Day 105: Lima, Peru (April 22, 2011)

I'm taking a mid-day break at my hotel and it's more entertaining than I expected because there is a steady stream of people flying by on paragliders.

My hotel faces the ocean (about two blocks away) and I guess paragliding is one of the things to do here.  Or it's the coolest way of commuting to work ever invented.

I only have this one full day in Lima.  I was happy to go exploring this morning, although I've realized over the past couple of days, I'm having a hard time motivating myself to go out and see stuff just to be doing something.  I'm looking forward to getting to Cusco tomorrow, to start my time in the Machhu Piccu area.  But in places like Lima or Santiago, where I don't have an intrinsic desire to see something specific, it's been harder to drum up enthusiasm.  I think it's mostly due to the fact that I'm returning home soon, and I'm already thinking about what I'll do there.  And frankly, I'm naturally a homebody, and it's not like me to be out and doing something every day.  Even when I know I'm not likely to get the chance to be in most of these places again.  Oh well.  Fortunately, this ennui set in very late in my trip, and it seems to only be interferring with a couple of cities, which in my opinion tend to blur together anyway.  I wonder if making it to Easter Island had anything to do with it?  I saw the place I most wanted to see so... now what?  Who cares about another big city after I've seen Easter Island, you know?

Back to Lima:  I'm staying in the Miraflores neighborhood, which is one of the nice parts of town.  There will be lots of places to get dinner and if I wanted to shop (which I don't), there are lots of opportunities for that.  This morning I wandered through the Indian Market -- one of those places selling local goods where you're expected to haggle.  Before I got there I imagined it would be filled with statues of hindu gods and saris and spices.  You know... stuff from India.  So I felt like a dumbass when I realized it means native american Indian and sells stuff like alpaca wool, pottery, etc.  Dur....

The weather here is perfect.  Well, not my definition of perfect, which is cool and cloudy and wet.  But it's most people's definition of perfect:  About 72 and sunny.  Also, Lima is sufficiently close to the equator for the sun to be really high in the sky, even in autumn.  One thing I've realized on this trip is, it's not the sun I dislike, it's the sun in my eyes that I dislike.  Here, and elsewhere along the equator, the sun is always too high to be in your eyes.  It's much more pleasant than in higher latitudes.

My one disappointment of the morning was going to see Huaca Pucllana, a clay pyramid in the middle of Miraflores.  For some reason I couldn't understand (due to my bad spanish), it was closed today.  Also manana, which I did understand.  Well, I hardly booked a day in Lima just to see that!  So my disappointment was more along the lines of, it was one less thing to do that I might have otherwise done.

So close, yet so far!

Photo taken by sticking camera through fence.

It's getting late and I want to check out the parks along the ocean before I find some dinner.  More later!