Nov 2006

As we drove through the moon landscapes between Lima and Pisco, the weather was getting better and better. Pisco is nothing special, a little city with, of course, a Plaza de armas, the centre of every Peruvian city or village. A few hours after we arrived at our hotel, a Joker-group, a Belgian tour operator, arrived there, too, we keep meeting them everywhere.

Pisco is the ideal city to go on a day excursion to the Islas Ballestas and the Reserve Nacional de Paracas. The Islas Ballestas lay 20 minutes of the coast of Paracas, by boat. They are known for their population of birds. When people first found out about the use of bird poo as a fertaliser, the islands became a popular place. There was a thirty meter layer covering the islands when they first started digging the bird poo. When you visit the islands, you know why, there is an incredible population of all sorts of birds and it is good to wear a rain jacket and hat when approaching the islands. There were see wolfs and dolphins there, too, it was a spectacular sight!

Next part of the tour was the Reserve Nacional de Paracas. First, a museum, which was not very interesting. Then off to a mirador where you could see 4 flamingos standing in the water, but you could not approach them, they were just little dots, so it was not really interesting either, although the desert landscape you have to cross to get there was quite cool. Next thing on the tour was brilliant, La Catedral, which is a set of rocks, yep, cathedral-shaped, you can watch from an impressive cliff at the coast. The landscape is just halucinating, this is where Planet of the apes was filmed, and the ocean is impresive throwing its beautiful waves against the rock formationd again and again, amazing!

Arriving in Lima was quite a shock. I actually had to get my pullover out of my rucksack as nights can be quite chilly here, especially if you compare it to Panama! It was a pitty I did not have the time to visit Colombia and Ecuador, everyone I met that had been to Colombia told me how wonderful it is. But it is a good reason to come back to Latin America. And at least I have good travel company with Thomas, a mate who flew over from Belgium and who is now joining me for three weeks in Peru.
Most Peruvian people are very nice but they tend to always try to cheat in some way. When you book a tour there is always something that is not included or something you have to pay for separately, they always try to charge you more at hotels than the price agreed upon arrival etc. And I am quite sure they apply different prices for tourists, but I really cannot blame them for that. Overall, the people are very friendly and helpful and there are a lot of pretty women.
Lima is a huge and dirty city, a lot of traffic, noise and pollution, it seems to be the story of every Latin American capital. Well, in a city with 12 million inhabitants, what do you expect? Of course, you have to see it. The plaza de armas with its cathedral and palace, changing of the guards at noon, are nice. There are some beautiful parks, museums and squares but after walking around for a few hours, you feel like you have seen it. I would recommend half a day or maximum one day in Lima, cause there are so many nicer places in Peru, just ask the Arequipeñas (Arequipa is the 2nd city in Peru), they will agree with you!

We stayed in a gorgeous hotel in Miraflores, the snobbish hence touristic area of Lima. Very nice building and a cool garden with an empty swimming pool in it. It was the most expensive hotel so far, 12.5 dollars a person a night in a dormitory! Miraflores is nice, it is at the ocean and has some very good waves, I saw a lot of surfers on the way from the airport, but I read the water is very polluted. It is an expensive area as well, you pay at least double the price for something to eat and it has a lot of tourists.

Paulo, a bloke from Saõ Paulo I had met in Santa Catalina, and I arrived in Panamá on Sunday afternoon. Paulo had to catch a flight and I took a taxi to the International Voyager Hotel, a lovely hostel in the heart of the new centre of Panamá. I got to know Skynnie and Stephan, two blokes from near to Cologne, the moment I arrived at the hostel. We sat down at the terrace on the 8th floor with a brilliant view over the new part of Panama with all its skyscrapers, played some guitar, well at least Skynnie did and sang a bit. Apparently, Skynnie knew quit some traditional songs and some gipsy music as well, which was of course lovely to hear again, as I am not carrying any i-pod, nor discman with me. A lot of Cerveza Panama flew, it was a lovely night, with the music, the warmth and the beautiful view, I felt at home straight away.
Next morning, it was time to go on exploring a bit and that is what I did! I wanted to go to the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal and for that I had to catch a bus at Plaza cinco de mayo. So, I caught the bus at Via España, near to our hostel and tought I would recognize the square when we would arrive there. As you guessed I did not and when we arrived at the final busstop after a while I realised that I had missed it and did the rest of the bus tour, asking the driver to warn me when to get of this time. Well, to look at it from the bright side, I had a lovely two-hour tour around the old part and the new part of Panama City for only ten dollar cents!
In the end I managed to catch the bus to the Miraflores Locks where there was just a couple of boats going through and it was really interesting to watch one of the technical wonders of the world from that close.

The bus back took quite a while, too, in the evening traffic, but at least I had seen a good part of the city, from the bus, and the canal! The buses are so cool and kitchy, you cannot believe it. They are like American school buses but on the outside, they are all covered in flashy paintings, flickering lights and spoilers and on the inside, there are red lights, stickers saying Jesus is great and cheezy music playing at times.

Next morning, I had planned a visit to the old city centre, Casco Viejo, but as it did not stop pooring down, I could only leave around 3 p.m. Despite Lonely Planet warnings and warnings of the hostal´s pesonnel, I did not find Casco Viejo a dodgy area, on the contrary. It is a nice part of the city with quite some beautiful old buildings and houses and with a good view on new Panamá from the beach. There is not a lot of tourits walking around, but there is loads of guards, so I did not feel unsafe for one second. I walked all the way back on the Avenida Central and Via España, which was a nice experience, very busy.

On wednesday, in the morning I had a flighth to catch that would take me to Lima.

Hope you are all doing well!

Pura vida!