Lima

I was beginning to get irritable in my cosy surroundings so, when Sunday came, I was pleased to get packed and load the bike for Lima. I had been warned that Pisco was not a nice town and having driven through it on my way out, I agree.

The Panamerica highway is not the most interesting road I have been on this trip. Although the Pacific is on your left and mountainous sand dunes on your right, it is still not particularly attractive. It didn't help that it was foggy, so foggy in fact that it was more like rain. It seemed a bit odd driving through the desert and getting wet!

Going it to any big city on a Sunday makes the trip easier and I was lucky to find little traffic and better still, went straight to my hotel without getting lost. Not bad for a hand drawn street map from Google the night before.

I am billeted in the nicest part of Lima - Miraflores but all the areas I drove through to get here were surprisingly pleasant. The hotel is kindly letting me leave my bike here whilst I am back in England for the next few weeks.

The main attraction in this part of town is Huaca Pucllana and it is right in the middle of the suburb. At first glance, big mound of dust and gravel, it is not easy to see what all the fuss is about. But once you enter the site you see the excavated part of the great adobe pyramid.

It is seven staggering platforms that at one stage covered nearly 2 kms. It was the ceremonial and admin centre for the Lima tribe up until 700 AD, other tribes took it over until the Spanish turned up (the Inca never got this far).

In modern times it was used as a market, picnic spot and Motocross practise track! It was not "re-discovered" until 1981 at which point it was fenced off and the excavations began. The work is still ongoing and they think it will take another 20 years to complete the task.

Despite regular earthquakes the walls are still pretty much in tact & the reason is the "trapezoidal" system used & the gaps left between each clay brick. You can see the angles in the picture. For those of you who read the Cuzco blog  you will remember that the Inca used the interlocking of stone to beat the tremors. All clever stuff.

More Pub Quiz stuff for you - the Lima tribe buried their dead laying down with a few trinkets. The Wari, who thrashed the Lima and took over their site, buried them in the foetal position (ie the best way to be re-born in the afterlife). This is a real burial chamber on the top level but with models of the real dead 'uns. The problem with the Wari was that they liked a good sacrifice so the important people had their best mate killed to go with them in to the next life and, in this case, 3 babies. With friends like that...................

Another comparison to the Inca is that the Lima worshipped the Shark. There is "always" cloud cover in Lima (but virtually no rain) so the sun and the stars meant nothing to these people (unlike the Inca - to whom it was everything). These guys caught fish from the sea and that was that.

Whilst I was having a beer in the bar (nothing memorable chaps) a group of "arts" charity fund raisers arrived. They (mostly French) were evidently in Lima for a conference. I was eavesdropping and was quite appalled by what I heard. They were talking about extracting money from people and were bemoaning their lot. At one point one said "I can't spend that much time with a guy when he only gives $5,000"!!!

They also seemed to have competition to see who had been to the most countries and were comparing notes about where they would all meet again!

I hadn't had quite enough beer to go and ask how much all their flights cost and the fact that they were not staying at a "budget" hotel.

Perhaps I had sucked up too much dust during the day!