Saturday 23rd April:
Our first priority today is a FaceTime call to our birthday girl, Evie is seven on St. George's Day. She says hello and shows us her new iPad, oh dear, too young for such a fantastically useful device, and then disappears upstairs with friend Francesca. Martha seems more interested in us and is fascinated to see us on the screen, and gives us kisses.
Evie's party is at Oakham Studios with fourteen of them, thank goodness we're in Peru, I think I heard it's a Justin Beiber party, heavens, not the white boy who has appropriated black culture with his dreadlocks!
Lillian's collects us and she's delightful, and we chat about the presidential election run off which will be on June 5th as we a toiling away at the County Show. In Peru people up to the age of 63 are obliged to vote which Lilliana does not think works as too many people are not interested and do not research their vote properly. In the remote parts of the Andes, all a candidate has to do is turn up and promise a new pair of boots and the vote is assured.
Alongside every road we have travelled in Peru there is little traditional graffiti, it has been replaced, plastered giant size on every wall by the names of Keiko, and PPK, the two main contenders for the job. Keiko's father had been president some 20 or 30 years ago, and is now in jail for corruption. We joke that the usual career path for every successful politician in Peru, or maybe most South American countries, is region, congress, president, jail.
Fujimori senior however still has many followers as he was the man that ended the period of terrorism perpetrated by Luminos Senderos, or The Shining Path. He may have been corrupt, but he ended a very dark time for Peru. Unfortunately during his second term he got quite a taste for bumping off his opponents, this time political ones as well as terrorist ones.
And so we leave Lima, an ugly city, but with a very lively centre, where we met Robert & Barbara White for dinner last night. They are travelling in Peru having moored their boat in a marina close to the epicentre of the recent earthquake in Ecuador. They think it is undamaged but are unsure if the second quake may have caused a small tsunami which would cause damage. They are trying to contact the marina, but also recognise that their situation is nothing when compared to the people who live there, and in particular the manager of the marine who has lost his home.
Lilliana is a little embarrassed when we give her the bottle of wine left for us. She says she will let Lima Tours know that she has it, we say, no, no, don't do that, it's for you, we can't carry it, and even if we could I don't want to drink a bottle of wine.
We are met in Arequipa by Viktor, and it's straight into half a city tour, making sure we get to the view points before the sun goes down. We see immediately that Arequipa is a beautiful city, and is overlooked by two large volcanoes, El Misti and Chacani, substantial mountains at around 6,000 metres.
After checking into another Casa Andina, we complete the city tour, visiting the very large monastery and the The Plaza de Armas, which is heaving with locals and tourists, probably more backpackers than ageing Western tourists. A quick glance inside the Jesuit church and were left to make our own way back to the hotel. Lorna finds a restaurant called, Zig Zag which is No. 2 on Trip Advisor, but which leaves us underwhelmed, tough meat and not a lot of flavour, but the dessert, well quite devine and saves the evening.
My first Pisco Sour followed by a beer is not a great idea, and my head is banging when I wake up in the middle of the night. The Pisco Sour consists of Pisco (made from Peruvian grapes, and tastes a little like tequila) lemon juice, another spirit and the White of an egg, nom, nom, as Janet would say.
Our first priority today is a FaceTime call to our birthday girl, Evie is seven on St. George's Day. She says hello and shows us her new iPad, oh dear, too young for such a fantastically useful device, and then disappears upstairs with friend Francesca. Martha seems more interested in us and is fascinated to see us on the screen, and gives us kisses.
Evie's party is at Oakham Studios with fourteen of them, thank goodness we're in Peru, I think I heard it's a Justin Beiber party, heavens, not the white boy who has appropriated black culture with his dreadlocks!
Lillian's collects us and she's delightful, and we chat about the presidential election run off which will be on June 5th as we a toiling away at the County Show. In Peru people up to the age of 63 are obliged to vote which Lilliana does not think works as too many people are not interested and do not research their vote properly. In the remote parts of the Andes, all a candidate has to do is turn up and promise a new pair of boots and the vote is assured.
Alongside every road we have travelled in Peru there is little traditional graffiti, it has been replaced, plastered giant size on every wall by the names of Keiko, and PPK, the two main contenders for the job. Keiko's father had been president some 20 or 30 years ago, and is now in jail for corruption. We joke that the usual career path for every successful politician in Peru, or maybe most South American countries, is region, congress, president, jail.
Fujimori senior however still has many followers as he was the man that ended the period of terrorism perpetrated by Luminos Senderos, or The Shining Path. He may have been corrupt, but he ended a very dark time for Peru. Unfortunately during his second term he got quite a taste for bumping off his opponents, this time political ones as well as terrorist ones.
And so we leave Lima, an ugly city, but with a very lively centre, where we met Robert & Barbara White for dinner last night. They are travelling in Peru having moored their boat in a marina close to the epicentre of the recent earthquake in Ecuador. They think it is undamaged but are unsure if the second quake may have caused a small tsunami which would cause damage. They are trying to contact the marina, but also recognise that their situation is nothing when compared to the people who live there, and in particular the manager of the marine who has lost his home.
Lilliana is a little embarrassed when we give her the bottle of wine left for us. She says she will let Lima Tours know that she has it, we say, no, no, don't do that, it's for you, we can't carry it, and even if we could I don't want to drink a bottle of wine.
We are met in Arequipa by Viktor, and it's straight into half a city tour, making sure we get to the view points before the sun goes down. We see immediately that Arequipa is a beautiful city, and is overlooked by two large volcanoes, El Misti and Chacani, substantial mountains at around 6,000 metres.
After checking into another Casa Andina, we complete the city tour, visiting the very large monastery and the The Plaza de Armas, which is heaving with locals and tourists, probably more backpackers than ageing Western tourists. A quick glance inside the Jesuit church and were left to make our own way back to the hotel. Lorna finds a restaurant called, Zig Zag which is No. 2 on Trip Advisor, but which leaves us underwhelmed, tough meat and not a lot of flavour, but the dessert, well quite devine and saves the evening.
My first Pisco Sour followed by a beer is not a great idea, and my head is banging when I wake up in the middle of the night. The Pisco Sour consists of Pisco (made from Peruvian grapes, and tastes a little like tequila) lemon juice, another spirit and the White of an egg, nom, nom, as Janet would say.
No comments:
Post a Comment