Adios Ecuador, Hola Peru!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Lima, Peru

After a very long day travelling, I got back to Quito on Friday evening, checked back into the Hostal Posada del Maple, had a meal at The Magic Bean with Dale, the American professor who had also done the extra day of the Amazon tour, then retired early.











On Saturday, there wasn't a whole lot I still wanted to see in Quito but I did want to take the tour of El Palacio de Gobierno (Presidential Palace). I got a taxi to the Old Town but found out that the Palace tour times quoted in Lonely Planet were for Spanish tours. Since I couldn't be bother to wait around for an English tour, I decided to go in anyway. There followed a 45 minute tour of some of the very grand staterooms of the Palace, one of which contained some beautiful (and no doubt very pricey) gifts from foreign heads of state. I had a late afternoon meal of chicken fajitas at a Mexican restaurant Red Hot Chilli Peppers (cool name!) as recommended in Lonely Planet, very nice it was too, then spent the rest of the day on the internet updating blog and photos. A quiet Saturday night ensued, which I'd come to expect from time to time if you travel alone.

On Sunday, it was the last day of the English Premier League with all matches kicking off at the same time. With the time difference, that translated to a 10am start over here! Sunday's are pretty quiet in Quito and there's not a lot to do so I decided to head off to a bar to match the football. I knew that Irish bar Finn McCool's would have it on, but walking through the main plaza of Mariscal, I was surprised that no-one else seemed to have it. So it was off to Finn McCool's for 10am where I settled down with a Pilsner Grande, only $3. The co-owner, Lee, happened to be a Blackpool fan and he was there in his shirt as his team were one of five who could be taking the drop. Strangely, a couple of policemen came into the pub half an hour later and had a long chat with the bar staff. I asked Lee what the matter was and he said it was illegal to serve alcohol before 11am! One of the policemen came over to me, studied me, then shook my hand. Obviously, he realised you don't mess with Brits when they're watching the football with a beer! Another Pilsner followed during the second half. After the matches at noon, I'd got chatting to the other guys there and decided to stay for a Cuba Libre (basically, a rum and coke) but was told it was 2 for 1 so had to stay for another. Then, Lee told me it was only $10 for a pitcher of Cuba Libre and they'd go on rounds of pitchers with me! I ended up leaving the place between 11pm and midnight. It was also illegal to serve alcohol after 4pm but we had a couple of policemen who came in after then for a drink so we closed the curtains and all okay then! The best thing I could say about Finn McCool's would be that if I was staying in Quito, it could become my "local", high praise indeed!

On Monday morning, I was as rough as a badger's arse. I was flying to Lima, Peru today - luckily, of the two options I had been given when I booked the flight, I chose the 6.43pm flight rather than the 7am one. The flight was pretty expensive (as they appear to be when between different South American countries) but it was either that or a 36 hour bus ride! Also, I didn't have the time for a more leisurely overland trip stopping at places of interest between the two. I met a few people from Guayasamin School and had a final lunch with them at Red Hot Chilli Peppers by way of goodbye. At Quito airport, about an hour before the flight was due to leave, I was called over the tannoy for an additional security check. I was led outside to the baggage loading section whereupon a security guard opened by big rucksack. Seeing it full of clothes instead of cocaine, he closed it up again and that was that! At Lima, I had arranged an airport pick-up and I was soon at my hostel, the Hostal Bonbini, and ready to call it a night.

From what was just another Latin American city, Quito grew on me. Sure, there were the usual problems with pollution and security, and the altitude took some getting used to, but when you got under its skin, there was plenty of see and do and the people were very friendly and interesting. Whatever the city or town, irrespective of its size, reputation, sights, etc, I think your memories of it reflect the people you meet there and the experiences you have. Quito won on both counts. Although it was a large, sprawling city, there were only two main areas where you needed to concentrate on - the Old Town where many of the colonial sights were, and the New Town/La Mariscal, aka "gringoland". I met some great people there and had some good nights out. I'll definitely return to Ecuador one day, to see the city of Quito and people, and also to visit the Galapagos Islands and some of the smaller "touristy" towns.

Lima, the capital of Peru, is a Latin American metropolis, a mix of Spanish colonialism and the modern. It sits on the coast but is a dust bowl because it so rarely rains. The few people I'd spoken to didn't have a good word to say about it and I'd read that many travellers preferred to move straight on to other parts of Peru. It was founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro and christened the "City of Kings". It was for a time the continent's richest, most important city. In 1821, Argentinian General Jose de San Martin proclaimed Peruvian independence from Spain.

On Tuesday, I went for a walking tour of the centre of Lima, which is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It appeared to be a typical Latin American city - main plaza, cathedral on plaza (I was rather put out by having to pay to enter), President's Palace, lots of churches. I also visited Monasterio de San Francisco, which I thought was stunning (although you couldn't take photos, I did manage to sneak the odd one or two off). It is considered by some to be the greatest architectural complex of its kind in Latin America. Building began in 1542 and was completed in 1674, with an earthquake in the middle of that resulting in it being leveled. There were many religious paintings in the monastery, with one particularly captivating, a Spanish version of The Last Supper. In it, the disciples are eating that Peruvian delicacy, cuy (guinea pig), and Peruvian fruits, and there is the Devil whispering in the ear of Judas, two to the right of Jesus as you look at it. There is a stunning library containing thousands of ancient tomes, the earliest dating from the 15th century, and spiral staircases. It was like a step back in time. In the basement, there was a network of galleries and catacombs that were a cemetery in Spanish colonial times. Slaves, servants, and others without money were buried there until 1821 (and covered with lime to reduce smell and disease). After they decomposed, the bones were stacked elsewhere. About 25,000 bodies were eventually buried here. The tour took us through burial chambers with deep pits filled with arranged human bones, eg. skulls, femurs, tibiae.

In the middle of that, I had lunch at a restaurant close to the main plaza. A boy hung around outside with a big bag of sweets trying to sell them one at a time to the patrons. The restaurant manager scooped some leftovers into a plastic bag and gave them to the boy but he seemed more interested in trying to get some money. I recalled the warnings in my guidebook about the abundance of thieves and pickpockets in Lima. Dinner in the hotel was "Chicken Supreme", which was not what I was expecting as out came a piece of breaded chicken with greasy chips, rice and salad. Despite the many different chicken dishes on menus, they all appear to be either breaded chicken or grilled chicken. Now where was that McDonalds I had passed earlier in the day.....

On Wednesday, I checked out of the hotel for a flight to Iquitos, from where I would be going on another 5 day trip to the Amazon Jungle, staying at Muyuna Lodge.
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