Lima

Following a long day of travel yesterday, unsurprisingly we were quite early to bed. However, as is often the case when flying West, with a 6 hour time difference and our bodies time clock not adjusted, we were awake very early this morning.

Today, Audley had booked a half day Culinary and Cultural tour of Lima. We were collected promptly at 9am by our guide Frankie, and driver Rolando. Frankie was very knowledgeable about Lima and I think it is fair to say that prior to this visit we knew little about Lima and indeed Peru.

A few pieces of information that Frankie enlightened us on are:

- Lima is allegedly the driest capital city in the world. There are no drains in the road and most of the properties have a flat roof. The temperature never drops below 12C and never rises above 30C. This leads to almost permanent overcast days. The rationale given is that the city is caught between the Andes on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.
A very bland weather pattern.

- 100 years ago the population of the old city where all the inhabitants lived was 300,000. Then it was decided to expand the city and as of today the population is in excess of 11 million.

- The expanding population has created 2 problems- traffic and crime. There is no metro system and the public transport, ie buses and trains is erratic. Driving is a nightmare. On the crime front there are more police on the streets than we have seen in any other city, some with riot shields. We have though felt safe and have adhered to the warnings about not wearing jewellery and being careful with cameras and phones.

- There is a lot of corruption at the top of government which seems endemic in South America. Despite all the advantages of agriculture and mining (Peru is a significant exporter of copper and lithium) the Peruvians are generally poor. There is no state help. There are many street food vendors, and others trying to make a living, for here, if you don’t work you don’t eat. Anybody can buy a cheap taxi sign, display it on their car and become a taxi driver. There is no licencing or regulation.

- Peru is very closely attached to China. 25% of all exports go to China. There are quite a few Chinese manufactured cars the makes of which we have never heard of.

- Peru has the same problem that many other countries around the world have, immigration. In recent years over 1.4m Venezuelans have come to Peru. This country struggles to look after its own leave alone 1.4m more.

We had an interesting tour with Frankie who took us round the old city. We visited the catacombs beneath the cathedral, and a fascinating market selling all sorts of produce. One thing that Peru is renowned for is its cuisine. We finished the tour at a typical Peruvian restaurant where we had ceviches, fried fish and Causa which is a dish of mashed potato topped with fish or meat and then more potato. It was delicious.

Had a quiet afternoon catching up on the travelling in advance of going out tonight. We found a craft beer bar near us selling 18 different varieties of beer and watched a bit of the World Cup qualifier between Argentina and Paraguay before moving on for dinner at Alfresco a seafood restaurant which was quite excellent. One of the many highlights of South America is the quality and presentation of its food.

Tomorrow we fly down to Arequipa a ninety minute flight, here we may start to see the effects of altitude as we are going higher.Read more