London - Lima

13- 14 March 2007

After the frantic packing of the previous weeks it was somewhat of a relief to be actually arriving at the airport, bags packed and ready to go. After a relatively painless check-in we boarded our plane to Amsterdam ready for the first stage of the flight. Problem 1 - fog in Amsterdam. We sat on the tarmac for about 2 hours waiting for the fog to clear at our destination, which it did eventually but not in time for our connecting flight to Lima. A long and painful wait to get information on an alternative flight meant we were rescheduled onto a flight via Madrid for the next day. A night in Amsterdam however gave us the opportunity to catch up with friends Frank and Angela before our departure. Problem 2 - Air Iberia refused to let us on the flight from Madrid because our visas did not cover us until the date of departure. After a long and at times heated argument they eventually accepted the visas were diplomatic and we got onto the plane.

We are staying initially at a Guest House in Las Molinas.   The Guest House is a very pleasant place to ease ourselves into living in a different country. We have started our Spanish lessons and have been practicing on very tolerant colleagues at work and at the Guest House. We are quite pleased that we are putting sentences together and can generally get understood. Understanding the reply is taking more work !

Cathy has found the local swimming pool and has started to go everyday for a mile swim. 

House hunting looks like it has been fruitful but more about that when we move in later in April.

Pachacamac Ancient Site

Saturday 17 March 2007

David, Cathy, Ian and Cory

Our first experience of the Inca and Pre-Inca remains was the Rimac Valley ancient site of Pachacamac. Pachacamac means the "Earth Creator" and the site was occupied from 500AD. Pachacamac is a temple-citadel and the centre of mass pilgrimage. Later it become the most famous shrines in the Inca Empire with Pachacamac himself worshipped along with the Sun.  The most important part of the site is the Sun Temple built on the crest of the hill above Pachacamac's own sacred precinct. The House of the Women has been partly restored and is very impressive. It was in this building that the chosen woman were prepared for their ceremonial duties.

Saturday 31 March 2007

Just south of Lima Centro lies the lively suburb of Miraflores. a mini-metropolis for business, shopping and meeting friends. The streets are lined with cafes and some of Lima's flashiest shops. After finding a parking spot we headed for the central focus of Miraflores, the attractive Parque 7 de Junio. The market in the centre of the park was just setting up so we made our way down to towards the coast at the Parc de Amor. This small but vibrant park sits on the clifftops above the Costa Verde and celebrates the fact that for decades the area has been the favourite haunt of young lovers looking for a meeting space outside their often overcrowded homes. A huge statue of a loving Peruvian couple was surrounded by real-life lovers cuddling on the Gaudi inspired benches. The view across the Ocean was more impressive than we imagined and the atmosphere relaxed. After returning to the Parque 7 Julio we wandered through the stalls of painting that were now on sale. Some were quite impressive so maybe we will look for something we like later on in the year.

We dined out at a great restaurant - Las Tejas. The menu had a wide selection of Peruvian fare and the restaurant has a good atmosphere being set below the road level. We sampled our fist taste of live criollo music with a singer in the restaurant . Highly recommended.