I don't hape it....

Lima that is. Although you may have imagined that to be the case after my first Lima blog. I did.... I have to say. The taxi ride from the airport ... and our arrival here was .... not leaving me with any feelings of safety or even interest in exploring this city. I thought I was going to stay in this hotel for 3 days.

We had 2 days with Zac showing us some sites, both in the city near our hotel and in the more outlying areas. We've seen such amazing contrasts, from affluent areas to very small children begging in the street.

But today was an absolute highlight. Not only did we experience a cultural extravaganza, but I felt amazingly included in the experience. I wandered the streets freely (on my own ... Sophie's bag over my shoulder and camera in my hand). People were so friendly ... talking to me, trying to explain the significance of the event, inviting me into the front of the group to take photos, getting into photos with me ... even dancing with me in the street (and since it was late morning - early afternoon, we hadn't even started on the vino tinto). As usual, there were lots of security guards and police around. The plaza is bordered on one side by the palace, and there were guards all along that sidewalk stopping people from walking or assembling on the footpath.

It was a truely emotional experience... one that was so totally unexpected.

After that I felt completely safe in this city. We ventured out again in the afternoon (after downloading photos and putting the camera on to charge) ... this time to get a bite to eat ... it was nearly 3pm and we had a tour meeting at 5.30pm followed by a group dinner. This time I took nothing with me - no bag, or camera, or water bottle. What a liberating feeling that is. Nothing to guard.

We headed off to find the supermarket. Had heard you could get good food there and it's charged by the kilo. True. Huge range of food - cafeteria style and when you go to pay, the plate is weight and you're charged ... about 7soles/half kiko or about $4/kilo. It was delicious - not hot, but there was a microwave where others were re-heating their food. And we had a live music accompaniment - pan pipes no less. Some supermarket.

On wandering around the supermarket we realised that we could have eaten for less than 7 soles/half kilo ... much less in fact. There were so many attendants offering tastes of various products. Naturally we tried everything from dairy products (strawberrry drinking yoghurt ... which some of you may have experienced but where we come from ... maybe not) to alcoholic beverages. The Pisco Sour was terrific, but the mix of pisco with strawberry drinking yoghurt was awesome. All this, of course was being described to us in Spanish ... and let me tell you that Lex's Spanish lessons didn't extend to food tasing in a supermarket. Somehow we got a message across that we are currently into red wine (vino tinto) ... she mde a suggestion ... and followed it up by offering us a glass to taste. We were won.

Naturally we needed something to help us blogging. Do you realise that there's always a bit of a lull while we are waiting for photos to upload. A girl has gotta do something to fill in the time. All good experience.

Tonight's tour meeting was another .... Zac does his job really well - so proud of him. He is very good with people, making everyone feel relaxed and welcome. Probably not the easiest with your parents watching.

Tomorrow we hit the road... better not be late for the bus as he's left no illusion about punctuality... We will be there.

A whirlwind cultural extravaganza

Just back from our "Meet and Greet" but we just have to tell you about our awesome day......

Wow!......... It started out as an ordinary city tour on any ordinary Sunday. We followed our tall, handsome tour guide through the city streets along with all his new recruits up to the Plaza de Armas. We heard loud music, we saw colourfully-dressed people and the cameras started clicking.
All Zac's finely-laid plans went out the window. The Plaza was PACKED!!!!!!!! His tour members started disappearing to take photos, though still following reluctantly. It didn't take long for his mother to say, "Sorry son, I've had a better offer."

The music and colour was so enticing that we just had to go. We were so excited and felt so brave that Judy & Lindy, armed with freshly-charged cameras, left the group and disappeared into the crowd. What an amazing feeling, wandering through a narrow street full of exotically-dressed Peruvians - and us just in there......on our own.......smiling like idiots.......clicking away madly......and giggling wildly!!!!!! We were like kids in a candy shop. Such amazing sights - and everyone so happy and willing to let us take their photos - to jump in beside them and to be in photos with them - to give us their accessories and to join their mood..... and all this before any music had started to play. (These people were lined up and patiently waiting their turn to enter the Plaza)

We finally tore ourselves away and walked back to the Plaza to discover other demonstrations - numerous Scout groups, chanting, clapping. That was when we discovered that other groups had started to enter. We really had no idea what was going on - and still don't - but we were there, in the middle of it all, on our own, and HELL, we were a part of it!

We hope that you can appreciate what fun we were having....how safe we felt..........how friendly they all were.............the emotion of the sights and sounds.......we just got swept up in the moment.......with tears in our eyes and silly grins on our faces........and didn't return to the hotel until the memory card was full. (Sunburnt, but happy) Some people may have been wrongly informed that the day was turning cool - don't you hate a smart-arse?

Don't forget to click onto Flicka for MORE photos!!!!!

We've had the tastes of Peru and the sights of Peru, all in two days..... Give us Machu Picchu and we'll be satisfied.




.......Created by two satisfied females and two litres of red wine

THE TAXI EXPERIENCE

To catch a taxi in Lima you must first obtain a Zac of your own. Then the iron gate is unlocked by the security guard and you are let out into the street. Your Zac makes the slightest movement of his fingers and a taxi appears. Only taxis with the registration number on the side are accepted. A price is negotiated through the window and if deemed acceptable, the security guard writes the registration number down on his pad (just in case.......) and you jump in very quickly and lock the doors. As five are too many for one taxi, he first deposits the brave men (with the money and instructions) into one taxi and then finds another one for a similar price.

As you drive through the streets, to the sound of horns, it is best not to watch as ten lanes converge into three. The horn is used in many ways - sometimes meaning "Would you like a taxi?" "Get out of my way!" "Excuse me, I'm coming through" "Come on, we've been here long enough" "Can't you see that the lights have changed" They actually drive with one hand on the horn and they have all these religious symbols hanging from the rear-view mirror to keep them safe. While waiting at lights or traffic jams, in the middle of all these lanes, people walk - hawking their wares. They sell pens, lollies, soft drinks, rulers and today we saw toilet paper! (Which we thought we may have needed ourselves)

Another side of Lima

Today (Saturday in Lima) we took off on another taxi adventure, this time to Barranquino and by chance the Festival del Sabor (Festival of Flavour). What a sight that was - Craft Market down one side and amazing food dishes down the other. Unfortunately they were only setting up so we took a stroll around the neighbourhood. Several kilometres later, we found the beach........way down there. We had to step foot on a Peruvian beach, so DOWN we went. (All the way knowing that we had to get back up again)
(look in flicka for more photos)
We discovered here monuments representing the national pastime of South America (Snogging)

Oh! Back to the subject (and after the long walk back) we were hungry and ready for the tastes of Peru. We all tried something different and shared.

• Zac's raw fish marinated in lemon juice
• One of twenty types of potatoes, mashed and layered with shredded chicken, topped with mayo, chilli sauce and boiled egg
• Pollo (chicken) with a sauce of caramelised onions
• Mashed corn with pollo wrapped and cooked in a corn husk
• spicey beef stuffed pepper (hot)
• Rice and beans with potato cooked into a fritatta served with crumbed steak
• Jugs of fermented corn juice (yuk), and a red drink that tasted like cinnamon

THEN there were three tables of desserts - all accompanied by a pan pipe duet.

I think we tasted more tradition Peruvian food today than others do on a whole tour. (What a guide!!!!) ....though he didn't even know it was on, we just stumbled onto it.

On to Lima ... amazing experiences I thought I was prepared for...

I had often heard that Lima isn't a popular destination ... or even a safe one. But none of that prepared me for today. Hard to describe ... but here goes. Arriving at the airport in thick fog, after circling in a holding pattern for what seemed like ages - we were pleasantly surprised to see our name on a sign held by one of the numerous taxi drivers. BTW - I use the term 'taxi' very loosely. Will have to see if I can get some photos to show what I mean. Shouldn't be too hard - it seems that 80% of the traffic on the roads are taxis.

The smell that met us was almost suffocating - don't know what it was, but coupled with heat we'd not experienced in Chile, and being locked into the taxi for our safety.... [got the picture]. Road rules don't seem to exist, 10 lanes of traffic can suddenly become 3, taxis stop in the middle of the road to let passengers out and pick up more [some of these are apparently not taxis at all ... but more like buses...], hawkers walk up and down lanes of cars stopped at stop signs trying to sell their wares ... anything from lollies, newspapers, soft drinks .. all warm, pens, scissors ... anything. Cars weave in and out of the traffic!!!

Arrived at our hotel... down a narrow 2 lane street. Two security guards outside a locked gate. Driver starts to unload our bags [we're still locked inside] and I had visions of bags disappearing in the crowd before we were out. In fact it all happened in a bit of a blurr - bags were whisked away by security guards, we were suddenly out of the taxi and being guided across the road and into the lobby. At that moment I really didn't think I'd be leaving the hotel over the next 3 days.

However, once refreshed, Zac took us for a guided tour. Not far from our room are some stunning buildings - churches, monumnets and government buildings. Later in the afternoon he took us [courtesy of another taxi ride] to an area called Miraflores - it couldn't be more different from the areas we'd seen so far. Lots of shops, markets, parks etc .. all very clean and inviting. We walked down to the beach ... another surprise as the beach is a long way down. The coastline is a high cliff. It appears to be a popular tourist area ... expensive shops, restaurants etc

More from Chile.

Last day here ... and the days have been full of varied experiences. Big achievement for today was finding a post office. That was fun. Lex was trying to find the word for stamp in his Spanish phrase book, and I was juggling all these coins ... so I just pointed to the address and where the stamp should go and said ... cuatrocientos y setenta pesos .. another blank look and ashake of the head and she brought up a calculator and keyed in 470 (about $1 US). Got it. Can do so much with sign language. I´m really impressed with the people here. Sometimes they say ´No mas Inglis' - but they know more English than I do Spanish. They are so helpful.

Our day revolves around lots of walking ... sight-seeing - then a big lunch (that's an experience) .. more trekking in the afternoon ... back to the hostel late afternoon via the supermarket to pick up the vino and crackers. We are still eating out way through 3kilos of avocados which we bought for 1000 pesos. We tried really hard to tell him that we didn´t want that much ... too hard. The price was 3kg for 1000 pesos so that´s what we got. All good.

Shops are full of western styles, housing is also really western ... but some things are really different. Toilets for one thing - but will have to leave that till we come home. And power lines. Hard to believe.

Day 1 in Chile

We are still here.... drinking wine. Found some in a supermarket 1700 pesos per bottle. That{s about $3 ... good too. Avocados 3kg for 1000 pesos .. made a good accompaniment. Even ordered our own lunch in a food place (couldn{t call it a restaurant ... burgers and beer). Have learnt something today .. completos means -hot dog. Life is fun isn{t it. Wish I could make this keyboard type an apostrophe!!! Too bad.

First day in Chile

We made it... no dramas - well after we realised that we´d been waiting for half an hour at the wrong carousel for our luggage!! Our hostel had arranged airport transfer for us and we even had our name on the sign at the desk. What a welcome to Chile.

Great night last night - full of new experiences (will have to wait for some pictures as there´s no way to download pics here at the hostel). We´ve experienced the extent of my Spanish. ¨Dos cervezas por favor¨ Grande ones indeed. Sunday afternoon in the city was a mixture of quiet and excitement. We found an area full of restaurants and bars - all so different.

Got Lac´s text message in the message in the middle of the night - about 2am - ¨Where are we now? In Bed! More later - off for breakfast.

I'm leaving ... on a jet plane ...

Not long to go now ... just a few hours. Madly trying to charge all the gadgets up ready to go. I can see this being a problem. Can't live without the gadgets ... but keeping them charged may be an issue.

Backpacks come in under 20kg ... just. Both significantly heavier than when we packed them at home. What's different - just the few requests from Zac - no, not the books. Something even higher priority, so I'm told.

We had a bit of a family get together last night. Typical gathering which was yet another photo opportunity. Turned out to be more difficult than you'd imagine ... but lots of fun. Where did Grandma go??

1 sleep to go ...

last day in OZ. Few goodbyes to say and store the car.

Bags are packed and I'm ready to go ....

Finally managed to surrender my keys ... but left it until the last minute. Apart from frequently wanting files from my laptop I'm over it now ... have moved on.

We have been busy downloading geocaching files for various places around the world. As long as we not we're not trying to navigate to the spots whilst driving - we should be fine. I mean while Lex is driving - that will leave me navigating aka juggling the PDA (which has geocache descriptions), the GPS (a monster that, much to Lex's disgust, I have never been able to master), reading local signs AND reading the maps - you should see the map of Europe we have - won't be able to completely unfold it in a car (TOO big) and I think it's written in the language of each particular country.

We are in for some FUN times.

Packing up

Finally getting things together ... seem to be taking more out than in though. But that's OK - will leave LOTS of space for shopping (maybe). Really need to get serious about it soon. We're heading south on Monday. DD (Departure Day) is Sunday 22 April. Woohoo.

Countdown speeds up

Only 2 weeks to go. So much to do, but now that work has finished we should be able to concentrate on the important things. Time will really fly.