Fear and loathing in Lima

I hate Lima.

Oh go on Fiona, don't hold back, tell us what you really think :o)

It is dirty, but then so are many places. It smells. Worse than a lot of places. But more than anything, it's just... the feeling the City has. It feels dangerous and unsavoury. I'm sure this is in part due to what I have read and been told by my travel company. We were given a pack on arrival with info and advice about everywhere we visited and one thing written in the lima section is "NEVER walk around on your own, you make a much easier target that way". Great. What are single travellers supposed to do then?? The advice is full of examples of the kind of tricks and scams that are common, often involving 'plain clothes police' who are not police and try to get money from you. There is severe advice about never getting into a car with people who claim to be the police and how you must just remain calm if they do force you into a car. Apparently it's common to get your bag slashed with a knife and things pulled out of it. You should not wear any jewellery as it will be snatched off you which they advise is painful. No kidding.

I have become hyper vigilant and walk around in a slight cold sweat whenever I force myself to get out of the hotel room. I really stand out with the blond hair and fair skin and the middle aged men keep saying 'hola' (hi)as they walk past or other things I can't quite make out. The slang is different here to Spain. I feel stared at a lot. There are policemen and security guards everywhere, to get cash out of a machine you have to go into a protected booth and shut the door, there's a security guard outside.

I'm generally quite freaked out. I made it to one sight today, a massive San Franciscan church which was quite beautiful and had catacombs underneath filled with bones. 25,000 were buried there. It was a bit spooky. I tired the museum of the inquisition but it is closed for refurbishment. I nearly got lost trying to find it and was down a street with no other foreigners and just got stared and stared at... it's so unnerving!! I wish I had a headscarf or something!

So, that's me. I'm trying to get out to a park of fountains tonight which has a light show on, it's supposed to be really good. But you're advised to only take taxis at night and I'm worried about catching one back. mostly they are just minicab things and all the drivers are certifiable and desperatly trying to crash and run people over all the time.

Tomorrow at least I have a bus tour for the morning so that will be OK I suppose.

Moan over.

xxxx