Lima

Lima! A 11 million people metropole bustling with life. The feeling of so many people living so close to each other is fascinating to me. However, the city is very crowded with cars (there is a 4 lanes highway crossing the city!) and this is resented in the air we breathe. Lima is built on the coast, mostly slightly elevated,with sand cliffs and in the nice parts of the city, a path runs along, with many joggers and bikers.
I stayed 3 days in total in Lima, running and surfing in the morning and socialising in the evening.
On the first day I visited Andrea and family’s in the La Molina, a part slightly outside of the town. Little oases are created in the sandy mountains, however Andrea showed me all ways the richer people protect themselves from the poorer: gated communities (they enclose themselves to protect themselves), the houses are build on the other side of mountains to put a natural protection between poorer areas and the richer ones, some municipalities even building a wall on the top of the mountains. Even so, when night falls, you can apparently spot many light points of people attempting the cross of the mountains towards the gated communities.
We visit the old city Center (Lima was once called the Pearl of South America, but the old, colonial part has since decayed with the expanding of the city towards the harbours). Sign warn you of potential collapsing facades but parts have been renovated and some pedestrian area remind you of the antic splendour. We get to the Plaza de Armas, the mandatory many square of each city or town in Peru. Because a protest was expected with potential violence, we leave early and find a nice cafe to eat lunch. I drink a coffee with Andrea’s uncle, 82, who impressively drove us through Lima and go back to my hostel.
The evening is bitter sweet, Huayhuash reunion before everybody leaves. We got invited to Rossana’s apartment, which occupies 4(!!) floors on the top floor of a luxury tower in Miraflores. The view of Lima is almost as enticing as the mountain views we just experienced.
The two second days are slow, filled with running, surfing (my group lesson turned private with a nice instructor called Matthias. Not sure if surfing or understanding explication about surfing in Spanish was the most complicated for me!), strolling around Miraflores with a brief excursion to see the Magic Fountain Show. My only regret: did not experienced as much as the food scene as I expected, something I want to correct with cerviche in Paracas. With recharged batteries I head south along the endless coast towards Paracas. I write this text on the bus on the Pan Americana Highway (seems that so far I got my car sickness under control!)Read more