There are some very pretty girls about! I stood outside the LAN (Airline) offices for half an hour from 8:30am until their opening time of 9am. Let's just say I think it's where they do their hostess training too. Flight dates confirmed for hitting Japan on 9th April in A class, aye.
Pedestrian crossings, where they exist, have little meaning here!
It's always cloudy first thing, but by 11am the sun is shining and the sky is blue.
I managed to book my bus ticket for today by internet! Who would have thought! Still, I'll probably get to the terminal and be greeted with a "que?" and blank looks! Am on the 13:30 bus to Nasca, which takes about 6 hours? Hopefully will be taking a tiny plane over the desert tomorrow morning, before heading across to Cusco.
Checkout time at Loki is 12:00 mediadia. Good work fellas! Another recommended place.
I don't know if Banco de la Nation is like a post-office sort of bank account that everyone has, but the queues outside all of the branches - here, Huaraz, are always fantastic. Wonder why people don't switch to one of the other banks (I tend to use BBVA).
Have bought lens cleaning kit in the hope that I will be able to do something about the blotches on almost every (thought bizarrely not all?) photos from dear old Sony.
Ooh, have also booked a flight to Iguassu Falls. Yeah yeah, I know I could have taken the bus. What can I say, I'm lazy. The only irritating aspect is that I could have booked it online for about half the price, but the damn web site wouldn't accept non-Brazilian credit cards! Apparently this is something they will be changing soon. Thanks a bunch TAM!
Monday, December 04, 2006
Sunday, December 03, 2006
El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
Taxi driver this morning made a reference to El Niño in my usual discussion of the weather (one of my relatively strong points of Spanish after trekking for a few weeks - I know all the words for rain!). Just googled it and it would appear that we are indeed experiencing the El Niño effects this winter, including **wetter than usual weather in Northern Peru**!! Well I never!
Why is nothing easy?!
I'm staying in Inca House, aka Loki Backpackers, right in central Miraflores in Lima.
[GPS: 12.11980S, 77.02865W] (Paste those numbers into the Go box on Google Earth)
Two names, so you assume the taxi driver is taking you somewhere else!
Got a single room with four beds in it. Slightly suspicious that it is a dorm room with three other gringos waiting to be sprung on me. Have en-suite bathroom, and it's costing 36 soles per night. The bathroom accounts for 6 of these. Seems a bit cheap. Anyway, I have no mobile reception in my room, despite being bang in the middle of town, and worse, I have a slight wireless signal, not enough to be useful, except... in my bathroom where I have full signal! Email on the toilet here we come! Breakfast starts at 7am.
Free stays if you man the bar!
The bus was not especially comfortable, but uneventful. Even in the "VIP" area downstairs, there's still woefully in adequate legroom. Peruvians tend to be fairly small, hence there are dangers everywhere for anyone who is a a bit tall (alto), including shop and bar signs that are only about 6 feet high, low chandeliers (I had one favourite in Churup that my forehead attacked daily), and of course, no leg room anywhere. Remember that even for small collectivo buses, sometimes journeys can go on for several hours, which is not nice when your knees are in your face! Anyway, I'm now feeling shockingly tired having not really slept, but of course the Crawley "New place, must see everything" instinct is beginning to rise up!! Dammit!
Maybe just five minutes sleep....
Up and out later. They seem like a friendly bunch here, and they've got a nice big open terrace area on top, not with a view, but it's good to have it anyway.
This area of Lima is a suburb called Miraflores. It's definitely the place to stay, rather than Lima central.
Pretty houses, nothing like this in the centre!
Feels much safer, is full of tourists and locals, and bars, cafes restaurants, and the beach!
[GPS: 12.13192S, 77.03050W]
Hurrah! Sea level at last!
There's a shopping centre by the beach, which has lots of eateries and shops, some of which are somewhat unfortunately named:
I found my beloved Starbucks. No green tea frapp, so I made do with a mocha frapp.
Of all the coffee shops in all of Lima..
Went down very nicely as I browsed my Footprint and tried to work out what on earth I'm going to do at Xmas...
Then time for some food. Visited a recommended-by-the book sushi joint called Moroko Sushi. Was nice, but meal cost 1/3 more than my room for the night including breakfast! Oops!
Good to taste wasabi again.
Back to lodge. Tomorrow am going to try to fix some more dates for my RTW ticket. Iberia... Hmmm.. Are they capable? We shall see...
[GPS: 12.11980S, 77.02865W] (Paste those numbers into the Go box on Google Earth)
Two names, so you assume the taxi driver is taking you somewhere else!
Got a single room with four beds in it. Slightly suspicious that it is a dorm room with three other gringos waiting to be sprung on me. Have en-suite bathroom, and it's costing 36 soles per night. The bathroom accounts for 6 of these. Seems a bit cheap. Anyway, I have no mobile reception in my room, despite being bang in the middle of town, and worse, I have a slight wireless signal, not enough to be useful, except... in my bathroom where I have full signal! Email on the toilet here we come! Breakfast starts at 7am.
Free stays if you man the bar!
The bus was not especially comfortable, but uneventful. Even in the "VIP" area downstairs, there's still woefully in adequate legroom. Peruvians tend to be fairly small, hence there are dangers everywhere for anyone who is a a bit tall (alto), including shop and bar signs that are only about 6 feet high, low chandeliers (I had one favourite in Churup that my forehead attacked daily), and of course, no leg room anywhere. Remember that even for small collectivo buses, sometimes journeys can go on for several hours, which is not nice when your knees are in your face! Anyway, I'm now feeling shockingly tired having not really slept, but of course the Crawley "New place, must see everything" instinct is beginning to rise up!! Dammit!
Maybe just five minutes sleep....
Up and out later. They seem like a friendly bunch here, and they've got a nice big open terrace area on top, not with a view, but it's good to have it anyway.
This area of Lima is a suburb called Miraflores. It's definitely the place to stay, rather than Lima central.
Pretty houses, nothing like this in the centre!
Feels much safer, is full of tourists and locals, and bars, cafes restaurants, and the beach!
[GPS: 12.13192S, 77.03050W]
Hurrah! Sea level at last!
There's a shopping centre by the beach, which has lots of eateries and shops, some of which are somewhat unfortunately named:
I found my beloved Starbucks. No green tea frapp, so I made do with a mocha frapp.
Of all the coffee shops in all of Lima..
Went down very nicely as I browsed my Footprint and tried to work out what on earth I'm going to do at Xmas...
Then time for some food. Visited a recommended-by-the book sushi joint called Moroko Sushi. Was nice, but meal cost 1/3 more than my room for the night including breakfast! Oops!
Good to taste wasabi again.
Back to lodge. Tomorrow am going to try to fix some more dates for my RTW ticket. Iberia... Hmmm.. Are they capable? We shall see...
Good bye Churup and Huaraz
Last day here today. Packed up, and Juan kindly let me keep the room till the evening.
Advanced electronic booking system or just chatting on MSN?
Of course, he didn't tell me this until I'd finished packing and brought my things down to the luggage store! Headed into town to pick up a few things, including cash for my bill here. It seemed like there was a small festival happening, but I couldn't make head or tail of it!
Much silly dancing was had
Tried to DHL a package back to the UK, but it seems that DHL only deliver here, they don't pick up. Interesting concept! So Serpost, the Peruvian service, it was..
Then back to finish my Spanish homework before the final lesson with Jenny. I have really enjoyed my classes, as fortunately Jenny is extremely patient, so even though I make the same mistakes again and again, she doesn't get annoyed and corrects me (my top mistakes, I think, are 1. whether to put "a" or not before verbs and places 2. leaving out the articles, i.e. el or la and 3. being totally unable to pronounce por ejemplo, anything that requires rolling "r"s and lo llevo).
I feel tall all of a sudden!
Leaving on a Moviltours overnight bus to Lima tonight. Costs 55 soles for the "deluxe" seats downstairs, and bus takes 7-8 hours, I think. First am heading out to Cafe Andino for a final Trout Salad.
Whenever I say the word "trout" in Spanish (trucha), people laugh at me. Apparently my pronounciation is remarkably similar to a slang word for a part of the female anatomy. Will miss the bunch here, especially Juan and Paulino, who have been so friendly and helpful from the minute I arrived. One of my first memories on walking into Churup was Paulino offering to carry my bag upstairs to my room for me. I figured as I was intending to go trekking, this would be something of a cop-out. We compromised on him carrying my Footprint South America guide up for me! It was the second floor, after all.
Juan standing on a ladder ;) I'll forgive him for the Israeli girl one day!
Paulino, the man who can get you anywhere in the Cordilleras Blanca or Huayhuash.
If you ever come to Huaraz, I cannot commend Albergue Churup enough to you.
Advanced electronic booking system or just chatting on MSN?
Of course, he didn't tell me this until I'd finished packing and brought my things down to the luggage store! Headed into town to pick up a few things, including cash for my bill here. It seemed like there was a small festival happening, but I couldn't make head or tail of it!
Much silly dancing was had
Tried to DHL a package back to the UK, but it seems that DHL only deliver here, they don't pick up. Interesting concept! So Serpost, the Peruvian service, it was..
Then back to finish my Spanish homework before the final lesson with Jenny. I have really enjoyed my classes, as fortunately Jenny is extremely patient, so even though I make the same mistakes again and again, she doesn't get annoyed and corrects me (my top mistakes, I think, are 1. whether to put "a" or not before verbs and places 2. leaving out the articles, i.e. el or la and 3. being totally unable to pronounce por ejemplo, anything that requires rolling "r"s and lo llevo).
I feel tall all of a sudden!
Leaving on a Moviltours overnight bus to Lima tonight. Costs 55 soles for the "deluxe" seats downstairs, and bus takes 7-8 hours, I think. First am heading out to Cafe Andino for a final Trout Salad.
Whenever I say the word "trout" in Spanish (trucha), people laugh at me. Apparently my pronounciation is remarkably similar to a slang word for a part of the female anatomy. Will miss the bunch here, especially Juan and Paulino, who have been so friendly and helpful from the minute I arrived. One of my first memories on walking into Churup was Paulino offering to carry my bag upstairs to my room for me. I figured as I was intending to go trekking, this would be something of a cop-out. We compromised on him carrying my Footprint South America guide up for me! It was the second floor, after all.
Juan standing on a ladder ;) I'll forgive him for the Israeli girl one day!
Paulino, the man who can get you anywhere in the Cordilleras Blanca or Huayhuash.
If you ever come to Huaraz, I cannot commend Albergue Churup enough to you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
