enjoying themselves – it made me smile at how happy they looked.

After this, I decided I had had enough exploring and went back to the hotel – I surprisingly found it quite well, but only because I bumped into Hayley and Naomi on the way.

Back at the hotel, I had time to sort myself out and relax before the new meeting at 6.

During the meeting, I met all of the new people joining for this leg of the trip – we have gone from 15 (including David and Rianne), to 22 (including David, Rianne and Anita – a trainee)! Room on the bus isn’t going to be as free!

After all the formalities were done, we had a bit of time to ourselves before meeting again at 7.15 for the welcome dinner. However, the welcome dinner wasn’t exactly a welcome dinner. We all met in the lobby and got taxis up to Circuito Magico del Agua – a park with lots of water fountains. Because of where the hotel was, there were no nice restaurants nearby apparently (apart from the expensive one we already visited), so Rianne suggested to go to watch the water fountain show and then get some food in the park.

We got to the park and the queue was huge. One of the stewards spoke to Rianne who took us in a different way – I’m not sure why. We got inside just before the show started. It was surprisingly busy to say that the show happens multiples times a day, but then Rianne said that 20th August is children’s day, so that is why there was the parade and why everywhere was particularly busy.

After the show – which lasted about 15 minutes and wasn’t really great – we wandered around the park and looked for somewhere to grab some food. There wasn’t really much in the park, so we decided to head outside of the park and try somewhere there. It was very difficult with such a big group of people and I think Rianne was feeling the pressure of trying to please everyone, so we ended up splitting up. Me, Naomi, Hayley and Sabrina got a taxi back towards the hotel to look for food, but when we got there everywhere was still so busy, so I gave up and went back to the hotel to try and get an early night.

The early night was quite difficult, as I was sharing a room with Celine who didn’t come back until 11 but that was okay. We only had one key between us and the door automatically locked when you shut it, so the room wasn’t really ideal.

To say that Lima is the capital city of Peru, it wasn’t an overly exciting place to visit. Apart from the markets, there wasn’t really much to see and there wasn’t anything about the city that made it stand out. It’s another place to say I have visited though and a hotel stay was nice before we head into the desert for three nights of camping!

To travel is to live, Katie x