We started off on our trip. Our flight out of SFO left on schedule, 1:25am. If you don't sleep well on a plane, as I do not, this may not seem like the best idea. But at $400 for a roundtrip from SFO to Lima the price was right. We used TACA Airlines, a Central America carrier. We slept a bit on the plane and then landed in San Salvador at 8:00am local time for a 7 hour layover. San Salvador is a decent airport with lots of duty-free shops. The airport is a hub for the regional airlines and it appears to only be busy twice a day. Once in the morning when we arrived and then once in the afternoon when we left. In between the airport is practically empty. We sat around while the employees hung out keeping their stores clean. I verified the room for the night via iPhone email and the hotel confirmed a taxi upon our arrival in Lima.
Finally, our flight for Lima took off, 3:00pm. We arrived at 8:00pm. We got out of Immigration pretty quickly and waited for our driver. Our driver arrived holding a sign that said, "Kevin Payne". We walked over to his car. I was a bit leary about driving at night through Lima. Various websites and travel guidebooks all warn about the dangers of taxis in Lima. I was glad we brought Tristan along. Anyway we got in the car, a mid 1990's model Nissan. It did not appear to be in the best of shape and the engine knocked. It also seemed to have trouble getting up hills. As long as we got to the hotel I would be happy. As we proceeded, I made conversation with the driver. I know a small amount of Spanish, he knew a tad of English and we actually communicated. He was quite a friendly guy.
Driving through Lima was a unique experience. There are different rules for the road. For one thing, the road lanes are not always lined. It doesn't really matter anyway, they are merely a suggestion. If you are on a two lane road and your want to pass, even with oncoming traffic ahead, not to worry. Surely 3 cars can squeeze by. Then there is the cross traffic from a crossing street. Now they do not have the right of way but they edge into your lane trying to cross the road. After a while it is apparent that this in the norm, just the way these drivers try to get accross a busy street as fast as possible. Did I mention the honking? Constant honking, since the traffic controls aren't that common honking is the next best alternative.
My first impression of Lima was that it is not as bad as I thought it could be. Yes it was crowded, with a lot of people hanging out on the streets. There were a lot of derelict buildings that were homes for many people. But I think of a lot worse when I think of shantytowns. We reached the section of town where our hotel was located, Miraflores. It is supposed to be the nicest part of town. It was fine and seemed comfortable. We arrived at the hotel after about a 40 minute drive.
Turns out there is a very good reason for having the hotel send a taxi. Not only because they know someone is supposed to get you, but they know the taxi driver they sent very well. They only use a select set of drivers for their customers. This provides better service and better safety.
At the hotel and they gave us two rooms for no extra charge since they could not provide us the triple we had reserved. The rooms were adequate and well worth the $75 for the night, payable in US dollars.
We went out for dinner, we had to get some Peru Soles (the Peruvian currency) from the ATM. Not to worry, there were Policia (Police) all over. Transportation is interesting. There were taxis everywhere. Apparently anyone with a vehicle can put a Taxi sign on their dash become a taxi. There were also vans that allow people to share a ride to various destinations. There were also buses. They did not appear to be city owned and operated buses. They were privately owned and the faretaker would hang out the door and yell out the destination of the bus. There are no bus stops, they just stop whereever riders need to get on and off.
We wondered around looking for a place to eat, and a man approached us solicitating his music club. We told him we really just wanted to eat, he directed us to an Itallian place a couple of doors down. It was a well polished place with delicious pasta. I tried the famed local brandy, Pisco. It was a little bit strong, but I still managed to put it down. The waiter did not know english, so I had to attempt my best Spanish. Amazingly it worked!
We walked to the grocer to get some bottled water. We would be requiring bottled water throughout our trip, as to avoid any tap water. We were told not to drink the water, even for teeth brushing. We went back to our hotel and headed to bed after a very long day.
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