Lima. The Old Town

This morning we formed into a group of 16 including our guide and we hired taxis to travel the 10km to the centre of Lima.  Our taxi driver was very keen to practice his English on us and so he pointed out things of interest as we went.  His English wasn't too bad.

We regrouped in St Martins square and learnt some of the Conquistador history.

We then moved through an empty street, that later on was teeming with stalls and people, to visit a church.  All churches here are catholic, I assume.  This one certainly was. Mass was being conducted and yet we were still able to walk down the side "apses?" of the church where there were several altars to pray at.  Each for a different reason or consequence. For example there was one specifically for pregnant women to pray at.

On to another square. On one side was the governor's house. On another was the cathedral and on the other two were government offices. All built in Spanish colonial architecture.  

Around the corner from this square was a Franciscan monastery where we did a tour.

Amazing architecture. I was particularly taken with the complex ceilings and domes made from wood.

Another mass was in progress but we were allowed upstairs into an area where choirs sing from, high above the congregation.

We were then taken into the catacombs.  They had open boxes sectioned off containing human bones and skulls.  Thousands of bones. Not particularly enthralling. I was conscious of a very low ceiling but still managed to bang my head enough to make it bleed which caused concern with the tour guide.

The group then moved on to a local lunch place with a set menu for either 12 or 20 Sol.  The food was awful.  Most of us didn't finish our meals and many of us refused to tip much to the protestations of one hombre.

Free time now so we all went our separate ways with Lindsey and I out to follow the GPS again.

It first took us to an old train station which is now a house of literature.  As it was a Multi, the cache owner took us on a short tour of local poets to allow us to work out the final coordinates.  The final took us to a nearby Municipal Park which was teaming with people.  Very new and modern.  A group of young men were congregated near the hide so we were unable to get anywhere near the cache.  So, onto the next one which was at the other end of this park.  The walk to it took us past a live concert in progress and there was a large area of twenty plus food stalls.  All the locals had plastic plates of  very delicious looking food. We had wished that we had come here for lunch.

A DNF at this cache so back into the Old Town we went to attempt a third one.  This was a puzzle multi.  It first took us to a plaque that recorded some UNESCO event in 1999.  The next waypoint took us over a bridge to a suburb called Rimac and another plaque.  From there we worked out the final waypoint which took us to an unlikely area of Rimac where we didn't feel safe and where a woman actually approached us and more or less told us to leave the area before we were robbed.  Ironically we were about ten metres from a police station but the walk of about 400m between the police station and the bridge was a trifle unsavoury in parts.

Later when we told our guide and another guide in Paracas that we had ventured into Rimac, they were both horrified.  There are supposedly only three suburbs where it is safe for tourists to go and that wasn't one of them.

It was now time to head back to the hotel.  Lindsey wasn't going to get a taxi. She wanted to try out one of the local buses.  The taxi would cost about 40 or 50 Sol.  The bus cost us 5 Sol each and of course we are much wealthier for the experience.

We found a bus stop.  At each bus stop is a security guard, a ticket dispenser which dishes out Peru's version of a Snapper or Oyster card and a card reading entrance onto the secure platform.

As we looked at the map of routes and stops the guard approached us to help. He told us, through mostly sign language, that we were at the wrong stop and directed us to the next platform up the road for south bound buses.

Now at the right stop, getting two tickets was our next mission.  Lindsey interacted with this security guard and between them they produced a bus card which got us through the turnstile.

Catching the the right bus was fairly easy.  Only three routes, a, b and c and we already knew that we wanted c.  Our next challenge was to work out when to get off and as we progressed and as the bus became over full we realised that quite a bit of anticipation would be needed to get to the door and escape in time before the doors were closed. None of this interaction with the driver as we know it.  When the door close beeps start you have about ten seconds left to alight.

Luckily the GPS came into its own again.  I had locked on to the hotel waypoint and was watching the distance metre count down.  We successfully made it off at a stop within 500m of destination.

Back "home" for a cuppa, a lie down and some internet time to recover from our adventures.

Rest over and we headed out now into the night to find dinner.  We had seen a lovely little restaurant in a back street the day before and thought that would be a good place to eat.  Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that it was closed.  Plan B. Turn about and find a supermercado (supermarket).  That took us a while but once we got there it was a good one.  They had a deli with some hot food to take away and beer for me to try my first Peruvian IPA.  It wasn't too bad especially since every local beer that I've tried since has been a wheat beer, which I'm not particularly fond of.

Time for an early night as tomorrow we have to leave at 6am to get a bus at 7:15.  Luckily!! Our jet lag is kicking in and an early start won't be a problem.