La, la, la Lima Beans...

07-08.01.2010

Lima airport is a bit of a mess, but we were soon whisked away to a nice hotel on the water, aptly named “El Faro” (the lighthouse). After a sleep and receiving 2 bread rolls for breakfast, we walked along the parks overlooking the beach to Miraflores Shopping Centre, which is pretty indistinguishable from a Western shopping mall (and its prices). Bought some comfortable walking shoes, and had lunch over-looking the beach. The painted cows that have been traveling the world now dot the Lima parks, including the Parque D’Amor which also houses a mosaic wall reminiscent of Barcelona and a giant sculpture, “The Kiss”, not remotely reminiscent of Klimt.

Then a 4 hour city tour of Lima, which included an archeological adobe brick site, the main squares celebrating the Argentine and Venezualan generals who “liberated” Peru, Christopher Columbus, and the Franciscan and Dominican branches of the Catholic church (including the catacombs), a Pre-Columbian tribal artifact museum (some as old as 1000-200 B.C.), and the famous Lima wooden balconies. We are told the weather is in a permanent gray, cloudy, feels-like-its-going-to-rain-but-doesnt state, apparently due to the Andes, hence the wooden and bright coloured structures here. The architecture is stunning really, and reminds me of Brussels-- if it weren’t for the fact that I suddenly feel very tall, clearly afflicted with a skin pigmentation disorder and fully convinced of the need to buy “worry people”, I could very easily believe I was in Europe.