A hot, tiring day around Lima. We started at Huaca Pucllana, which is a pre-Inca pyramid made of handmade adobe bricks. It is located right smack dab in the middle of Lima in the Miraflores neighborhood. Scott called it Limean Legoland, which is pretty accurate. The legos changed over time as different ruling powers covered the old structure to make their own on top. Each layer has included different sacrificial items, such as sea shells and little girls. Note: Our guide only spoke Spanish, so I was pretty stoked at how much of his presentation I could understand. Scott and I would compare notes while walking to different areas. It was great.
Feeling pretty confident in our Spanish skills after the tour, we skipped the $5 taxi ride to Lima Centro in favor of a $.40 ride on a combi! This was my first combi experience, having first seen them (but not riding on one) in Botswana last year. Nothing is official about them, so figuring out where they are going and how much you have to pay is kind of nerve wracking. We played dumb and asked some younger people sitting at the combi stop how much we should pay. Then we asked each passing combi where they were going… And voila! We were on our way to downtown Lima!
Lima Centro was meh. After seeing ancient ruins earlier, I wasn’t in the mood to tour their colonial government buildings and cathedrals. Maybe on another trip to the big city… We roamed around a bit and ate our packed lunch. Then headed home for a long nap!
I rode in a combi in Mexico from Valladolid to the Cenotes and also to Chichen Itza. To chichen itza was a great deal and quicker too.