I caught the night bus to La Merced, along with a bus-full of locals. The first 2 hrs of the trip were essentially spent getting out of Lima. Poor slum-like barrios extend all the way to the Andes with hundreds of people out on the streets trying to make a living late into the night selling whatever junk people will buy, generally processed sweet things. Occasionally absurdly shiny shopping centres punctuated the poverty. I slept through most of the climb through the Andes, waking only to have to catch my breath due to the altitude. In Tarma it was freezing outside with snow,but soon after we began a steep fast descent into the Amazon. We reached La Merced at 6.30am.
From near the bus terminal I called the out-of-town hostel where I wanted to stay. The dueña (owner) spoke to me in very rapid Spanish, but I managed to understand she intended to pick me up from the terminal where I was. There I waited for over 2hrs. Exasperated I called her back to find out she had gone to the wrong bus terminal despite me clearly stating the name twice. She then described the way to get there by taxi, but by that point I was pretty much beaten. I decided not to stay but to go back to Lima that night.
As such I left my bag at the terminal and wandered around La Merced, where taxis had been replaced by mototaxis, which are from what I understand very similar to tuk-tuks, being three-wheeled 2-stroke motorbike with a two-person passenger seat in back. The instruction manual that comes with them obviously stated it was entirely necessary to beep your horn at every intersection, preferably twice.
La Merced sits at about 600m latitude and as such retains a livable temperature and humidity - on this day it was raining lightly. I climbed to the town mirador to a rather unspectacular view of the surrounding mountains, town and gushing brown river. After staying a little I descended the hill, observing a pet monkey in someone´s house and then spending the rest of the day in town. While searching for food I came across a menu with many foreign carnes like peccary and I think tapir, jungle bushmeats brought in to impress the tourists - locals couldn´t afford it generally. The names were in Spanish (or Quechua, I´m not sure) so I couldn´t tell what they all were. I also saw a lady selling roasted quail eggs from a trolley, complete with the quail in a cage underneath.
The passage back to Lima passed similarly to the journey there, and I arrived back in Lima early at a new hostel. There I met Joe the Dutch anarchist, who had just travelled 4500km around South America in a mototaxi to raise money for poor children in Bolivia. This included crossing the Andes and some very dodgy roads. I also met Alex the Frenchman, who had bike toured through South Africa and Namibia, where there is little but desert, and also Ricardo the Columbian, who appeared to be travelling in my direction north to Columbia.
The next day we explored the historical centre including the Plaza de Armas and the San Franciscan Church. Dedicated to St. Francis of Assisi, the church was contructed in 1533, and has been restored and renovated over the centuries due to such factors as thieves, the elements and earthquakes. Interior designs take influence from Islamic culture and of course the Spanish and Italian renaissance period. Many local Peruvian artists have contributed frescos and paintings of Jesus, Francis and other important figures, again during the 19th and 18th centuries. My highlight was the fantastically gothic library on two levels complete with ornate spiral staircases and 400-year old tomes. We then explored the catacombs under the cathedral, including the skeletons of an estimated 25,000 people - the bones were on display for us to see. Exploring the maze-like tunnels (with 500 year old dust) revealed dry wells with skulls and femurs laid out in arrangement and a myriad of secret entrances. Apparently there is a network of catacombs under the historic centre linking the Presendential palace and other churches. Present-day San Fransiscan monks are still buried in the crypts.
My new hostel was not to my liking and I transferred the next day to yet another. There I met some Swedish students on exchange studies studying NGO´s in Lima and Peru, like Oxfam and Conacami, an organisation against the mining and logging industry. I also met Katie from New Zealand. Katie and I soon discovered we both had a long time to kill in Lima - she waiting for her flight home and I for my credit card. Together we explored other tourist attractions like the 2700-year old pyramid ruins of the Lima culture where we learnt much about this ancient culture and saw some hairless Peruvian dogs. Made from adobe bricks, these ruins were privately owned until 1974 - before that over 60% was lost to surrounding housing development... absolutely criminal. We also explored bohemian Barranco on the sea and Parque de la Reserva, a park filled with locals and tourists experiencing thoroughly modern computer controlled water fountains, jetting water up in various forms, shapes, directions and speeds.
The next day while showing Katie the San Fransiscan Church we saw a protest near the Presidential palace. There riot police were harassing and pushing 2 or 3 older, unarmed people all the way out of the square while they protested about what seemed to be a missing person situation. This epitomised Peru for me - a barely masked police state repressing dissent, freedom of speech and the health of the majority of the population, and helped to solidify the dislike I was feeling for the country, particularly Lima.
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