The Latin Latitudes: Lima

Winter in Lima is charaterised by a flat and grey light caused by an ever-present thin veil of cloud. The local inhabitants, Liminos, onomatically named this light la garua. It seemed to soften the city and we wooed by the lively locals, the food markets and endless cerviche.

Staying in the rather bohemian area of Barranca, we had a view of the Pacific ocean and loved the cold sea air. There is serious surf culture in Peru but unfortunately the city's spots are all Muizenberg in character and Fred decided to skip a surf. (Plus they wanted waaay too many dollars for a foamed lined surfboard!).

We spend a day exploring the old city and visted some of the old churches and even some catacombs at the Monastery of St Francis. The churches in Lima could seriously rival their European counterparts in size and richness of art and other religious relics.

We also got a taste of pre-Inca culture when we visited the ruins Huaca Pucllaca. Fred had Eqyptian flashbacks as we walked through ancient stone work in the middle of a big, busy city.