Lima

The flight back from Iquitos to Lima could be described as uneventful. We only had one aborted landing and a go-around. There didn't seem to be a reason for this so we put it down simply to pilot incompetence. Lima was shrouded in the seasonal garúa, which is a thick white blanket of cloud that generally persists all day and keeps the place dank and slightly depressing. The last few days of the trip were spent here mopping up the sights one usually sees in a large capital city: plazas, churches, museums.

We spent some time using the local buses to get around the city. They are phenomenally cheap and frequent - much like virtually any country in the world that is not the UK. We went down to the coast to the posh area called Barranco, it was largely empty due to it being the middle of winter (and grey and foggy).

We visited some museums, which served largely to recap on the historical cultures we had travelled the length and breadth of the country to see. We probably saw more pre-Incan artefacts in one museum than in the whole of the preceding two months. The experience was not nearly as rewarding (or dangerous) though.

Down in the trendy area of Miraflores, we visited our final pyramid. Huaca Pucllana is right in the middle of the built up area which makes for a very odd juxtaposition. It was covered in dirt and used to be a favourite motocross circuit until someone decided it should be preserved. Now it is being excavated although only a quarter of the original site remains and hotels and the like are being constructed on parts of the old site.

One evening we got involved in a rally commemorating all the people who had died during the struggle of people versus state which only ended around 2000. There was an illuminated cross vigil and some bands playing. At one point, the mayoress of Lima appeared on stage along with some indigenous women and the wife of a police officer. All the men had been lost in the struggle. The mayoress said some stirring stuff about everyone wanting peace and justice and that the deaths would never be repeated. A bloke who looked like Billy Connolly played the guitar.

The next day, we were hanging out in the same plaza when we heard a load of screaming and saw people running. We suspected a good old fashioned people versus state scenario. Turned out to be one of the members of the world famous Mexican boy band Rio Roma. We didn't manage to get any photos as the Peruvian girls suddenly seemed to get much taller. Plus, we didn't actually know who to point the camera at. This same plaza has a statue of Madre Patria, the symbolic mother of Peru. When the statue was commissioned in Spain, the design called for a crown of flame. Now, the word for flame in Spanish is "llama". You can see where this is going right?

30th August was the festival of Santa Rosa who is the patron saint of Lima and the Americas. She is also the patron saint of the Policia National de Peru which gives them an excuse to parade around in their finery and give the people the chance to applaud. Typically for a religious event, the army were out in force too. It is always amusing to watch the ill-disciplined armed forces supposedly standing to attention, but actually texting their friends and surfing facebook on their mobiles. As usual with these events, large effigies of Saint Rosa were paraded [extremely] slowly around the plaza.

We wanted to bring you some pictures showing a cross-section of life in Lima, but all we ended up with is a load of photos of people either protesting or parading. Then again, we've seen so many protests and parades in our time here, it would be easy to conclude that this is all people do anyway. So, you will have to make do with a load of shots of dodgy looking South American authority figures and religious icons.

Evenings were spent in assorted quaint old fashioned bars where they serve some appalling tasting cocktails generally involving pisco and odd plates of unidentifiable meats and cheeses. The idea seems to be to buy a whole bottle of pisco plus some mixer and a sausage and then sit there chewing the fat (literally) until the bottle is empty. One night the power went off (it's only the capital, of course) and a couple of candles appeared, to be shared amongst the 15 or so tables. Didn't stop the drinking though. It has to be said, for all the pisco consumption, there was never any misbehaviour, the entire affair is very civilised if a little wobbly. Not like it would be in the UK.

That was the end of the Lima experience and the trip as a whole, we have a flight back to Madrid on Iberia (so the Spanish immersion is not quite over) then a hop back to Heathrow. We should be back in the UK some time on 1st Sept 2013. We will probably publish a Peruvian round up of our conclusions on this country.

Many thanks for all your interest during the trip and we look forward to seeing you all once we are back in the UK. Since we started in Santa Cruz, Bolivia with a large slice of cake, we thought we should end here in Lima the same way. So, here's to you all!

Some Pictures