Lima

After Machu Picchu I continued my journey to Lima in order to start my 21 day journey to Quito, Ecuador with 9 other fellow travellers from Australia, Czech Republic, England, Ireland and Uruguay. When I arrived to the city in the morning I was somewhat worried if I could go to look around in the city alone. The areas through which the taxi went on my way to the hotel looked a bit dogdy - there were
dreary rows of ugly apartment buildings that looked old and uncared for. One could see that many of the houses were colourful once but had lost their charm after the big part of the paint had peeled off. There was also somewhat trash here and there on the streets and cars seemed as if they were bought 10-20 years ago. To my dissapointment also from the outside the hotel didn't seem to have any character. It was just a grey concrete building with 5 floors and small windows a bank, parking hall and other buildings that reminded me of monuments to cold and deadpan functionality built in the 1960's and 1970's when houses were built fast and cost-efficiency was considered more important than the appearance. The decoration inside was fortunately quite charming with their dark red carpets and paintings on the walls.

I was told at the hotel that the city centre was perfecty safe during the daytime and biggest threats were some random pickpockets in crowded places, so I ventured to the downtown after lunchtime. I was impressed especially by the historical centre and it´s grandiose cathedrals and palaces that were built in French baroque style, massive moorish-style balconies as well as the lovely parks that were located just stone's throw away from the centre. I was a bit surprised to see so many cops everywhere, but I was told that just a few days before there had been some conflicts between police and indigenous protesters.

Indigenous communities got furious after the government passed a law that eases restrictions on logging and development in the Amazon rainforest and complained that it enables among others, oil and gas developers to encroach on their lands and put their traditional way of life at risk. When the indigenous people were convinced that the government didn´t pay enough attention to their peaceful demonstrations they put roadblocks near a city called Bagua where the police killed at least 35 people when clearing the roads and this, on the other hand, lead to wide demonstrations in the capital and forced the police to close many of the roads near the city centre. The day when I was there though seemed peaceful and quiet. Many of the locals were at work or at home and there were only a handful of tourists with their cameras and bags full of souveniers.

In the evening I met the rest of my group and we went to eat to a French Carmelite restaurant in downtown Lima, which was run by Carmelite nuns. One of my fellow travellers had recommended the place saying that the food there is gorgeous and really cheap - and she was right. I have never eaten as delicious fish in my life and the wine was a joy. I found it a bit peculiar though that everyone in the restaurant had to stop eating in the middle of the dinner to sing Ave Maria in French! I don't know a word French let alone be able to sing religious songs in that language, but I tried to pretend singing as well as I could in order not to seem rude. All in all it was a delightful and unique experience and the nuns were so warm-hearted and sweet that it made me feel genuinely welcomed right away when we entered the restaurant.

Anyway, here are some photos I took from there.. there aren't many of them, but then again I spent only 2 days in the city, so I didn't have an opportunity to see that much..