An afternoon in Lima

Monday, June 04, 2012
Lima, Peru
After a restless night, we dragged ourselves down to breakfast at 6:30 AM. We then finished packing and getting organized for our day in Lima. We were picked up at 8:30 AM by Edson (head of customer service) for our 10:10 flight. Edson walked us through to a special services line to expedite our check-in. LAN customer service has been excellent. We got our boarding passes and luggage tags for our remaining 3 flights home. Mery, the owner of KuodaTravel, met us after we checked-in. She wanted to hear about our trip experiences, how we liked the guides, how our travel planner handled our questions and concerns, etc. We can't say enough about the quality and knowledge of all our Kuoda guides and drivers and how the company went out of its way to ensure our satisfaction. From the initial planning stages to the execution of the trip, everything went smoothly. It was definitely well planned and managed by a professional agency.

Our LAN flight from Cusco to Lima arrived in Lima about 15 minutes early, but as usual our luggage got delayed . We think they were going to eventually transfer it to American.  Dania and our driver for the day, Lewis, met us by baggage pickup and took us to the Miraflores District of Lima. It is a pretty upscale area with a bank on every corner. We took a long walk on Av Jose Larco to a park (it is called Cat Park, because it is inundated with cats hanging out on the lawn).  We then walked back to the Larcomar shopping center that is terraced along the ocean and not really visible from street level and had a late lunch at Mango Cafe. The center is very Americanized since there was a Chillis, TGI Fridays and a Tony Romas and most of the stores are national chains. We got picked up from the Marriott across the street from the center about 4 PM and were given a driving tour of of the city by Lewis including the Miraflores area, the San Ysidro district (upscale), the old part of the city with wonderful architecture that is being destroyed due to growth, and finally the Barranco district (the Bohemian area) . Lewis was very knowledgeable and provided a running commentary of the areas we visited. The traffic is unbelievable in Lima and the drivers don't pay attention to any signs (or sirens) including stop signs. It is like a free for all on the roads. The trip to the airport after our driving tour took about an hour so we arrived 4 hours before our flight. Since we knew we would be fed on the flight, we just bought a bottle of water after Security and finished the snack that we got on the LAN flight from Cusco to Lima. American had another security check at the gate before we boarded and they refused to allow the water we bought next to the gate to be taken on board. The flight form Lima to Miami acturally left on time.   

Observations: 1. In spite of what we have been told and have read, things seem to run on time in Peru. 2. It is very hard remembering not to use the faucet water when brushing our teeth. Habits are hard to break but if you want to stay healthy YOU WILL REMEMBER. . 3. The other thing you have to remember is not to put paper down the toilet. Yes, any paper. You have to use the covered wastebasket near the toilet. Try doing this at home (or not). 4. Most of the agriculture we have seen on our journey has been done by hand. It also seems that most of the hard work is being done by women. 5. There are stray dogs everywhere along the roads, railroad tracks and wandering the cities. They are looking for a handout and tend to make a mess in the towns going through garbage..   6. It may be our imagination, but there seem to be Pizza places on every corner, particularly in Cusco. 7. The people we met in Peru were all very warm, friendly, and helpful. 8. You don't have to be crazy to drive in the cities in Peru but it helps.  
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