Lima, Peru - Viviando el Sueno (Living the Dream)

June 2nd - June 5th 2008

One of my brothers best highshool buds Pat, Patty, or Pej (aka Pejito or Pej Von Wigs - depends on his mood, I think!?) is a Geologist working with an upstart Vancouver mining company based in SA (one office in Lima). Last night I was picked up by a suited blonde guy with a blazer covering a beaming pink dress shirt amid a flash-bulbed-camera-in-hand airport crowd that literaly looked like they were waiting for a movie star to arrive (theme is 1970's).

Pat's "driver" Alfredo sped us back to Miraflores as I took a lesson in fast-paced Spanglish that the Peruvian seemed to be perfectly fine with. Pat's frenetic and maniacal pace grounds me through observation of someone more stimlus-requiring than myself. I can say with confidence his slogan at this point in time is "Living the Dream". It appears hard not to be any other way when you are an affluent westerner making a home out of Lima where taxi drivers and children hound you every step of the way.

We went to a late night Cuban-themed bar and caught up over pints with senior geologist Tom and a few other gringos.

The next day I checked out the mall that is built on the side of a cliff with a nice view of the ocean and surfers. For the night we watched the Pens beat the Red Wings to stay alive in the Stanley Cup final (my first American sports event since I left).

I took a tour of Lima on a double decker bus to see why the city was designated as a UNESCO heritage site. There are a lot of old buildings in this city and ruins in some parts also.

The weirdest thing I did was go into the Catacombs underneath Iglesia San Fransisco in central Lima. Really what I did was go underneath the church where they buried everyone and looked at all the graves now full of organized skulls and bones between 300 and 500 years old. I wasn't expecting it. The archaeologist organized all of the bones that didn't decompose (mostly femurs and skulls) into piles and display them in the dug up graves.

Lima is a nice city and there seems to be more money here than you would think. You can pretty much get anything you want here but if it is imported it is taxed pretty heavy. The weather these days isn't terribly great (grey skies and not too hot). I think I should head up north to Columbia to get some better weather for the remainder of my trip.

I have a flight early tomorrow to Cuzco and head to Machu Picchu from there.

The Inca's sacred valley should be pretty neat.