Last blog from Peru

This is the last blog from Peru, assuming our flight tonight goes out OK. Yesterday we did what we thought was an overtly touristy thing by going on a culinary tour of Lima. In fact it was relatively serious and we did learn a lot as well as eat more than we should. Mike was rather sick beforehand and so missed it. Great shame as he would have loved investigating those huge fish in the market.

True to form, there was a general strike today and we were discouraged from going to the central area that we had planned to do. However, things quietened down around midday so we did take a tourist bus tour that was only OK but otherwise we would have left without seeing Central Lima. It was sobering seeing all the riot troops out with shields and water cannon. Apparently, yesterday there were outbreaks of violence in two areas we were in last week.

Old Lima is a UNESCO world heritage site but is, not surprisingly, in serious need of preservation. It shares some characteristics of Cairo in being extraordinarily dirty, noisy and polluted but underneath is a very beautiful place. There was a strong Moorish influence on the old colonial architecture and my pet theory about the distribution of Fatima´s Hand door knockers appears to be holding up rather well. I was very impressed with the 16th century convent and Mike & Maggie were intrigued by the thousands of bones in the catacombs.