Lima, Peru

13 February 2008

Lima, Peru
(docked in Callao - which is a dive)

Spent the whole day with my dear old friend Ana, from grade school. She is currently living in the area and we had re-connected a few months back through Facebook and when I saw I was going to be in Lima, I emailed her right away!

We made arrangements for her to meet me right outside the port at 10.30am. I had to take the shuttle from the ship to the gate, then waited about 15 mins for her. First we went to the center of the city of Lima, to a hotel called Grand Hotel Bolivar. It is very famous in the area and just beautiful. Then we walked up the mall to the main square in the city; has the church, the palace and city hall. Was able to catch some of the changing of the guard as well. Even ran into some of my pax, including my Nan and Pop :)

From there we went to Ana’s house in Mira Flores. It is a great neighborhood up on the cliffs, overlooking the water. I got a tour of her apartment, which is lovely. Her parents had come to town as well, so it was great to see them – it has been years (and years!). We all went to lunch at an archeological dig for the ruins called Huaca Pucllana. It was really neat to see it as it is still considered an active site. Lunch was lovely too – we sat out on the back porch overlooking the site and just had a nice time all around.

After our leisurely lunch, we walked around a little. We didn’t do the tour as we pretty much saw it all anyway, but we went into the info center and little shop just to look. When we were done there, we headed back to Mira Flores to the shops and wandered all around there. Again, it is really pretty – the whole mall is outdoors (it NEVER rains in Lima) and is built into the cliff. While we were there I kept running into pax, and it turned out that the shuttle bus that was leaving from the ship was dropping the pax at the Marriott right across the street from the mall. So at the end of the day, instead of Ana taking me all the way back to Callao (its about 45 mins in traffic) I just told her I would take the shuttle back to the ship. I got the last shuttle back at about 5pm. It was such a nice day and we did a lot of walking around, so I was pooped! I actually snoozed on the bus on the way back :)

I took some fantastic pictures, especially of all of the beautiful flowers ( here you go Mum, flowers for Valentine’s Day)

Here they are:


http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bf232dhz.8foqbmk7&x=0&y=9dunft



Lima ~ Day 2

Not too much today .. went to bed EARLY last night (was in my bed by half 11!) and got a good nights sleep :) After work this morning, I went up to Deck 9 ½ to get in my sun-time. Cat stopped up and said she would be done work at half 12 so we could go ashore then and get some lunch. We were on the bus by about a quarter to 1 and on our way back (well, back for me) to Mira Flores. We were planning to go to the mall to get lunch, but we happened to have passed a Pizza Hut when we were arriving at the Marriott – and we both said “oooh, Pizza Hut!!” It was yummy – I miss pizza!

We sat for a while waiting for a table, then waited again for our food (time is not a concept to a lot of S Americans I have come to find out). We sat and chatted and by time we were done, we had to head back since I had to work at 4 and the bus ride was about 45 mins. Of course we hit traffic, so we got back about 10 after 4 and I had to bolt up the gangway, not even stopping to chat with Ajay, then back downstairs to get changed for work.

Tonight is our Valentine’s Day Party – I am really not into the V-Day part of it, but I am looking forward to a good party! Too many times over the last 10 yrs I had been disappointed (other than last year with Erik) I have just tried not to give it much thought anymore; so I have no expectations for a rose or anything like that. LOL



However, I got a call about an hour ago from Ajay - he had been looking for me in the cafe, but I was with pax the first time and the second time he said I wasn't there. He wanted to wish me a Happy V-Day and that he would see me later (he won't make it there long tonight - he was out all night in Lima, came back to the ship at 7am for work at 8!!)