13-Jan-2003 - Got up early, shipped out and tried to get breakfast as the same place as before. Since it was too early, it was closed, so we just got a taxi ride to the airport. We checked in for our flight to Lima, got a bite to eat, and killed time before the flight. I went to the bathroom since a Peruvian airport bathroom will be at the top tenth percentile of what one can expect in this country.

We flew to Lima on LanPeru (which is really LanChile, but shhh don't tell anyone) and the flight was typical, except for the fact that the warnings about what can't be used on board included remote control toys, which I found amusing. We landed at 10:45 AM; right on time. Stepping out of the plane, the air was humid and smelled like the air under a bridge in a freeway interchange. Welcome to Lima.

Lima

We got our bearings and took an airport shuttle to the Plaza Francia, where the place that we were staying is located, the Plaza Francia Inn Pensión was located. Walking up the street, we almost missed it; it wasn't until we examined the building numbers that we located it. Nice place, the bathroom actually had working hot water.

We went around the corner, got linch at Queirolo, had an almost Chinese-like rice and beef dish, and then walked south. We stumbled on what is probably the local nexus for pirated software. People aproached us on the street with binders listing their inventories. We followed one into their shop and looked over what they had; the catch was that their DVDs were in Spanish. Oh well.

Walking around some more, we explored more of Lima. Except for the thick and nasty air, this city would not look out of place in the USA or Europe (but from what I hear, I might not say that if I saw the shantytowns that exist on the outside of the city). During a walk up through the Plaza San Martin and the Plaza Mayor, some interesting things did happen though. In a short time span, we were offered weed and later, someone tried to sell us an iguana. Later on, we met up with this guy that showed us around a bit but for the most part, the rest of the evening was quite uneventful. We ate dinner at a Chifa and Pradip got a stomach ache, so we went back to the hotel.

La Museo Nacional

14-Jan-2003 - Got up somewhat lazily. We came to the opinion that Lima is rather boring so we didn't have much to rush for. We got some empanadas for breakfast and got on a bus for La Museo Nacional (The National Museum). For the most part, the museum was pretty typical; it contained myriad artifacts like pottery from Peru's pre-Columbian civilizations. It was also nice to get out of Lima's hot and smoggy air for a while. One odd aspect of the museum was that the upper floors were empty.

After that, we went up to the Plaza Mayor to check out the Monasterio San Fransico; a Catholic monestary built in colonial times. In the catacombs, there lies the bones of over seventy thousand people. I've seen this done in many other Catholic churches around the world so it wasn't very new to me.

About this time, I started to get somewhat queezy; my iron stomach started to show signs of weakness. So we returned to the hotel, paid for our room, got a bite to eat, and got some sleep.

Monasterio San Fransico

15-Jan-2003 - Our flight to Guayaquil was with Groupo Taca and was set to depart at 10:45, but despite that we got up before six. This was because we were advised to get to the airport three hours early, and additionally, we were warned that there was a looming bus strike, which would mean that the taxis would be either strained for capacity, or would be taking advantage of the situation to gouge people, or both.

Fortunately, neither scenario materialized. We got to Lima's airport pretty quickly and were only charged twenty soles. We did have an irritating time checking in though; we checked in, and paid the airport tax (which in itself is an irritating concept; if the people calling the shots had half a brain, they would simply tack the price onto the ticket), but then realized that I neglected to have the flight credited to my frequent flyer account. I did that, and they gave me a new ticket, but the old ticket had the departure tax sticker on it. I didn't notice until we tried to go to the gates, and we had to go back to Taca's ticket desk to fish our departure tax sticker out. Quite irritating.

Why we did not stay in Guayaquil

The flight left on time, and unfortunately, had to stop in Quito before turning around 180 degrees and heading to Guayaquil. We arrived in Guayaquil around 2:30 PM. Customs went smoothly, though it took a while to get our luggage.

One of the things about Ecuador that makes our lifes easier is the fact that they have adopted the US dollar as legal tender, though the average condition of the bills tend to be much worse. However, at the same time, they introduced their own coins in conjunction with using American currency. Because of this, we got our dollars out of an ATM in Peru, so that we would get real dollars. When we went to a KFC in the Guayaquil airport to get lunch, we gave them a US standard five dollar bill, and got back a mixture of US coinage, and their Ecuadorian funny money equivalents. The question of whether vending machines in the USA would take Ecuadorian coins came to mind.

On another note, we would eventually see more Sacajawea coins in our brief stay in Ecuador than I have ever seen in the USA. I recall that the US mint expressed lamentations that the coins did not get circulated very often. Perhaps they should consult the Ecuadorian authorities for advice.

We got a quick taxi ride to the bus terminal; we bargained the driver down to $2 but he tried to charge us for the bus terminal entry fee, which we declined to pay. Once in the bus terminal, we got reservations for a place to stay in Cuenca, as well as bus tickets. We had to wait an hour, which seemed like an eternity in the hot, steamy Guayaquil climate, but we were eventually underway. We arrived in Cuenca around 10 PM, got a taxi to the Hotel Pichincha, and got some sleep.