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Lima is the capital of Peru and is located on the western edge of the country. It is an urban sprawl fast approaching nine million people and it’s a mix of old and new and very busy. The traffic has that Asian chaos about it but not the volume. Cars, buses and bus-vans make up most of the traffic, in the suburbs anyway. There aren’t any bikes or mopeds, which I find interesting.

Peru’s population is made up of any interesting mix of people’s from many parts of the world but the majority can be divided into Indigenous people and criollos (Indigenous and Spanish mix). The criollos make up the people if influence and wealth while the Indigenous are made up of campesinos (peasants). The rest are mostly comprised of Afro-peruvians and Chinese. Africans came as slaves and the Chinese were encouraged to come to help develop the country. Of course a consequence of this is a blending of cultures and the most obvious evidence of this can be found in the food. There us a blending of Chinese with the local cuisine and it is called ??? And that is where we go for lunch today.

We visit Micht’s family for dinner. Micht’s mother is visiting from her village north of Lima (talk if her village makes me want to go there) and I also meet his sister, brother-in-law and their two girls. They can’t speak any English and I don’t speak Spanish so Micht has to translate all conversations. It was good fun. They were very kind and friendly, and it was interesting to sample some genuine family life here.

Micht’s beautiful family. Micht is far left with his mother, nieces and sister in front. Brother-in-law top right.

The Plaza Sam Martin in the heart of Lima. Sam Martin declared independence for Peru.

I arrive in Lima at 4.30am!

I’m catching up and staying with a friend here in Lima. Micht bravely meets me at the airport at 5am and after dropping my luggage off at his place we go into town. We visit the heart of Lima and what an overwhelming site it is. We’re just in time for the ceremonial changing of the guards at the presidential palace. The band plays beautifully and I even recognize some of the compositions. Condor Elpasa is of course a Peruvian classic and an obvious favourite with the many tourists also here for the spectacle.

The presidential palace is beautiful classic Spanish baroque architecture as is much of the architecture in this city. The wrought iron features and those classical old timber balconies and widow boxes are all here. And the colours. They government encourages the use of colours in the buildings and the result is eye catching. Across from
the palace is the Hotel Bolivar, a top-class hotel in a beautiful old building. We go there to sample a traditional Peruvian drink, pisco sour. Its an easy-to-drink potent alcoholic mix that is a favourite here in Peru. I can see why! The sun seems that little bit brighter now after just one of these special drinks! Inside the hotel is stunning. The age-old decor is amazingly authentic, right down to the worn leather chairs that would be dripping with past conversations, if they could talk.

For lunch we make fort the sea port area of Lima. Micht takes me to a classy restaurant right on the water overlooking the ships. We try some traditional seafood dishes and more pisco sours! Ceviche is a fantastic mix of chilled fresh seafood marinated in lime juice, onions, chilli peppers and other stuff. Im not big on eating uncooked seafood but this dish really works. A walk along the water front reveals some of the opulent side of Lima. The homes are again classic Spanish design and of course beautifully kept and perfectly located.

On the way home we visit Micht’s sister and Nephew and niece. Nicole is in fourth grade and has some English homework to do. She has a test tomorrow so all hands are on deck to help her prepare. Of course I am the expert and expected to have all the answers! Fernando is in first grade and he too has some English homework but he’s struggling to apply himself to the cause.

The beautiful Hotel Bolivar

Micht was a primary school teacher but decided on a career change and has gone back to study. He is studying tourism and is practicing his new-found skills on me. He lives near the airport in a dense reseda tusk area. There are many multistory unit complexes in the area, softened with nice little recreational spaces for the residents to chill out. And there are genuine shops, cafes and restaurants about. It’s nice to be able to experience a slice of genuine Peruvian working-class life. Dogs are a popular pet. They are everywhere but unlike my experiences of south-east Asia, these dogs seem loved and well looked after, happy and healthy.

Today was a non-day. I had to book out of the hotel and return the hire car to the airport by 11am. My flight isn’t until 11.20pm! I could have caught a bus into town but it’s raining so I spend the day at the airport! On the positive side, I have managed to catch up on some reading about Peru – better late than never!

You have to be bored to photograph the airport terminal!

Floriday Keys tailing off the end of Florida.

You can literally drive off the end of Florida. The Florida Keys is a string of low-lying coral islands that tail off the bottom end of the Florida peninsula. The term ‘key’ comes from the Spanish word ‘cayo’ that means small island. This used to be a hazardous region for ocean-going traders and ship wreckings were common. Salvaging from these wrecks was a profitable business for the Keys. Key West is the largest of the inhabited islands and at one time was the biggest city in Florida. The communities on these islands are well established and have history. Cuba is just 90 miles away so it is a busy trading area in all sorts of things, legal and illegal. It is still a popular entry point for Cubans seeking a better life.

You can see the road connecting the islands.

Initially serviced by ferries, the islands became connected to the mainland in 1910 by rail. In 1935, WW1 veterans provided the labour to build a road right through.

This bridge or skyway spans over 10 kilometers of water.

This road was replaced in the 1980s with new cement bridges, the longest being over 10 kilometers long! In places, the old bridges remain in a broken, run-down and unused way. A power line follows the new road to connect the keys to the main grid. This is an impressive and sophisticated level of infrastructure for a group of islands.

I wanted to see this so I hired a car and headed off. It didn’t look far on the map bur four hours later, I arrive on Key West! Much of the speed limit over the 130-mile trip is slow, making for a long tiring drive. Once you leave the mainland, the road becomes a series of bridges and islands with such names as Pigeon Keys, Tall Pine Keys, Little Duck Keys, and of course the main one and the end of the line, Key West. Key West is a tourist destination now. Its proximity to deepwater makes it an access point for cruise ships and there are hotels and pubs everywhere. I was only here for a few hours but the place seems to have character and I’m sorry I didn’t have more time for it. I get back to my hotel in the dark and rain.

PLEASE NOTE: Internet access may be limited in Peru so I’m not sure when my next blog posting will be possible.

I hire another car. To do what I want to do here in Miami is not possible on public transport. I want to visit Key West. There are a string if islands that tail off the bottom of the Florida peninsula. And they are linked by a series of bridges, or skyways. Anyway, more of that in the next blog.

Today I check out Miami Beach, that famous playground of the rich and glamorous. More freeways and tolls. There are toll ways everywhere. They’re cheap but frequent. Miami Beach is very much like the Gold Coast. Highrises line the beachfront, glamorous people and cars everywhere, traffic jams and no parks. The beaches are crowded, even at this quitter time if the year. The water is a beautiful blue and the sand is brilliant whit and raked, but there aren’t any waves. Even on this side of Florida there are no waves. Where’s the surf?

This is Troy Davis, the man on deathrow I told you about last week. There were questions about his guilt but the execution went ahead as planned last Wednesday night.

Another Greyhound experience. There aren’t too many options for getting around the US. Greyhound is fairly rough and many of the buses are run down but you seem to be able to go anywhere every day. You can purchase tickets online at a discount and the website works well. How they coordinate all of the bussing options is beyond me. It is the cheapest way to travel and it is well used by the lower socio-economic demographic – and cheapskate tourists! Greyhound have charcoal-colored buses and white ones. The charcoal ones are more modern and offer free wifi. The white ones are run down and rough, and no wifi. Which bus you get depends on the route. You can’t choose one over the other, just rejoice when you go to board and the bus is a charcoal one.

The other option is Amtrak, the train. They are less flexible with route choices and more expensive, but no doubt more comfortable. I never travelled Amtrak, always going for the cheapest option.

I arrive in Miami around 4pm. Choosing hotels online, as I have been doing, is hit-and-miss. I having been selecting the cheapest options but it is hard to get an idea of their location in relation to the city and the greyhound bus terminal. I have paid some hefty taxi fees to get from the bus terminal to my hotel. This time I have ended up in a hotel smack in the middle of a medical precinct! It’s all hospitals, research facilities and university students. You try and buy a packet of cigarettes in a medical precinct! I had to walk miles!

Orlando is a city of theme parks, hotels and freeways. It’s sole purpose is tourism as I understand it. I thought it was just one huge theme park here but there are many splattered across the city. You need to know which theme park you want to visit and find accommodation close by. I only have time to visit one and decide on the Universal Studios theme park.

The ‘Simpsons’ ride was fairly thrilling

Here there is the classic ‘Jaws’ ride based on the movie. It’s the oldest ride in this park I believe and while lined up the attendant announces ‘The ride will start in 10 minutes barring any mechanical problems’. Well…there goes the wonder of this experience! You mean it’s all mechanical? The shark is a machine? Anyway the boat, which runs on an underground rail, bumps and twists while ‘mechanical’ sharks come rushing out of the water at various places. They manage to throw in some underwater explosions, fire and spray for effect while the boat driver acts her little heart out. It was fun. Surprisingly I enjoyed it.

Other rides were also based on movie themes. ‘The Mummy’ was a roller-coaster ride inside an elaborate set and you spent most of the time flying around in complete darkness with flashing lights and things jumping out at you. Have you ever been on something traveling at speed backwards and in the dark? It’s a bizarre feeling. ‘The Simpsons’ ride was impressive. It combined a huge IMAX-sized screen with a roller-coaster ride. The visuals worked cleverly with the ride so that you really felt you were in the action. ‘Terminator 3D’ was clever. It was a mix of very effective 3D and real actors. Somehow the actors would morph in and out of the screen to come out onto the stage and into the audience. And these actors would be interacting with 3D images coming out of the screens, while your chair was jumping about. Even ‘Shrek’ was in 3D with interactive chairs. It was clever stuff. Coming outside after the ‘Twister’ ride (based on the film about a tornado) there was thunder and lightning. Wow, these are really impressive, authentic effects I thought – until I realised it was a real storm! Its hard to tell what is real here.

Of course at every ride you were exited through a gift shop. This was no problem for me but I pity parents having to negotiate their kids through without melting the credit cards.

And then there was the big roller-coaster ride. All these rides are included in the entry fee so why not give it a go. Pregnant mothers and people with delicate necks and backs are warned before considering this ride. The thing starts with a 90 degree drag to the top, then an almost sheer drop down before going into a 360 degree loop while twisting! It then goes on into other body destroying maneuvers through obstacles before it finishes. I didn’t eat anything all day!

This is what I call the ‘wholey crap’ ride.

While the day was fun, the experience for me is a shallow one. It won’t last I suspect, quickly slipping to the back of my mind or exiting all together.

I managed to return the hire car without incident. My first driving experience in the US wasn’t too bad. I only got beeped at once and that was when I shot across three lanes of speeding traffic on a freeway to avoid another smug ‘recalculating’ from miss gps. On the bus the other day the chat was about road rage. Apparently it was in the news that a person was shot in the back of the head in a road-rage incident and the bus driver told of a personal road-rage experience. He flicked his headlights to let an oncoming driver know that his lights were on high beam. That driver did a u-turn and followed the bus driver until a red light, then came up to him and said ‘I aught to blow your head off’. We have road rage in Australia too but it is unlikely there would be guns involved. Here it is very likely. I had this in the back of my mind while driving about. The freeways are fairly crazy. I still don’t know what speed you are supposed to travel at as there were no signs that I could see. And cars travelled at varying speeds weaving all over the place. Accidents were common and it is no wonder. Anyway miss gps and I parted ways reasonably amicably. She was very helpful in her way.

I caught the Greyhound bus and arrived in Orlando at 6pm.

The Skyway over water between Tampa and St Petersburg.

They eat Tilapia here. I have seen it on the menu many times through my travels in the US but I’ve been afraid to try it. If nothing else I would be ridding the world of one more. I finally work up the courage today to order some and the waitress talks me out of it! She said they taste like crap and talks me into trying grouper. That’s what I think she said anyway. The grilled grouper did taste nice but I felt guilty eating it.

I had a nothing day today and probably stayed in Tampa one day too many. I went to the beach and smoked a cigar. I’ve found it is important to smoke cigars from the right end. They draw better and keep alight more easily. You learn these things. The weather is unseasonably hot here according to the locals. It’s muggy and thunderstorms visit daily, which is nice.

I’m off to Orlando tomorrow to experience Disneyworld! Yes that’s right. It was never on my agenda but seemingly rational intelligent people I have come across have told me I would be crazy to miss it so I will give it a go! I am told the city of Orlando was built around the theme park. Good old Walt Disney built the park and the city followed. It is purely a tourist city.