Day 2 – Lima

Today is Saturday. Last night’s sleep was a bit disjointed as my body & brain – what bit there is! – were still on UK time. So although I went to bed at ‘4am’, once my body had slept for what it felt was enough time it woke up. So at 5am (11am UK time) by body said ‘”it’s time to wake up”. I pushed it away for another hour before it just wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I got up.

I couldn’t remember John & Mike’s room number, so I whittled the time away until breakfast opened at 8am & went down. There they were, the dynamic duo – great minds & all that 🙂 Breakfast was better than Base Camp was! I had some cereal… some fruit… some scrambled eggs… some coffee… very civilised. John had pork belly! Eurgh!

We were due to meet the GAP guide at 6pm for a briefing, but until then the day was ours. We decided to regroup after ‘ablutions’ & head in to Lima for the day. We grabbed a taxi & headed in to the city. The taxi driver was Walter & he gave us his card so that we could call him for the return journey when we were ready. Great, we thought, we have a plan 🙂 Half an hour’s drive in the taxi later & we’re there.

Lima was very very busy. Architurally very disjointed with many buildings of many different styles – some old, some new, some falling down – but none of them really seemed to ‘fit’ together. A bit of a ‘mitch match’. Speaking of which, I think we must have a looked a bit the same! We tried out best to blend in, but with our white skins, clean crisp clothing, rucksacks, cameras round our necks – & of course John’s bright white cloth hat – I think it was pretty obvious that we’d ‘just got off the plane’!

During the day we saw the changing of the guards at the ‘Presidential Palace’ including full brass band & marching guards, we had a tour round the San Francisco church including the catacombs beneath where we saw the skeletal remains of some 25,000 peasants who had been buried there many years ago, and we had a look around the church of the San Domingo convent.

Does anyone watch Harry Hill TV Burp? For those that do you need to sing this bit: “Random Situation of the Day”. We’re standing in the Plaza Mayor (the Main Square) & a guy on a push bike comes up to us & asks us, in a very heavy Spanish accent, “what is da meaning of dis word plees?”. On his pad he has the word ‘glade’ written. We explain the meaning of the word & off he cycles. We look at each other, shrug, & move on. 2 minutes later who do we see talking to another group of rucksack/camera/sunhat clad people?! What was that all about? We still haven’t worked it out!

Anyhoo, our time in Lima city drew to a close & we decided to make our way back to the hotel. So we called Walter. The number didn’t work. So we called Walter again. It still didn’t work. Now what do we do? We make a decision – make our way to the main town road, get a street taxi, tell him the hotel details, away we go. Easy.

So, we hail a taxi, the taxi driver asks us where we want to go, we say ‘The Britania Hotel, Miraflores’ – & we get a blank expression. The driver explains Miraflores is a LARGE area of Lima – do we have an address? We hadn’t thought about that…

After a frantic search through pockets, Mike produces his room card, but all that has on it is an email & web address – neither of which are much use in the middle of Lima town with a taxi driver staring blankly at us – & us back! He quotes us a silly price – clearly wanting to be rid of us (who can blame him) & drives off when we say no. 30 Soles indeed! Daylight robbery! 30 Soles is less than £10 by the way – we’d set ourselves a budget of 25 Soles (about £8)… But then we are English!

5 mins later we’d managed to hail another taxi & – result – he’d do it for 20 Soles. He still hadn’t got a clue where the Britania was, but he was willing to give it a go. So off we went. Happy bunnies 🙂 An hour later, however, not such happy bunnies… It was reminiscent of a sketch from Little Britain, except it was ‘policeman says nooo’, ‘person on the street says nooo’, ‘local taxi driver says nooo’ – & on it went. We suggested to the taxi driver – as we had a web address for the hotel – that he drop us off, we find an internet cafe & we take it from there, but he was adamant that he didn’t want to give up So on we went. Eventually we compromised – we stopped at a hotel & asked the concierge if we could look on their computer to find directions… ‘concierge says yes’! 5 minutes later we were home. Releif all round 🙂

6pm was the briefing with the GAP guide, so we met him & most of the other trekkers. In total we were 3 Trekkers short, which it turned out to be because their flight scheduled to land in the early hours of tomorrow. Our guide, Angel (pronounced Angheel), is a young guy, early twenties, Peruvian, grew up in the southern end of the Amazon. Nice guy, good sense of humour 🙂

The 3 girls that would be arriving the next day made the group 16 in total. Let me see if I can remember all the details here: Chris & Bill – a couple of guys from Dublin, architect & social therapist respectively (I think the latter is right – I may correct myself in a later blog if I’ve got it wrong), Francis – young Californian guy, US Navy, Anna – young lady from Austria, doctor (currently an Intern), Anneka – young German lady, can’t remember what she does, Fiona & Maddy – a couple of young ladies from London way, can’t remember what they do either, a young German couple – he (Rene) works with computers, she (can’t remember her name!) is an interior designer & although they’ve been married 3 years this is their honeymoon. Lastly, the 3 late arrivals from Canada – home of Rush, yeh – Coral & Brianna (sisters) & their friend Angelina. One works in a hospital, one is a waitress in an old people’s home, the other I can’t remember.

Then of course there’s the men from the Peru & Ruth, making 16. It’s a big group, but actually doesn’t feel that big & everyone seems to be getting on great. Sorry to be so rubbish, but hey, many would say that’s pretty good for my memory! I’ll find out mre as we travel no doubt & I’ll fill in the gaps later 🙂

Francis is my room mate for the trek, & he’s a Mac man so we’re going to get on just fine.

We rounded the evening off with a meal out together as a group at a really nice restaurant in Miraflores. Mike & I shared a bottle of red – after which John told Mike off for being ‘squiffy’ – however he’s always ‘squiffy’ to me, so I didn’t notice any difference! After we’d eaten, ‘the youngsters’ wanted one for the road at an authentic local bar, so us oldies made our way – unassisted! – back to the hotel. The following morning we would find out that they’d had a lovely time in the Irish Bar… so much for authentic Peruvian!

Lights out for me at 10pm, which my body was still saying ‘4am’ to me, & I didn’t hear a thing as Francis came in at midnight. I was out for the count. A lie in was on offer the following morning as we weren’t leaving the hotel until 12:30pm – question was, would my body clock accept the lie in…? It was doubtful.

Signing off for today. Gb.