Day 11 Tuesday 16th December 2008 Lima
A lovely sleep in today, possibly the last one for a number of days ... followed by a tour of Lima in the afternoon. Lima is a big city (9 million people) and a city of contrasts - from the very rich to the very poor. There is no welfare system, so everyone is out on the street trying to etch out a living. Even with a just a casual stroll down the main street from our hotel toward the beach, every corner has multiple money changers, shoe shine vendors and people amongst the traffic trying to sell drinks, lollies or ice creams ... all to earn some sort of meagre income. By contrast, the upper class suburbs are very much like Toorak, with lovely winding parks full of olive trees in between the large estates with armed security guards at each gate. We stopped at "lovers park" to admire the views of the Pacific Ocean from atop the cliff and try and read the love poems in the mosaics - although not very well, they are all in Spanish !
A lovely sleep in today, possibly the last one for a number of days ... followed by a tour of Lima in the afternoon. Lima is a big city (9 million people) and a city of contrasts - from the very rich to the very poor. There is no welfare system, so everyone is out on the street trying to etch out a living. Even with a just a casual stroll down the main street from our hotel toward the beach, every corner has multiple money changers, shoe shine vendors and people amongst the traffic trying to sell drinks, lollies or ice creams ... all to earn some sort of meagre income. By contrast, the upper class suburbs are very much like Toorak, with lovely winding parks full of olive trees in between the large estates with armed security guards at each gate. We stopped at "lovers park" to admire the views of the Pacific Ocean from atop the cliff and try and read the love poems in the mosaics - although not very well, they are all in Spanish !
A fascinating visit to the Franciscan monastery in the middle of Lima, dating back hundreds of years and having preserved an amazing collection of art and books from the early modern history of Peru. And the original catacombs are intact under the main church, providing a eery feeling of the thousands of souls who have been buried in the many chambers around a maze of corridors. The most fascinating room is probably the library, a long room of two levels housing some 16,000 historical religous books dating back to the early days of the Spanish conquering Peru.
Our final visit of the day was to a private musuem that houses a large collection of relics from the history of Peru, dating back to 8000 BC. Because the climate is so dry and people were buried with gifts accompanying the bodies, there is a huge collection of ceramics that have been collected completely intact and effectively provide a full history of civilisation from 8000 BC to the modern era. The evolution of technology and knowledge is clearly evident and traceable down the generations of civilisation. The erotic gallery discretely off to the side of the main museum also indicates many practices that we may consider modern, are actually not - again, all very clearly documented in the form of ceramic pots and figurines.
Day 12-15 Wednesday 17th December -Saturday 20th December Puerto Maldonado - Posada Amazonas
From Lima, another plane ride - via Cusco, then a hop across the Andes to Puerto Maldonado on the southern edge of the Amazon basin. And when they promise a jungle adventure in a remote lodge, then mean it ! From the town, first it´s a 45 minute bus trip over some of the worst roads imaginable (reminded Chris very much of New Guinea) to the river "port" ... and when they say "port" then actually mean slippery, muddy track to edge of river ... then another 45 minute trip in a long boat up the Tambopata river ... and then another 15 minute treck to our lodge Posada Amazonas.
And yet another amazing place to experience - rooms were open air (no windows, but you didn´t need them), no electricity except for a couple of hours a day from a generator, no hot water, but still a very comfortable bed and amazing local food from the kitchen ... all nestled amongst the dense rain forest. Everyone is assigned one guide who looks after you for the duration of your stay - our guide was Jinh and we had a small group including us and another young couple.A typical day in the jungle consists of:
- being ready at 4:30 or 5 am for an early morning activity of 3 or 4 hours (every morning !)
- having a short break before lunch and a post lunch siesta
- afternoon activity at 3:30 pm or so until dark
- dinner followed by a short evening activity on a couple of nights
Another fantastic experience - our few days felt like weeks ... again, the few pics in the photo album are a tiny selection from a very full 4 Gb memory card of the few days ! And it was the rainforest - so you only had to walk a few steps and the sweat was dripping off you ... The girls will not doubt say that the highlight of our visit was piranha fishing on the lake in the early morning light - it´s a bit tricky, but you soon get the hang of it.
The idea is to just jiggle your fingers in the water until a piranha comes up for a nibble - once one is hanging on you just jerk your hand back ... the piranha gets such a fright it lets go and ends up in the bottom of the boat. The only really tricky bit is not to leave your fingers in the water for too long ... or there could be nasty consequences (Ed: Please note - one should sometimes be careful as to the credibility of some travel blog material)
After our jungle adventure, another short plane hop back across the Andes to Cusco ... at 3,700 meters above sea level you quickly experience the notion of altitude sickness ... 24 hours of low level activity and drinking much coco tea is needed to help your body adjust. Tomorrow we are off to another place also expected to be a serious trip highlight - the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Picchu, a 4 hour train ride up the mountain valleys from Cusco.
Until our next blog entry ...
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