First of all I just have to state that in Finnish Lima means slime. I thought that was important…

Truth be told Lima wasn't slimy at all, though the distinct stench of urine does float around widely in some areas. We arrived by bus from Arequipa and spent a few days in Peru's capital, rich in colonial history and great architecture. Our accommodation Hotel Paris Lima, had a very central location offering us a great retreat to do some sightseeing from. The hotel itself was only basic by European standards but high above average when compared to the other accommodations we'd had in South America. We had a private bathroom, a flat screen TV with about 90 cable channels (some of which were occasionally showing programs without Spanish dubbing) and daily cleaning, which we haven't had in months! This cost us S/80 per night which is higher than what we've paid elsewhere in Peru, but about the same we paid for much worse in say, Argentina.

The sights

I'll go over the sights we saw first even though we didn't manage to see any of them until our last full day there, for all the shopping. Our hotel was only a few minutes away from Plaza San Martin which is connected to Plaza de Armas by the biggest shopping street in town, Jr. de la Unión. In addition to shoe stores and such there were a couple of places of interest right there, we visited the cathedral-like Iglesia la Merced and found it to be quite similar to most South American churches of similar size with the added attraction of a large silver cross on the wall gathering a bunch of people who want to pet and kiss it. The two plazas at both ends of the shopping street were also normal ones, except that on Plaza de Armas they made a show of changing the guard of the palace at the north end. This was done twice daily and it wasn't unlike the one I once saw in front of Buckingham Palace. Except for the marching band and the marching itself. I've done my small share of marching, having served in the Honor Company of the Finnish Defense Forces (if that sounds cool I might have put it wrong…). Usually we just stood around swinging our assault rifles front and back, but there was a fair amount of marching to the sound of drums and horns. We never did the "goose step" however. For those unfamiliar with the term, goose stepping means the kind of marching where you throw your leg forward with the knee straight. If you do it in a formation it almost looks like the ones in the back are trying to kick the ones in front. It's weird. The whole changing of the guard looked like a dance performance and the marching band reminded me about the ones that perform during halftime in high school football matches. When we marched we were set up so that the guys measuring about two meters (6'6") were put in front and told to look grim. The point is to show power, the movements are simple, minimal and uniform. Then again we were also told to handle a rifle always like it was loaded. In South America and many other places too the soldiers rather hold it like I would a folded umbrella…

Moving on… We saw a couple of museums during our stay and liked them both. The first one was called Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco where they charged S/7 for normal entry tickets but we got them half price with our ISIC cards. You're only allowed to see the place in a group led by either a Spanish speaking guide or an English speaking one. We waited only about ten minutes for the English group to set off and then followed our guide through the complex taking in some of the history of the Franciscan order in Peru. They also showed us the catacombs which are littered with the bones of some 25'000 bodies buried there. We enjoyed the tour but didn't leave a tip to the guide because no-one else did. I'm not sure if that was OK or not but then again we only paid S/3.50 each so she would have gotten only about S/2 from us…

The next museum was close by and called Museo del Congreso y de la Inquisición. It was free to enter and once again we had an English speaking guide who told us a whole lot about the Spanish Inquisition and the types of trials they would conduct to those suspected of heresy, blasphemy or witchcraft. We saw some recreations of the torture devices they would use as a part of the standard trial, not as punishment after one was found guilty. Fun stuff… We enjoyed this tour as well and tried to make amends by giving the guide a tip of S/5 but he wouldn't accept! That has never happened to us before, but apparently he wasn't allowed to take any money for his services. Who could have guessed?

The shopping

Ok, we didn't do that much shopping in Lima, but we did try to take advantage of the last cheap markets we would have on this trip. We were continuing on to USA and Iceland, not the cheapest places in the world… Jr. de la Unión was good for quality stuff, Sini bought new shoes and a shirt from there. We also visited Mercado Central (mostly food) and the local China Town (a.k.a. Barrio Chino, mostly flashing plastic things), but didn't buy anything. We found the best place to shop completely by accident, since unlike the before mentioned this place wasn't mentioned in our guidebook, although it wasn't that far from the historic center. Polvos Azules is located next to Parque de la Exposición and houses hundreds of stalls selling pretty much everything one can expect to be sold in a giant indoor market in South America. This meant tens of thousands of shoes, clothes, accessories and also a smaller sections for your regular tourist trinkets. We spent a good while walking around the complex and ended up leaving with a couple of medium sized sports bags. This was, in my opinion, one of those places where you have to haggle. However, the lady selling the bags wouldn't budge from her combined price of S/70 even though at first she had told us the bags costed the S/30 and S/40 each. After wasting five good minutes I managed to lower the end price to S/65, which was mostly just sad. But it was a matter of principle. I also happen to like haggling…

We bought the gym bags to serve as our new carry-on bags and thus replacing our small daypacks. We'll still hold on to the day packs though, if we happen to need them in the US, but after that they're going to the dumpster. They've taken quite a beating over the six months we've been on the road. Also they're pretty small and though I hate to admit it we've picked up a few things along the way…