LIMA , PERU

January 10 - 16, 2010

We have finally arrived at our ¨home away from home¨ the cozy little apartment with a rooftop terrace. It is great and we settled in quickly and easily. We each have our own bedroom, bathroom, closet space and lots of rooms for wondering when one of us wakes up at 2 a.m. Actually, more like sunrise when flocks of green parrots (who are the noisiest birds in creation) start squawking...and continue until sunset.

We tried to insert a link to show you our digs but this website would not allow us to do so. You can try the following:

www.vacationhomerentals.com/vacation-rentals/Lima-Peru-vacation-rental-condo-proID-34982.html

If this does not work try Googling¨"cozy penthouse with terrace in Miraflores"

We were so fed up with restaurant meals that we could hardly wait to go grocery shopping and start eating meals that we are used to! Especially coffee. Lynne hates to clean and Barb hates to cook so KP is working very well. We have set up a small kitchen on the second floor which leads onto the terrace, so all we carry up and down the stairs is the food. The stairs themselves are good exercise.

No more sending our laundry out or tipping for dragging our luggage into a hotel or into a taxi.

We have a great view of our local neighbourhood in Miraflores, the Pacific Ocean and the para-gliders criss-crossing over the ocean. Not for either of us!

We are walking everyday and have discovered several different ways to get to Larcomar, a grand shopping centre across from the Marriott Hotel and facing the ocean and Kennedy Park which is to the south. None of these sites is more than a 15 minute walk. As with all office building, banks and apartment blocks, we have 24 hour security staff watching over us. No one speaks English and, in spite of her best intentions, Barb´s Spanish hasn´t improved much.

We really like our location on 28 de Julio near the ocean wall. We did not realize just how central it is until we started walking.

We have found a wonderful grocery store called Vivanda that sells everything just like at home. The root vegies in both Brazil and Peru are fabulous. They are very tasty and do not turn to mush when cooked or reheated.

Vivanda is an over-the-hill yuppies´s idea of heaven. They even sell cut-up veggies for stir fries. Their added service is their staff will walk us back to our apt. with the buggy full of food. And did he appreciate the tip--same as if we took a taxi except he took the groceries right into our kitchen.

Just like Rio, we are spending a fortune on bottled water. We had wanted to buy a demi of water with a spigot but they do not sell such an item here.

We have also found some very nice places to eat that are extremely reasonable--yes we do prepare most of our meals, but we need a treat now and then. We found several nearby restaurants with typical Peruvian menus which are very popular with the local residents. For 6.5 to 10 soles they serve an appetizer, a full meal and freshly made juice. Keep in mind that 10 Soles is around $3.47 US

This city is exploding. There is construction everywhere. Actually, we saw lots of construction everywhere we have travelled in Peru. The exterior construction looks good (we are monitoring a high-rise apartment under construction near us) but the interior finishing is spotty at best. Our lovely apartment has electrical outlets in odd places and hot and cold water hooked up backwards in Lynne´s WC. We are not sure if the training in the trades is lacking or respect for a quality tradesman...read proper wages. It seems this construction frenzy has been going on for over 4 years and apartments that sold for $45,000 are now going for $110,000. We have seen these boomlets before and they inevitably end up with too much on the market and a drop in prices.

The drivers in this city are INSANE and pedestrians take their life in hand just to cross a street. It does not matter if the autos have a red traffic light...the drivers love to play chicken with the pedestrians. We thought the drivers in BA and Rio were bad...nothing like Lima.

And the drivers here ADORE their car alatms. You can hardly walk down a street that someone´s car alarm does not go off. And they go off all hours of the day and night.

Just a note: there are no mosquitoes here! In fact, few bugs at all. However, we both managed to get one bite each from something and reacted quite badly. We are over it now and hope that bite proves to be our solitary buggy experience.

We have met a very nice couple from Montreal who are spending 5 months in Lima to get away from winter. This is their 5th year and they like it very much.

We ended our first week with a major tourist experience. We wanted to go to La Victoria shopping district. It is very famous for selling clothing of all types, shoes, lingerie, etc. Our friends in our apartment building (mother and daughter) could not believe we had heard about such a place and refused to let us go alone. "You would be two white faces in the middle of Africa" they told us and arranged for the four of us to go in a taxi driven by a friend.

We were not allowed to bring our cameras or wear our watches and Barb had to remove her gold earings. Lynne had to put a bandaid over her rings. We were inspected before we were allowed to leave the house.

We have never seen anything like it! The street, Gamarra, is 10 blocks of pedestrian mall. The buildings are commonly 6 stories in height and each story, we think they are factory outlets, has a different shop. Tens of thousands of people stroll down Gamarra and besides the businesses there are malls where many small vendors are located. The street is full of people trying to make a living by hawking food, trousers, cotton underwear, fruit, chewing gum and chocolates. We even saw one man with a bathroom scale where for a few centavos you could weight yourself!

Actually, we felt perfectly safe as we strolled down Gemarra with mama in front and daughter in the back.

We stopped for lunch in a fast food mall and opted for Chinese food...heaping plates of Peruvian style chinese food but to us, it tasted exactly like home. And no bad after effects!

It suddenly dawned on us that we have only 2 weeks left before we return home with so much still to see. We have made a list are will fill you in as we go.