STEPPING BACK IN TIME:  24 HOURS IN LIMA, PERU

March 29, 2012

It is true what Frommer’s travel guide tells you: “Be aware of the cab drivers, they can rip you off.”  In most of the cities we have traveled there is a kiosk selling taxi vouchers, but when we landed in Lima we didn’t see any, and it was close to midnight by the time we cleared immigration and customs.  We were eager to get to the hotel and go to bed, so the first official looking cab driver that approached us got our business.  He started to negotiate a price that we didn’t agree to, but we soon got him to come down $10.00.  He asked the name of our hotel, grabbed our suitcases and asked us to follow him to his large black van.  He had an official badge around his neck, so I figured we were in good hands.  He told us that it would take an hour to get to the hotel, and when we saw the traffic we decided that he was probably not exaggerating.  However, it seemed to me that he was going in the wrong direction.  Even though I’ve never been to Lima, I felt something was wrong.  At one point we went through a very poor and rundown part of town and I kept saying to myself, “Where are the bad guys, is he going to take us to some guys who could rob us?”  Later, Michael confessed he had the same feeling and was making plans to reach over the seat, grab him around the neck and threaten to break his neck if he didn’t take us to our hotel.  But that was never necessary.  Later, we felt lucky that nothing bad happened.  Unfortunately, after about 45 minutes of him weaving in and out of traffic, drifting across lane lines and a lot of honking from other motorists (he was a bad driver), we ended up at the wrong hotel, out in the suburban part of town.  I keep reminding myself, “Trust your instincts.”  Once we clarified this mistake and he got us to the correct hotel, we just felt grateful that nothing bad happened and realized he was a nice, albeit overly eager, guy just trying to make a living.  I realized that he was just so anxious to have passengers that he didn’t reconfirm where we were going.  Since he didn’t speak a lot of English, it was difficult to communicate with him.   But in my head I kept practicing something I could say to him should he get confrontational, “Es su Ciudad, no mi ciudad y no mi problema, es su problema!”  He had me worried when he just kept repeating, “That’s not the right hotel, you go downtown, that different place, that not this place, that in middle of city, why you go there and not here!”  As he was driving away from the wrong hotel, he just kept repeating this, putting on his brakes and hesitating as if he might pull over any minute and let us out.  He seemed angry.  So I kept practicing my rebuttal over and over…su problema, no mi problema” and praying he would take us to our destination.

We arrived at the Gran Bolivar Hotel about 20 minutes later, and it is grand indeed!  Built around 1926, this hotel is very large and still has furnishings dating back to that era. The hotel was compared to the Waldorf Astoria in NYC and The Biltmore hotel, which were both built around the same time.  As you will see from the pictures, it has not been updated since that time, either.  In the lobby is a Model T Ford dated 1920. In the entryway, there is a Tiffany glass domed ceiling that is just beautiful.  The beds and furniture are from that era.  Had they updated the bedding and bathrooms, it would be a fancier hotel that could compete with the more modern hotels like the Sheraton down the street.  Even at one in the morning, we could not imagine sleeping in the bed we were first offered.  The rooms were spacious, the ceilings easily 12-14 ft. tall, but the bed was harder than the beautiful inlaid parquet floor and only a double, which barely accommodates one of us, let alone a guy with a bad cough and a woman with long thighs and big butt!!  So after a bit of haggling, they gave us a room with two bedrooms and four beds for the same price.  This new configuration worked great-- the guy with the cough could be isolated!!

 The hotel had many interesting features, like an old fashioned bar-club room, grand salons for weddings and banquets, and a large outdoor second floor patio that would be perfect for high tea.  Another feature that wasn’t so welcome was found as we were getting ready to leave.  I took a picture of this hotel resident whose “nearly dead” body (bigger than my thumb) was moved for the picture.  This ancient occupant in our room went unnoticed until this morning, when I nearly stepped on him.  In hotels of this era, it should be expected to find these creatures, whose family likely roamed these halls in the 20’s and even in prehistoric times.

Downtown Lima is a grand city that retains the beauty of the 1920’s with many large, ornate buildings.  We were taken on a tour that we arranged through Viator.com and had a good time getting to see the area in just four hours.  Lima is so large that I could tell we just barely skimmed the surface of all it has to offer.  In the suburbs of Lima, there is a place called Miraflores, which has a beautiful coastline with parks perched on top of cliffs overlooking the water, similar to Santa Monica.  One park is dedicated to lovers and has a large statue of a reclining man and woman in an embrace.  There are long, Gaudi-like, mosaic tiled benches inscribed with stanzas from famous poetry.  Like many countries, millionaires have their homes near the beaches.   Unlike any country we have been to, there are ancient ruins reminiscent of pyramids called Huacas.  They date back to the Inca era 200 b.c.  Many Huacas have been unearthed and restored in the most exclusive residential and commercial areas of Lima.  It is fascinating to notice the juxtaposition of the ancient and the new as if the Incas still occupied the land surrounding these temples.  Even today, archeologists are continuing to discover artifacts that were used in ceremonies such as funerals and sacrifices to the Gods. 

In the downtown area, there are several grand squares and massive buildings.  The tour included an in- depth tour of two large churches that are now museums. Churches figure prominently in South America.  Historically significant, Church is where people congregate on Sundays and when the “Americas” were being colonized, they were the center of all the money and power.  One of these churches, the colonial era St. Francis, dates back to the 1700’s, surviving the devastating earthquake of 1746.  Today Convento y Museo de San Francisco, as it is formally called, is a functioning monastery even though a large portion is open for public viewing.  There seems to be constant restoration in progress.  In many areas, we could see the beginnings of beautiful old frescos being uncovered on the walls and near the ceilings.  Moorish-style tongue and groove pine ceilings and glazed ceramic tiles from Seville complete the decor. 

In the late 40’s, an entire network of 15^th century catacombs were discovered beneath the church.  Currently, the bones from the thousands of people buried there are on display in this extensive underground network of tunnels and rooms.  According to our guide, the bodies of the poor were buried in separate grave areas. Once decomposition was complete, the bones were then gathered into one common pit, piled one on top of another.  Wealthier patrons of the church were placed in crypts, where multiple generations could be buried together in a marked grave site.  Archeologists were allowed to unearth many of the graves, study the bones, and then put them back in the various grave sites.  All the bones seem to be mixed, with none representing parts of a whole person.  Femurs are lined up together; skulls are gathered in one area, and there’s an area for dozens of pelvic bones.  Once the scientists were finished studying the bones, they decided to arrange them in various designs that were to be “more pleasing to the eye.” I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, so you will just have to let your imagination run wild.  It was sobering to realize that all these bones represented the remains of thousands of people who lived several hundred years ago.  There are no relatives alive today to detail the kind of life these people led.  It also reminds me how precious life is, and how brief a period of time we have to enjoy the time we’ve been given. In comparison to the Galapagos animals, whose prehistoric ancestors can still be found roaming the Ecuadorian islands today, humans have occupied a very brief and often troubled place in history. 

Today we leave South America.  As our airline skirts the coastline, I can see the mighty Andes in the distance.  We will always have fond memories of the people we met and the places we visited in the land discovered by Vespucci.  We enjoyed the people we met and hope that many will keep in contact and visit us one day.  We loved sampling the food and wine and learning about various cultures along the way.  Quito and Cartagena stand out as the most culturally diverse, interesting and fun cities.  I thought with the three months we allotted, we would never have to return to this area again.  I was wrong!  I need to return to Peru and travel to Cusco and Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and the Sacred Valley.  Buenos Aires is a city so large that one could visit many times and still come away wanting to do and see more.  Argentina stands out as a country so immense and diverse that it is impossible to travel to all the places in one brief month.  It would be fun to go back and take more tango lessons, travel to the mountains and glaciers in the south, and drink more Mendoza wine.   I will always have fond memories of Maipu, Argentina, Francisco and his dog Souki, who charmed us with his manners and big brown eyes. We were grateful to Carli and Antonio, who took care of us while we visited Isla Margarita, Venezuela.  It was fun to meet new relatives in Bogota, Colombia and be escorted around that area by them.  We have met some wonderful people from Canada whom we hope to visit this summer, and many others whom we hope will visit us one day.  Had it not been for the people we met along the way, we would not have had as interesting and enriching experience as we had.

Do not be afraid to travel to Colombia, Argentina, Chile or anywhere else in South America.   We never had any issues with our safety.  All the various airlines we used were safe, comfortable, and served good food with free alcohol!  Airtreks.com issued all our tickets online, and they were always waiting for us at the ticket counter when we checked in.  The tickets were reasonably priced, and Airtreks was always available to help us make any changes along the way.  I recommend taking an I Pad or computer so that you can stay in touch with family and friends by e-mail and SKYPE.  Even though we say goodbye to South America today, our trip does not end in Peru.  In approximately ten days we will be in Guatemala, where more ancient civilizations are waiting to be discovered.  But first we are on our way back to Playa Guiones, where in one day I will get to know my unborn grandchild.  Tomorrow we will find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  And the life cycle continues!