"E" is for Everything Ends Eventually....

I guess I should finish up my Peru journal. It seems like I never actually post the finale of any of my trips, I was rereading some old journals, and half of them have no end...just an abrupt final post that leaves my whereabouts up to your imagination....still wandering through the streets of Havana, or looking for starfish on the Oregon Coast, or fleeing from termites in Tanzania.

 However, I want to print this out, book form, so I guess I had best tidy it all up once and for all. Maybe I subconsciously think a holiday isn't really over if I don't finish the story. Hmmm. Maybe. But now is not the time to delve into my psyche.

So. Lima. Here we are, but not for long, so it was a "hit the ground running" couple of days. We were back at the Hotel Britania, which is in the Miraflores area of Lima, just a short two block walk to Jose Pardo, which is one of the main streets where  you can walk all the way to the cliffs that overlook the ocean.  It's a wonderful walk, the street is divided with sidewalks on either side, as well as a boulevard down the middle, with trees, flower beds and benches. It was getting to the twilight hour, and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get to the water, and I wasn't sure it was wise to walk alone at night in a strange city of 11 million people...it would be a shame to be abducted/run over/kidnapped/or, more realistically, getting hopelessly lost in the final hours of the trip. Although, better at the end than at the beginning I suppose. However, I felt perfectly safe, and while the streets weren't teeming with people, there were plenty of folks around.

Boulevard during the day, as I walked to the end, above picture. Below is the green area/park at the end of the street.

 It was only early evening, not like I was skulking about at 3AM. And I just really, really wanted to see the ocean. Really. So I did. I walked all the way to the edge, and it was dark enough that I couldn't see the water, but I could hear it, so I knew that was part of tomorrow's agenda. I also spotted a little coffee place that was perched on the edge of the cliff, so I tried to imprint  it's location, also for tomorrow's visit.  (Below....walking back at night)

I headed back to the hotel, stopping here: because who can resist a casino? In Lima? Not me!

Whooo hooo! The game was called, oddly enough "Oodles of Poodles."

Back at the hotel I discovered this in the bathroom. It never changed, it always said "Please Wait", I pushed it, poked it, turned of all the light switches I could find...nothing. I have no idea what I was supposed to wait for, but It was the same when I checked out, so I guess I'd still be waiting if I paid attention to it. I am curious though....anyone?

Next morning was a tour of the city. There was a tiny shop a block away from our hotel that sold inexpensive water and fresh fruits, as well as all sorts of other things; canned goods, toiletries and household items...like a tiny 7-11 crossed with Safeway. There was a marathon that morning, and a lot of the roads were closed, with police making sure that everyone behaved themselves. When these fellows spotted the camera, they insisted on having their photos taken. South American policeman? I'm not gonna argue, not because they were well dressed and handsome, but because they were...South American policeman....

I purchased my snacks and we hopped into our van and headed off to the older part of the city.

It was a foggy and misty day, the old buildings looked quite ethereal.

An old church appears out of the mist at the end of a street.

Beautiful flowers, not sure what they are, decorate the main plaza which is filled with buildings from the 1600 and 1700's.

This whole area of Lima seemed very European. 

A rather spectacular old bank.

We had a quick coffee here:

And then we headed off to a cathedral to visit the bones of some deceased folks. However, as we were walking towards the cathedral, we found ourselves in the midst of.....well, do you remember a post I made a while ago saying that I didn't really like those restaurants that have traditional dance and costume, but I go anyhow because I do enjoy actually seeing traditional  dance and costume, and it's not like you can just round a corner and find yourself in the midst of a bunch of people doing traditional dance while wearing traditional costume? Remember that?  Well, we rounded a corner and to my utter surprise, there was all sorts of people doing, you got it, traditional dance while wearing, yup, you guessed it, traditional costume. Really....what are the chances? (Turns out the chances are 1 in 365 since this is an annual thing)

It screwed up our poor, frazzled guide's plan for the day because we pretty much stopped dead in our tracks and enjoyed this bright and brilliant unexpected pleasure.

It was beautiful and also a little bit creepy.

And it obviously had some religious aspects as well.

And some jazz.

The whole thing reminded me of a old time-y New Orleans funeral march. I mean, this is a coffin, right?

And then, throw in a little pomp and circumstance as well, and then call it a day. That was some parade! The president...as in The President of Peru, came out and shook hands with the public.

We then walked around the corner to the cathedral of San Fransisco and toured the catacombs. I've been to catacombs before and some people find them creepy and disturbing, I find them beautiful and rather soothing. Goes hand in hand with my love of graveyards I guess.

No pictures were allowed, so this is a stock photo. There were miles and miles of narrow corridors with tens of thousands of bones and skulls displayed in geometric patterns.

The air was cool and damp, the floors were uneven and the ceilings were low, the walls were narrow. It was a lovely experience, I feel at peace in places like this.

And then it was time for beer!

A teeny little shop right outside the cathedral. You can see the walls of either side, it was that small. Room enough for one table. So small that even the beer were Coronita instead of Corona-size.

Our guide and van eventually found us, a few of the others had stayed at the parade area to watch the changing of the guards at the palace, and they were late getting back, and actually, one fellow was pick pocketed....lucklily his wallet contained a few hundred dollars, but not his credit cards or passport. 

We headed back to the hotel and I decided to go to the craft market with a few other ladies. It's supposed to be one of the best in Peru, as far as selection and prices go. It was only a few blocks from the hotel, so we walked over in a matter of 15 minutes. And, yup, it was huge. Rows and rows of little shops, we all lost each other almost instantly.  There seemed to be more silver shops than anything else, with prices from a few dollars to hundred and hundreds of dollars. I was on the hunt for a picture frame, I hadn't found one anywhere and I'd been looking since the day I arrived and I had pretty much given up. 

But to my utter joy, I finally spotted just what I was in search of...not only hand painted, but with little scenes of places I had been. I'm not a big souvenir person, not a shopper, but I always like to get a little piece of art ( and I do mean little, I can't afford the big stuff, and it needs to fit in a carry-on) and a locally made picture frame, either for the art, or for a photo I've taken. 

          

I love it. It makes me smile everytime I look at it. It's in my living room, so I walk around with a goofy grin on my face whenever I pass by the fireplace. 

It was the last day, and I hadn't been to the ocean yet, so now was my last chance. As I was heading towards the boulevard I ran into Margy and we decided to go and have a coffee at the little spot I had seen the night before, in the dark. 

It was literally at the end of the road.  You can simply go no further. I felt like I was at the end of the world. Until I realized that there was a path that led down to the water. Ohhhhh....I so wanted to go to the water...it was about 400 steps down, which was no big deal, but did I really want to do that and then have to go 400 steps up? Did I?  Yeah...I did. 

So I headed to the right and walked through the park at the top of the cliffs. 

Ummmm.....yeah....that's a long way down.

About half way down, looking forlornly towards the top.

 But it was worth it....finally at the ocean. I stood at the bottom of the steps and listened to the crashing of the waves, and...thunder? What was that noise? The skies were fairly clear, but it sure sounded like thunder. As I walked closer to the water I realized that the force of the waves against the fist sized ( and bigger) rocks actually made them crash and rattle  against each other like giant marbles, and because of the cliffs directly behind me, the sound echoed back and forth, sounding exactly like horrendous cracks and booms of thunder. I've never experienced anything like it. I stood there for quite a while, just listening.

The hike back up wasn't really as bad as I thought it was going to be. There was some lovely scenery to take my mind off of the burning of my calves:

And some wise philosophy to ruminate about as well....

Eventually I reached the top and decided to treat myself to a second lunch. And what did I actually, finally find? DARK BREAD!  After almost three weeks of nothing but white bread, delicious and healthy as it may have been...all I wanted was dark bread and real coffee. I didn't find the real coffee, but boy, was this sandwich tasty!

(And of course, some cake as well.)

By now it was getting to the twilight hour, so I headed back down the boulevard and decided to go a bit further this time, just to enjoy my last evening in Lima.

I stayed away from the clubs, but as I wandered along, day dreaming, I came upon the ubiqiitous

McDonald's...

And I have to confess that this McDonald's probably saved me hours and hours of aimless wandering because when I spotted it on the way back to the hotel, I realized that I hadn't seen it on my way from the hotel....in other words.....I missed the turn. Oops! The corporate behemoth that is my nemesis has saved the day. Dammit.

So, I backtracked a few blocks, back to my hotel and packed up, ready for the journey home.

"D" is for Down to sea level once more...

Remember back when I started writing this Peru blog, and I talked about the three main symbols of Peru? The puma, the condor and the snake? The snake represents the under world, the puma represents the middle world,  where man lives, and the condor represents the upper world, where the Gods live.

You see these symbols everywhere, from carvings done in the time of the Incas to designs sewn into sweaters and socks. And on nice wooden plates:

The city of Cusco itself is laid out in the shape of a puma, although it's hard to discern now, urban sprawl even effects places in Peru. 

Even remote Puno has...or I guess I should say "had", some spectacular viewpoints. The reason I say "had" is because they seem to have been abandoned and left for parties and graffiti artists. 

This is the condor....look at the size of that thing! I didn't walk up, in hindsight I wish I had, the view was apparently astounding, but at the time my feet felt like this: 

I skipped all those stairs and went and people watched in the square. However, the morning that we left Puno, we stopped at the other viewpoint:

Overlooking Puno and the edge of Lake Titicaca. What's that you say? That building in the background looks like snakeskin you say? Is it?

Why, yes, yes it is.

The puma was also there, it was huge. And sort of creepy.

But the view was breathtaking. 

My last view of the the top of the world. We hopped on our bus and headed towards the scary Juliaca, our gateway back to Lima.

 . 

The airport at Juliaca is like the airports in Mexico and Cuba...small and very casual and very crowded. The usual souvenir areas and the inevitable band that plays the local music and sells CDs. Line ups are non-existent and people just push thier way past you. It was a bit of chaos when the plane started to board, there were two or three lines and two planes out there,the fear of getting on the wrong plane was a bit strong actually, what with not speaking spanish and all....but I kept sight of Shidy and ended up on the right flight..Being the only tourists there today, and it being the scary Juliaca, I just let myself be dragged along with the crowd...you want to get in line in front of me? Well, go right ahead....

It struck me as funny that when you fly out of Cranbrook, the announcement says that "When we reach 10,000 feet we will start the drink and snack service" whereas here, on the ground, we were already at 12,500 feet!  Lhasa, in Tibet is just under 12,000 feet, so the altitude here is not to be messed with. 

All too soon, we were back in Lima, and back once again at the Hotel Britania.

One final day to go....