Monday 2 April - Lima, Peru

Our tour of Peru with Intrepid didn't start until a group meeting at midday. So, the three of us headed down to beach to do what the crew at PP slaving on debits and credits for $1 hour (pre-tax that is) couldn't do... head down to the beach and soak up some sun (hope that one hurts you bean counters)

After the group meeting, the group jumped in a few cabs and headed into the Lima CBD. Anytime you're on the road here it's an experience. Even Dad wouldn't think he could sneak a couple (only a couple though, this blog is not going to promote drink-driving) in on a Friday night and knick home... you've just got to have 100% of your wits about you. Among the sights and sounds:

• There's nowhere near enough traffic lights, thus cars (a high proportion of which are taxis, a high proportion of which again are unlicenced taxis) take the smallest gap to cross a street. The driver who is being crossed generally has to break or to slow down to avoid possible collision. It's kind of like Mark Blake with the football... you just don't know what to expect (sorry Blakey... it's getting better)
• Some bloke on a bike without a helmet decided to ride the wrong way down a 60 km/h street, into oncoming traffic. At least he rode in the gutter, not between the lanes.
• A bus turned left in front of us from the right hand lane, across two lanes, after the driver backed himself to beat the cars in the other two lanes from the lights... and he did, nearly losing half his passengers in the process.
• Whenever an empty taxi drives past what they believe to be a tourist, they will toot to see if they are interested in a fare. There are no taxi metres, thus the obligation is on the passenger to negotiate a fare with the driver.
• Quite a large number of roads in the CBD are cobblestone and one-way, which makes for a fun ride, and a sore arse.
  

We had a quick tour of San Francisco Monastery, which took up a substantial city block. The monastery included a couple of magnificent chapels / churches, an old library which was still in mint condition, and a large underground maze of catacombs, full of the human bones from approximately 70,000 burials. In some places, some smart person had even decided to arrange the skulls and femurs into patterns. We couldn't take photos here, which might have been a good thing. I swear I saw one of the old lace-up Cats jumpers amongst the bones, likely to be the remains of a supporter too patient for a premiership for his own good. Zoe (the wonderdog) would've gone nuts in here with this amount of bones... fair to say we wouldn't have been able to go near her for quite a while (given her protective attitude with her food).

Unfortunately the tour was taken by a man who was only slightly more audible than Humphrey B Bear, thus we didn't learn a hell of a lot about the Monastery.

We had a quick walking tour of Plaza de Armas, which is pretty much the centre of the city, much like Corio Village is the centre of Corio, and Bogandome is the middle of Logan (Qld). On one of the sides was the Palacio de Gobierno, home to Peru's version of Eddie McGuire (el presidente).

Afterwards, we had a quick get-to-know drink with those who we were accompanying for parts of our tour, followed by a good feed down on a good restaurant on the Miraflores pier. It may seem strange, but there are 3 tours running concurrently in Peru at the moment with Intrepid. Although we're not together for the whole time, we are as a combination for quite a few days, particularly those days leading up to the Inca Trail trek. After that, we go our separate ways - our group heads to the Amazon jungle.

Lima is known for a fog / haze which hovers over the city from April to December. Even though it is only the first week of April, it is already starting to come in, restricting the view from Miraflores over the city.