Downtown Lima

We arrived in Lima and promptly had trouble. R had a rental car, but his Peruvian license was in his house -- he'd arrived to Lima first for a few days before the Cusco work began,and he'd left it there. So we got all the paperwork done then taxied to my hotel. He then went on to his house, and back to my hotel. We then went to the rental car agency downtown to get the car. But first....

Traffic in Lima is horrific. I can honestly say that I've never felt so afraid in a car in a city before in my life. In talking with folks about it later, these are several of the comments I received:

• "Lima is the absolutely worst traffic city."
• "Worse than Santiago."
• "Cars go without control."
• "But they're only going 5 mph so what's the problem?"

The problem was that they always wanted to merge on my side of the car! Three marked lanes of traffic really meant five lanes of cars. Everyone else's position is better than the one you currently have. It is a free for all. I was terrified. 

The city was also overcast with pollution. My sinuses cleared up in Lima but my throat did not. I completely lost my voice -- not even a sexy raspy -- and developed a cough. Everyone said it was the pollution.

All that might have been OK, but the hotel was horrible. They put me in a smoking room (yes, I got that changed, and didn't even have to pitch a full fit), and they had no services, including no laundry. This wasn't critical, but the sink had no stopper either. I'd had things spilled on me in the field and other normal fieldwork issues, but clearly laundry was going to have to wait until Ecuador. Still, I could have handled it all, if I'd felt the room was clean. And I never did really feel that.

But, we went off to a seafood lunch -- woohoo! I was so very excited. Many seafood restaurants in Peru and Ecuador serve roasted corn kernels on the tables. Here, they were cancha. We had one of the classic drinks, called algarobina, made from a type of mescal. And then, lunch! Mine was shellfish with corvina. After a week of bread, potatoes, rice, and chicken, I was craving this, and ate it all, very happily. Then, a short downtown tour.

 This is the central plaza in Lima. Fountains.....

 Municipal buildings with fascinating windows.

 The Cathedral. Of course.

 Things I like: interesting doors and knockers.

 Working.

 We also visited an old train station that is now a museum of the book. The stained glass ceiling was beautiful!

And another of course: palace guards in traditional uniforms.

After buying water, back to the hotel. It's stop/start, flashing of headlights constantly, and pushing for space. Not three minutes after R tells me how few accidents there are, someone hits us. Yes, my side. There's no damage, but he wanted our space and followed us for a while until he got a "tip." Honestly. I didn't think I could take 2.5 more days of that.

A relatively early return to the hotel, as it was Saturday and we didn't have meetings and R needed to get back to his family. It was good for me to catch up a bit on emails and office items. But the hotel air was stuffy, the halls were noisy, and someone tried to get into my room during the night. Despite all that, I slept pretty well overall, which I knew I needed. And Sunday was a field trip day.