Inca Highlands Day 2 - Lima - To Rimac and Back!

The second day of the Inca Highlnds tour ensured that I saw much more of Lima and surrounds. The day saw me visit both the rough end of Lima as well as the more pituresque, the hustle and bustle in the heart of town as well as secluded views looking over the town. The day in isolation would have been a good one, if it wasn't for other groups telling us what we could have done in the day. More on that a little later on.

The morning was supposed to be an early one, with several people aiming to wake up really early (5:30am) to see the celebrations in the main square outside the Presidential Palace (Plaza de Armas). The event was the Procession of the Lord of Miracles - where purple could be seen everywhere, banners are hung off balconies and people dress up in as much purple garb that they can find. I set an alarm for 5:30am, found that I was just too tired, and went back to sleep. I reawoke at 8:30am.

Heading down for breakfast, I met up with those that left earlier in the morning to see the Procession of the Lord of Miracles. They had just come back for breakfast. Good timing. There were a few others in the room for breakfast and we discussed what we could do for the remainder of the morning (as the half-day tour of Lima would be beginning in the afternoon). I didn't really have much of an idea, as I hadn't done any research on what to do in Lima - as I had assumed the tour had it all covered. I was happy to go for a stroll, as were the others in the know. We set off shortly after breakfast had concluded.

I'm not exactly where the target destination was for the morning but we first made it to Plaza de Armas where, as expected, the area was bathed in purple. Even though the speeches and the main procession had passed there were hundreds of people milling about. Perhaps the locals were staying out and enjoying the sunshine, as it was a lovely day outside.

After cutting through the Plaza de Armas the aim was to cross the bridge behind the Presidential Palace. We headed up towards the river towards the Library with the aim of cutting back behind the presidential palace. The road was blocked off by the military. Standing at the blockade we watched as the side gate of the palace opened up. Several military men milled about before an artillery piece was rolled out of the gate. The men carted the artillery piece down the road, and that was that.

As the bridge behind the palace was closed off, we went to cross north of the river via the main arterial road, Abancay. As we crossed the road it seemed as though we had crossed into another world. The feeling of complete safety evaporated as the integrity of the buildings in view deteriorated. As we turned left and walked down Via de Evitamiento, abandoned and burnt out buildings also came into view! Digital cameras that were in plain view promptly made their way into the concealed security of backpacks. We had arrived in Rimac.

Rimac happens to be one of the most run-down areas of Lima, and this was confirmed with conversations later on in the day with local guides. Without this knowledge we forged onwards, passing through a small market. One thing that was of particular note was that there were several stalls selling Chinese food. Bizzare, especially in a place like Peru.

Our stay in Rimac was not an extensive one. A currency exchange person stopped to talk to me, whilst some of the others continued. He gestured to me that we should not continue - I imagine that he was saying the exact same thing. The shaking of the head followed by pointing ahead of us wasn't really the set of gestures that I really wanted to see. I nodded and thanked the exchange person and called out to some of the others. Some of the group ahead were much further on. I didn't have to do too much as some military men had stopped the lead elements of the group and started talking to them, apparently they were strongly told to head back. So turn back we did.

The way back was much more direct as the bridges behind the palace seemed to have opened up. As it was lunchtime, and not too far away from the start time of the tour we dispersed. Three of us decided to have something quick and ate at a chicken shop on the Plaza des Armas (Roccos?). Nothin too special about the meal except for the fact that I tried some Inca Cola. I just had to try Inca Cola as I saw the advertisment for it everywhere!

At 2pm we all gathered in the hall at the hotel to set off for our half-day Lima tour, organised by the local tour leader. Two minibuses were provided for us and we split up accordingly. After a short drive through downtown Lima, we were out onto one of the highways - where there was an accident on the side of the road. As we approached the accident zone, we slowed to a crawl. Looking to the left as we passed by it didn't look good at all. An overturned sedan sat on the side of the road, just shy of the median strip down the centre. It looked as though the car had hit the median strip, which was actually demarked by a raised slab of concrete along the centre of the highway, and rolled over. Glass shards and shrapnel were everywhere. Approximately a dozen people were milling about the car, some trying to assist the driver out of the car, and some just watching. Quite the chaotic scene.

The journey past the accident was incident free, and in a short space of time we were in the district of Miraflores - the playground of the more affluent in Lima. We were taken to a local park in the area and were permitted to walk around. The park was reasonably large and was distinctively green. Water isn't the most readily available resource in Lima and therefore its use to ensure the health of the park emphasised the affluence of the area. So we were told, anyway. In the park we were given some basic information about Lima - it's population, size, number of districts, and the city's demographics.

Huaca Pucllana was the next stop after the stroll through the park.Whilst we didn't enter the Huaca Pucllana site, we did get a good view of the structures within from outside of the enslosure walls. The intriguing thing about the series of structures is that it's made up entirely of little mud slabs, that surprisingly hasn't totally decayed away after all this time. Probably better that way, as i'm not too sure how many people were in the mood to spend extra dosh. There was a bloke out the front trying to sell books about Huaca Pucllana, yet nobody was interested. It was at this point we got a bit of a primer on ancient pre-Inca cultures - the Lima and Wari cultures.

We must have only been there for about 20 or so minutes before we were back in the mini-bus. The next stop was the Monumento al Soladado Desconocido, in Chorillos - an area to the south west of Lima. The moument was located at the top of a windy road overlooking Lima as well as the Pacific Ocean. The monument, located not too far away from a stack of communications towers, was to commemorate the persistance of the Peruvian armed forces during the Chilean occupation of Lima. All news to me.


One thing about the area in which the Monumento al Soladado Desconocido resides is that it's not exactly well to do. From the platform you could see the run down houses down below - blocks and blocks of brown sprawled out as far as the eye could see. Having said that, there was a reasonbly nice football (soccer) stadium nearby. I guess that goes to show how important football is in South America!

There was one last stop to the tour after the Monumeno al Soladado Desconocido - the Lovers Statue back in Miraflores. However, there were two minor disruptions on the way down. We were first stopped by a man who was holding a rope taught, where the rope was connected to the rockface on the opposite side of the road. We were warned about this as we set off from the top of the road, obviously this came true. The driver gave the man one sol and we were off again. The second disruption was a pair of sleeping dogs on the road, as we approached the dogs continued to lie there. We stopped in front of them, the dogs continued to lie there. The driver beeped the horn, the dogs poked their heads up and continued to lie there. We ended up driving around them.

The final stop of the tour was the lovers statue in Lima, which provided more ocean views as the sun began to set. As expected there were couples milling about enjoying the sunset. Unexpectedly it was also the place where you could go paragliding. Some people seemed interested in paragliding but it was far too late to do so, and we were already committed to the tour. Once the sun had set we hopped back into our transports and were taken back to our hotel.


Back at the hotel we had a chance to freshen up and prepare for a group dinner at a local restaurant. At this point we were notified of our plan for the next morning - an early breakfast to be served at 5am so that we could be at the airport in time for a 7:30am flight. One of what was to be many early starts.

Dinner was fairly simple chicken dish with chips, as recommended by the guide for the day. No alcohol and no strange food this evening. What I did try though was the local chilli, aji - loved it. I do know that there are lots of types of chilli, but whatever it was... it was fantastic. I loaded up, by adding the chilli to both the chicken and the chips!

Anyway, as there was an early morning ahead of us we all left the restaurant not too long after 9. Sleep promptly followed..